Something sinister lurks in Franklin’s Greenlawn Cemetery.
Among the rows of headstones and monuments, people can find some of Franklin’s most macabre stories. Tales of murder, accidental death and unexplained occurrences are there if people know what to look for.
And for two weeks at the end of October, local historians will guide the public through the spooky past.
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Organizers from the Historic Artcraft Theatre have put together a slate of eerie fun on Oct. 18 and 25. The Spirits and Stage series will featured a haunted trolley tour transporting brave participants to Greenlawn Cemetery, where guides and re-enactors will walk people through the area’s creepy history.
The hope is to scare up some additional activity for downtown Franklin businesses on what can sometimes be a rather dead night of the week.
“This is what the theater is all about. It’s great to have the movies and that’s what people come down to see, but it’s fun to be able to bring these things to Franklin,” said Beth Guerrettaz, financial administrator for Franklin Heritage.
Meanwhile, back at the Artcraft, the Indianapolis psychological comedy troupe, the Mind Tripping Show, will stage a Halloween-esque version of their performance called “Shadowland,” tackling subjects such as ghostly oddities and seeing into the “other side.”
The Mind Tripping Show is an interactive theatrical performance featuring mind reading, psychological illusions and comedy. The husband-and-wife duo of Christian Painter and Katalina Absolon formed after the two met while serving in the U.S. Army, and they’ve performed more than 2,000 shows over the past 17 years.
The idea for “Shadowland” came while the group was heavily touring college campuses. To add a new element to their mind-reading show, they wove in some supernatural elements focused on Indianapolis’ infamous Central State Hospital, a psychiatric treatment hospital with a haunted reputation.
“We came up with an idea to put a piece about Central State in our show, because college kids like ghost stories and hauntings and things like that. Over the years, that developed and got more creepy,” Painter said.
Eventually, a separate ghost-centric performance developed. The Mind Tripping Show is more fun than freaky, Absolon said. But the troupe’s “Shadowland” performance focuses on the otherworldly and ghostly — a perfect partner for the haunted tour.
The show can get a little bit freaky.
“Creepy is coming,” Painter said. “We’ll have some fun, but at the same time, our hope is to make your heart race.”
The haunted spectacle and ghost conference is something the Artcraft had hosted in the 2000s, bringing people out to revel in Halloween fun with films, tours, guest speakers and other activities. But a lack of volunteers eventually led to its demise more than 10 years ago, Guerrettaz said.
“So we’re resurrecting it, as it were,” she said. “We thought it sounded like a ton of fun.”
Rather than being a pulse-pounding, jump-out-at-you kind of haunted attraction, Spirits and Stage will be more atmospheric and unsettling, said Jaime Shilts, coordinator of volunteers and events for Franklin Heritage.
“It’s more creepy, not gore or violence,” she said.
Organizers took advantage of nearby Greenlawn Cemetery, which was established in 1845 and is on the National Register of Historic Places, as the perfect locale for their haunt.
The tour is centered around weird and unusual people buried in the cemetery as well as other aspects of Franklin’s past. Volunteers combed through newspaper archives and accounts at the Johnson County Museum of History to uncover unusual stories that could be told as part of the tour.
They also incorporated some well-known urban myths into the tour, such as haunted history that might not be grounded in fact but has become local legend.
“It’s fun to have things like this in our community. We don’t have the haunted house downtown anymore. We don’t have anything else like this for adults down here,” Shilts said.
Trolleys will pick people up at the museum, just down the street from the Artcraft, and be shuttled to the cemetery. People will disembark, and guides will lead people them to the gravesites related to some of these stories.
“We’re focused on the unusual, the creepy. We’ll have actors out there portraying the stories that we’re telling,” Guerrettaz said.
While the tours will take people into the past, the final part of the experience peers into the future. The trolleys will bring people back to the Artcraft’s cottage annex on Madison Street for refreshments, as clairvoyant Jackie Gardner from Inner Path does palm readings for free.
Local businesses such as Main & Madison Market Cafe will also be hosting special events to people who come out.
“We want to try to light up this corner,” Guerrettaz said.
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Spirits and Stage
Haunted trolley tours
What: Take a trolley ride to Greenlawn Cemetery in Franklin, then follow a walking tour focusing on creepy local history. Afterwards, enjoy refreshments and palm reading at the Artcraft Cottage on Madison Street.
When: Oct. 18 and 25
Times: Tours start at 7:30 p.m., and run approximately every 40 minutes after.
Where: Meet at the Johnson County Museum of History, 135 N. Main St., Franklin
Cost: $15 for general admission, $13 for military and veterans.
"Shadowlands: A Ghostly Thriller"
What: A psychologically thrilling show about ghosts, hauntings and the supernatural, combining interactive audience involvement with local ghost stories to create an eerie yet enjoyable atmosphere.
When: 7 p.m. Oct. 18 and 25
Where: Historic Artcraft Theatre, 57 N. Main St., Franklin
Cost: $20 general admission, $18 military and veterans
Information and tickets: historicartcrafttheatre.org
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