43
Good act to follow
With grant, help, show goes on at Salem Community Theatre
By D.A. WILKINSON
SALEM
Call Gary Eichler Jr. the fixer on the roof.
Sarah Durham, manager at the Salem Community Theatre, said, “He’s Santa Claus.”
Eichler is at the center of a renovation at the theater that took a twist or two on the way to a happy ending.
Earlier this year, officials at the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission offered the theater $53,000 with no strings attached.
Durham said theater officials were thinking about replacing the old and worn seats.
But the roof had leaked for some time, especially after very heavy rains.
“One attempt to seal the roof lasted about a week,” Durham said.
Then Eichler got involved through his business, Eichler Construction of Salem. It does roofing and siding, builds garages and pole barns, paints, and does excavations and other work. He put a plastic roof on the theater that doesn’t leak.
After a recent summer rainstorm, there wasn’t a drop in the place, Durham said.
But the improvements didn’t stop there.
The rainwater over the years had taken a toll on the plaster inside the theater. The east and west walls needed to be replastered.
Eichler offered to replaster the center panel of the three panels on each wall as a favor. He wound up replastering both walls. Each wall is 60 feet long and 12 feet tall.
Brad’s Carpet and Upholstery Co. in East Liverpool took care of the drywall dust and cleaned the carpet. They donated their services.
Eichler doesn’t advertise but uses word of mouth to get customers. Other local merchants helped with discounts for the theater project, such as Superior Paint in Salem. Firestone Sheet Metal in Salem bent metal for portions of the roof.
Eichler said he probably put what he made on the project back into the theater. He said there is a group of local craftsmen willing to help maintain Salem’s old buildings.
The Salem theater planned to offer the musical “Fiddler on the Roof” as thanks to all. Then a traveling theater company that decided to perform nearby legally blocked the local production.
So the theater will be putting on “Meshuggah-Nuns! The Ecumenical Nunsense.” In the comedy, all the cast members of “Fiddler on the Roof” on a cruise ship fall ill except the actor playing the fiddler Tevye. The captain asks the actor and nuns on board to keep the adage, “The show must go on.”