MARQUETTE, MI-- Dusk creeps its way across the sky as a group of 30 or so students, professors and
regular citizens file out of the lobby of Northern Michigan University’s Forest Roberts Theatre, clutching flashlights, cell phones and variously colored sparklers. Each person holds a sign they’ve filled out with marker: I am __________. I fight for ___________. It’s the day before Donald Trump is inaugurated as the nation’s 45th president, and there’s apprehension in everyone’s faces.
The theater world celebrates the different, the quirky. Trump, perhaps, is not known for his inclusivity. Actors and theater lovers want to make a statement in response to that. Black and white, girl and boy, child and adult, everyone gathers in a circle to listen to one of the theater’s stage techs read from a folded piece of paper in his hand.
“Welcome, everyone, to Forest Roberts Theatre and our launch of The Ghostlight Project.”
He’s one of hundreds of theater people across the country reading the same script at the same time, in the approaching darkness.
“When our theaters go dark at the end of the night we turn on a “ghost light,” offering visibility and safety for all who might enter,” he says. “Like a ghost light, the light we create tonight… will symbolize safe harbor for our values and for any among us who find ourselves targeted because of race, class, religion, country of origin, immigration status, disability, gender identity, sexual identity or dissident actions in the coming years.”
The lights they shine, the tech says, will be a symbol of hope that the world can change through everyone’s actions.
Liz Trueblood is a senior at NMU. “I acknowledge as a white, middle class person my struggle isn’t that bad, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I can’t…” Her voice chokes and she quickly looks away, not wanting the tears pooling in her eyes to fall on her cheeks. She takes a moment, apologizes, and says she’s part of the project because of hope. “The point of a ghost light in the theater is so that if someone comes in when it’s dark they see what they’re doing, get going and keep things moving forward.”
Liz says she plans to do in the coming years what she’s always done: advocate for women in the workforce.
Cecilia Smith of Crystal Lake, Illinois says she’s shining a light because theater is a place of acceptance. “It’s really important in this time right now to show that and to be with other people who believe the same thing,” she says.
And with a mighty “One, two, three!” yelled into the cold twilight sparklers are lit, flashlights are clicked, phone lights are enabled and lanterns are turned on and hoisted above everyone’s heads. Smoke from the sparklers briefly obscures the participants, but it soon clears and everyone has a smile, a purpose etched on their faces.
“The Forest Roberts Theatre pledges from this night forward to be a place of diversity and inclusion,” the stage tech says. “To welcome all people. A place to be who you are.”
A single light will remain lit in the lobby Forest Roberts Theatre from now on. It will stand as symbol of safety and a reminder to be the brightness, however small, in every darkness.
