As of last week, all the musicians, actors and dancers using the dressing room at the Kamsack Playhouse no longer need to manoeuvre between drips from the ceiling or try to ignore the unsightly water marks on the ceiling and walls.
The roof has been repaired.
The one less-than-exceptional attribute of the Kamsack Playhouse has been the roof of the backstage dressing room, Jack Koreluik, media liaison for the Playhouse committee, said last week. It has been a problem for at least 10 or 15 years.
The old used furnace that had been installed on top of the building, on the dressing room roof during the renovations in the 1980s, had been leaking water into the dressing room, Koreluik explained. The area had been patched several times, but the roof still leaked.
Performers waiting backstage for their turns onto the stage had to find their way around buckets strategically placed to collect dripping water, while the ceiling and walls were discoloured and damaged by water.
The Playhouse was fitted with two new energy efficient furnaces last year that were installed at the back of the stage, just in front of the dressing room, he said.
The removal of the old furnace from the roof was the next obstacle, he said. “We scratched our heads. Did we need to hire a crane? It was huge and cumbersome.”
Eventually the board hired people to dismantle the furnace, remove it and repair all the roof damage and the water damage in the dressing rooms.
The work was completed last week, he said. “It was all done for a cost under $5,000.” Money for the project was raised with the ham supper served recently and the staging of the play A Night of Dark Intent last month, he said. “Also the movies we’ve been showing recently have been successful.”
Koreluik said that first-run movies will continue to be shown at the Playhouse during the summer, usually one a week.
And now the theatre, renowned for its excellent acoustics for live performances, will also have a good, useable backstage dressing room.
Fred Eaglesmith, whose concert on October 22 will be the first of four performing groups in the 2016-17 Stars for Saskatchewan series of concerts, will probably be the first performer to make use of the dressing room.
In November, the Kamsack Players will be staging Piano Dad, a one-act play which will go on to Theatre Saskatchewan’s TheatreOne Festival.
