newy.com.au – Newcastle’s Civic Theatre will host paranormal investigation nights for the first time in September, giving visitors access to rarely seen areas of the nearly century-old venue in search of its supposed resident spirits.

The three fully escorted sessions will be held on September 28, 29 and 30, with tickets going on sale tomorrow. Each experience will run for two-and-a-half hours, beginning with a historical introduction from a theatre guide before Newcastle Ghost Tours leads the investigation.

Participants will use devices including a “spirit box”, which scans radio frequencies in an attempt to communicate with ghosts, and electronic sensors designed to respond to movement or energy changes.

The tours draw on long-running stories of unexplained activity inside the theatre, including accounts of a supposedly friendly ghost known as Joe.

Civic Theatre executive manager Leonie Wallace said Joe was reputed to have brushed past staff and was linked to a story involving Newcastle’s devastating 1989 earthquake.

“As the story goes, he warned a former Deputy Lord Mayor about the 1989 earthquake on the main stage,” Ms Wallace said.

Newcastle Ghost Tours chief executive Renata Daniel said the Civic Theatre had been one of the Hunter locations most frequently requested by people attending the company’s paranormal events.

“The entire experience is fully escorted and gives the guests the chance to become paranormal investigators,” Ms Daniel said.

“During the tour you call out to the spirits said to inhabit the theatre to see who responds.”

The theatre will also add seven sessions to its conventional Behind the Curtain tour program after its first two backstage tours sold out within hours earlier this year.

The additional tours will run from September 28 to 30 and include one wheelchair-accessible session. Visitors will be taken behind the stage and into dressing rooms and other areas not normally open to the public while learning about the building’s history.

The backstage tour was developed through a City of Newcastle tourism program intended to create experiences capable of attracting visitors from outside the region.

Tickets for both tour programs will be available through the Civic Theatre website and ticket office.