New Roof, New Paint, Super Volunteers & Contributors

During the last few weeks, the Empress Theatre has received a new roof, a fresh coat of paint in the lobby and other enhancements.

Empress patrons who came to see Babes in Toyland may remember all of the plastic sheeting in the north end of the house, especially near the sound booth, and some may even remember finding some wet seats in the back row. The old membrane roof on the north side of the building had been failing for some time, and a decision was finally made to replace the entire roof rather than keep trying to fix the leaks. The new roof should keep the water out in the future, but there is still a bit of work to be done to fix someof the things that were damaged by the leaks. The new roof was arranged by the family of Leo Ware.

A small army of volunteers dedicated their Saturday, and a few evenings of the last couple of weeks to moving props and costumes from the Empress basement to another storage location, patching walls, giving the lobby a fresh coat of paint, and installing carpet tiles in the prop room. Curtis Bailey, Michele Brown, Kathy Wilcox and a host of others whose names I don't have put in many hours of hard work. We thank all of these wonderful volunteers for their great work!

Michael Harman, a local youth frequently seen on the Empress stage, and son of Steve and Charlen e "Charlie" Harman, lead another group of volunteers who cleaned and organized the green room and installed some much needed shelving and lighting as his Eagle Scout project. Thank you, Michael and crew.

The Empress is fortunate to have so many willing and able volunteers and contributors. Without the hard work and financial contributions from you, the great plays and musicals just wouldn't be possible.