Wilner Auditorium at Wichita State University

The story

George Wilner spent 37 years directing speech and drama at Fairmount College and Wichita State University—from 1923 until his retirement in 1960. He practically lived inside the 553-seat brick theater built in 1938 that now bears his name. According to campus lore and decades of student theater workers, he never really checked out. Long after the last applause fades and the house lights go down, staff and students report doors opening on their own, footsteps echoing above the stage, light bulbs turning back on after being switched off, and a silent figure watching rehearsals from the balcony.

What makes Wilner compelling isn't a gory backstory or a terrifying apparition—it’s the mundane persistence of an old-school stage director doing his rounds. Campus legend holds that Wilner’s spirit is intensely protective of the facility: he turns off appliances left running, fiddles with light boxes, and keeps watch over nervous actors during tech week. When WSU's student newspaper, *The Sunflower*, interviewed theater department staff, long-time personnel admitted that unexplained sounds in the fly loft and flickering rigged lights are just treated as part of the hall's daily operating conditions.

Architecturally, the building anchors the southeast edge of campus near 17th Street, built as a classic mid-century collegiate theater with a tight lobby, a deep proscenium stage, and an upper balcony light box. Because it remains an active teaching and production facility for WSU’s School of Performing Arts, you can't just stroll in as a ghost hunter during business hours—you buy a ticket to a student play or dance performance, sit quietly as the crowd files out, and look up.