Haunted Puerto Rico: Teatro Tapia

Minisode | Haunted Puerto Rico Teatro Tapia

NARRATION
Hey, listeners. It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since we shared our final Timestorm episode. We’ve seen your requests to continue the storyline, but we always planned for the series to be three seasons. And while we aren't adding a new season, we have three new minisodes this month.  

Now, if you’ve listened to season 3, you’ve met the character Lalo. And you might remember this moment in Josie’s store:

BENI
Hey, Lalo. When are you gonna take us on that ghost tour?

ALEXA | JANELLY
Ooh. Yeah. | I wanna go too.

LALO
When my tours are running again, you’ll be the first to know.

NARRATION
Since then, Lalo created a podcast called Haunted Puerto Rico. And just in time for the spooky season, we've got some of Lalo’s episodes to share. The first one is set inside a haunted theater. Enjoy.

MUSIC: HAUNTED PUERTO RICO THEME PLAYS UNDER.

LALO
Every legend has a morsel of truth at the center. Whether that truth lies in the fantastic or the ordinary is a question often lost in time.

MUSIC: HAUNTED PUERTO RICO THEME FADES.

LALO (CONT’D)
Hola, mis almas bellisimas, my sweet souls. Welcome back to Haunted Puerto Rico with Lalo Machado, that’s me. Shoutout to Alexa, Beni, and Janelly for giving me the idea for this podcast - ‘cause now I get to share cuentos de mi isla with the whole world. This season features stories from Viejo San Juan, Old San Juan, where if you glance down one of the blue cobblestone alleys, you may see a stray cat…or a lingering shadow. 

EERIE MUSIC.

An incandescent light bulb flickers and goes out.

LALO (CONT’D)
Ah, the light’s gone out in my room. Not because of a power outage. Just a dead bulb. I would call it a ghost light, but that already exists. Do you know live theaters leave a light on stage at the end of each night? They call it a ghost light.

Speaking of theaters, one of my favorite stops on my Old San Juan ghost tour happens to be a theatre: Teatro Tapia. It was built in 1824. It’s named after Puerto Rican poet and playwright Alejandro Tapia y Rivera. Wow. Isn’t that a great name?

UPBEAT LATIN MUSIC.

A crowd cheers.

LALO (CONT’D)
For over a hundred years, Teatro Tapia has been home to all sorts of artists from San Juan and beyond. Operas, plays, ballets, orchestras, bands. You name it, it’s been there! 

SLOW LATIN MUSIC.

Workers at the theater climb ladders and use hand tools.

LALO (CONT’D)
Back in '76, mi abuelo was part of the renovation team working on Teatro Tapia. They were there to do all sorts of work to make sure the theatre shined its brightest. There’s a lot of upkeep that goes into a building that can seat seven hundred people. 

Just imagine. Seven hundred people gathered in one beautiful building listening to the most heartbreaking singing you can imagine. Well, seven hundred people and a few…mysterious stragglers. 

OMINOUS BASS UNDER MUSIC.

LALO (CONT’D)
Did you honestly think your friend Lalo was going to tell you a story that wasn’t at least a little bit spooky? You see, for almost as long as the building has existed, there have been lots of rumors about Teatro Tapia. Rumores paranormales.

Mi abuelo was a tough guy, big and strong, but he was also muy, muy supersticioso. He knew the stories about the ghosts haunting Teatro Tapia. Stories about shadows walking around the empty seats. Or that feeling of someone tapping your shoulder to get your attention, but when you turn to face them…no one’s there. 

Bueno, some workers joked that the ghosts were just trying to find their seats. No one had ever been hurt by one of these shadows, only a little bit scared. 

Now, mi abuelo was in charge of replacing the old light bulbs. He told me, one day, he was so distracted by his work that he didn’t realize everyone left to get lunch. That’s when a light bulb right next to him flickered and went out. 

A light bulb dies.

LALO (CONT’D)
Pa’ fuera. 

Something you need to know about mi abuelo is that if he sees something broken, he fixes it. So, when he saw that dead light bulb, he had to fix it. 

A man carries a ladder, sets it down, and climbs it.

LALO (CONT’D)
He carried his little ladder over, changed the bulb, admired his handiwork, and then…

A light bulb flickers and dies.

LALO (CONT’D)
Another light bulb, right next to him, flickered and died. So, he moved his ladder and changed that light bulb.

A light bulb flickers to life. The pattern repeats and the cuts out.

LALO (CONT’D)
Mi abuelo kept doing this, changing a light bulb only for another one to go out. He did this for who knows how long until he somehow found himself in the basement, where he saw a shadow across the way. Mi abuelo, he called out: Hola! Perdón. ¿Estás perdido? Are you lost? But, as mi abuelo got closer, the shadow was gone. And at that moment, he heard singing.

Spooky, soft opera singing hangs in the air as ABUELO slowly climbs the steps.

LALO (CONT’D)
Soft, at first. Barely a hum in the air. Abuelo thought maybe the other workers were back, so he followed the sound. Every note became clearer and fuller the more he followed it. This beautiful singing led him all the way up from the basement and back onto the main stage.

He looked around for the source. A radio? One of the other workers? No. Abuelo was still alone. At least, that’s what he thought. But then, he felt its presence. A chill on the back of his neck like a breeze from the shore.

He turned and looked up into the stage lights, and up into the dusty, velvet curtains, and realized that the singing he followed…wasn’t from a person or a radio or even a trick of his imagination. 

Chimes twinkle.

LALO (CONT’D)
It was coming from a shimmering shadow, like a piece of the night sky, hanging above him, in the shape of a person. Arms open to an invisible audience, singing as if it was the only thing in the world that mattered.

See, not all the espíritus were lost guests. No. Some ghosts, they were artistas. And this ghost, the one mi abuelo heard performing, was an opera singer. It was the most beautiful singing he’d ever heard. 

The opera singing grows and echoes.

LALO (CONT’D)
Mi abuelo was superstitious, scared of demons and ghosts and all that, but at that moment, he was grateful. And he understood why they were renovating Teatro Tapia. Why they had named the building after a storyteller who brought everyday life to the stage. They wanted artists, like this ghost, to have a place to perform for all the people of San Juan.

The opera singing stops.

SOFT, PENSIVE MUSIC.

LALO (CONT’D)
When the singing stopped, and it was just mi abuelo alone on stage, he whispered to the ghost, Bueno Seńor, I hope you like the renovations. All these new updates make Teatro Tapia a nice place to haunt.

The ghost shimmers and floats into the stage lights.

LALO (CONT’D)
Think about that next time you change a light bulb. 

LALO screws in a new light bulb. It bursts into radiant life.

LALO (CONT’D)
After all, there’s a reason theaters leave on that ghost light once the curtain comes down. To light the way for all the mysterious stragglers and the opera ghosts singing into the night. 

MUSIC: HAUNTED PUERTO RICO THEME PLAYS UNDER. 

LALO (CONT’D)
This was your host, Lalo Machado. Join me next time for more tales from Haunted Puerto Rico.

MUSIC: TIMESTORM THEME (INSTRUMENTAL) PLAYS UNDER. 

NARRATION
This minisode was written by Andrew Siañez-De La O. Story editing was by Dania Ramos. Sound editing and design by Michael Aquino. 

The role of Lalo was played by Kelmi Bermudez. 

Timestorm is produced by Cocotazo Media in Essex County, New Jersey, which is situated on the traditional territory of the Leni Lenape people.

ATABEY
Witness. Find. Remember.