Ghosts of Nebula Haunted Experience Bridges History and Mystery

“NebTech has tracked energetic anomalies in the geographic vector that houses the Georgetown Steam Plant. It’s almost as if their spirits are stirring in the air around us. We believe, with the right number of souls present, we may be able to finally discover what happened to these intrepid mystics, and even open the portal itself. Will you be one of those souls?”

So began Ghosts of Nebula: The Missing Six, one part haunted house and one part stage production. Described on their website as a multi-performance multimedia project, this particular event was actually the second installment in a planned series of productions meant to weave a cohesive narrative about NebTech that spans across the city. The first “episode” was presented at Pacific Science Center and introduced NebTech, as well as some characters that would quickly become familiar through the course of an evening at the steam plant.

Exterior of Georgetown Steam Plant / The Evergreen Echo

Our group was ushered into the plant to wait for our tour to begin. But we weren’t just witnesses. The audience was expected to play a part in the narrative as fellow explorers and dream enthusiasts, and were given opportunities to interact with the cast.

In a makeshift foyer, we were given drinks to “open our minds to the dreamscape” while we were allowed to peruse various objects and papers. Some were historical, giving us the bare bones of the story thus far: 103 years ago, six individuals came together at the Georgetown Steam Plant to attempt to access the Nebula, the name given to the dimension of dreams. In so doing, all the participants slipped into a coma.

NebTech had dedicated a group of researchers to the plant not only to study the Nebula, but to attempt to locate the ghosts of the six people trapped inside. Other objects were the possessions of the missing six themselves: a writing desk, a series of letters, a player piano, et cetera, all potentially holding precious clues that the attendees were encouraged to find. But there unfortunately wasn’t much time for that as we were quickly taken deeper into the plant as our “dream elixir” took hold.

We were led into the bowels of the steam plant by NebTech employee and self-described dream collector Devorah de Leon, who was both our tour guide and an actor in the interactive play. We found the missing six not just trapped in the plant, but at the moment of their experiment’s completion—they did not know they were long dead.

And it soon became clear that not everyone’s goals were aligned. Some sought knowledge, but others sought power. The “dream team” quickly dissolved as the power of the Nebula gobbled them up one by one, save for a lucky few who made it through the red door (very The Shining) into the plant’s old boiler room. Other than these few, everyone else succumbed to their various demons; a veteran doctor who was haunted by his dead patients eventually joined them while a psychic sang herself into oblivion.

Lola Rei in Ghosts of Nebula / Bruce Tom

The Missing Six was presented by Nordo, the same group responsible for the longstanding Knife Room and Culinarium in Pioneer Square. Since their venues’ closures in 2022, they have been working in secret on a new kind of theatrical production, which began this year at Pacific Science Center and continued at the Georgetown Steam Plant. The information is sparse, and that seems purposeful: Nordo is weaving not just a story, but an alternate universe that it wants participants to revel in.

And this is certainly an exciting idea! I only wish that I’d known beforehand; there was little background story given at The Missing Six, so I believed this was more of a standalone production. I had trouble following the story without more context, especially when characters from the NEBTalk event at Pacific Science Center showed up without any explanation.

Nevertheless, it’s hard to complain about an atmospheric delight like a narrative haunted tour of the old steam plant, which was a perfect backdrop for the Nordo players to play in. The enormous chains, the hanging hooks, the narrow steps, and the bulging mechanisms of the dead plant all added to the mystery of the story.

There was also some serious attention to detail: although the Georgetown Steam Plant has been out of service for years, Nordo made sure to account for such minutiae as the temperature of the boiler room, which was much hotter than any other part of the plant. The actors were also quite playful; you could really see their dinner theater history coming through, which lent a lighthearted air to an otherwise chilling evening.

Even though I left feeling a bit confused, I was also compelled to learn more. I’m excited to learn what’s next for Nebula.