Salem Community Theatre plans Hollywood roast comedy show

By D.a. Wilkinson

Part of the event will include audience participation.

SALEM — Live from Salem, it’s sort of “Saturday Night Live.”

The board members of Salem Community Theatre will present “A Roast to Hollywood” on Jan. 30 and 31, a series of comedy skits with an offbeat view similar to the long-running television show.

Movies that are up for a roast range from the classic “Gone With the Wind,” to “Top Gun,” “Friday the 13th,” “Ghostbusters,” “Jaws” and “Flashdance.”

Danny Haueter, a board member, said the skits will pose questions like, did Scarlet tell Rhett she didn’t give a damn? Did Forrest Gump just want attention? And what if Darth Vader wasn’t Luke’s father?

But there’s more.

Singer Sarah Burgess, who made a good run at “American Idol,” will sing. Burgess, formerly of East Palestine and now of Pittsburgh, said her new song, “Dangerouz” is getting airplay on KISS FM 96.1 in Pittsburgh.

But there’s more.

Haueter added, “there will be audience participation stuff.” He didn’t elaborate.

Haueter wrote and will direct the event, but said of his fellow SCT board members, “everyone had a hand in it.”

He said the show will also present “the world debut of Scabs the Clown.” Scabs will be played by Salem Police Detective John Scheets.

Scheets normally makes scenery for plays. His wife is a board member, and his son, Jack, acts.

Haueter said that younger children may not get the production, but there’s nothing in the show to offend older children and adults.

The show, which will be presented at 8 p.m. both nights, is a fund-raising event. Tickets are $10 and will go toward the theater’s maintenance costs, including utility bills. The production will also kick off the theater’s 2009 fund drive.