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An empty vintage theater with red velvet seats and a single ghost light glowing on the dark stage.

An empty vintage theater with red velvet seats and a single ghost light glowing on the dark stage.

Many theatres that were forced to close during the COVID-19 pandemic renewed the tradition of ghost lights as a way of indicating the theatres would re-open. The Sydney Opera House left ghost lights on the stages of the Joan Sutherland Theatre, the Drama Theatre, the Playhouse and the Studio.[8] Other theatres then followed suit, including Sydney Theatre Company's Roslyn Packer Theatre in Walsh Bay, the Seymour Centre in Chippendale, and the Merrigong Theatre at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre in Wollongong.[8] Ghost lights were kept burning in theatres in Florida including Artis—Naples and Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, Florida Repertory Theatre, Sugden Theater and at the Broadway Palm, Cultural Park Theater.[9] The Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, Canada burned a ghost light through both the 1918 and 2020 pandemics.[10] There is also a claim that during the 2020 pandemic closures "every stage on Broadway has a lamp".[11] During the pandemic, the closure of theatres worldwide prompted digital and virtual performances inspired by the ghost light concept. The West Australian Opera live-streamed solo aria performances and called the series the Ghostlight Opera.[12] The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Australia held a digital theatre festival which included a show called Ghost Lights where famous theatre characters perform on the empty stages of the world.[13] On 22 May 2020, while the theatre was closed for the COVID-19 pandemic, the Finnish Mehr sehen