The Community Players of Concord.
A couple of weeks ago,with all the snow that we had the roof collapsed and destroy the set for the "Odd Couple"
These players put on a show about four times a year.
With the best talented people that we have here.
I do support them and try to see most of th shows that they put on.The last one was"Gypsy" and they did a fine job.
This building was only about four years old.
Most of the money was donated to this.
They were going to cancelled the show this week.
Just a set back,but the show will go on.
Now we have to raised some money to get it fixed.
This building is where they make most of the setting for each show that is performed there.
They also rehearsed there.
The final show is at the Concord Autiorium.
I am glad that they did not cancel this performaces.
For the setting was so great and the players will be fine what they have.Good luck to them.



The show will go on. The Community Players of Concord will perform Neil Simon's The Odd Couple beginning Thursday, despite losing their set after their studio roof collapsed last week.

"It would have been a tragedy if people had died," said the play's director, Pat Delzell. "This was just a setback."

The organization's studio and shop space on Josiah Bartlett Road was partially destroyed, crushing the set before the Players could move it to their performance space at the Concord City Auditorium over the weekend. With the help of about 50 volunteers, they built a new set in its place. That version is now complete after a marathon work session, except for last-minute details.

Before they could rebuild, cast and crew met at the stage manager's house Thursday evening, just hours after they discovered the cave-in. While the actors rehearsed, those working behind the scenes sat in a "war room" calling friends and drafting e-mails for help.

The Franklin Footlight and RB Productions in Concord lent the Players thin plywood "flats" that stand up like partitions, framing the stage into a set. Other theater companies in Nashua and Manchester offered help.

"Four words got it back up," said Kevin Belval, who led the set construction. "And it was: 'What can I do?' "

Belval was unshaven yesterday. He had picked up the flats Friday night and stayed at the Audi late into the evening with volunteers. They screwed the sections together, then painted them. The next morning, he went to Home Depot to buy two more flats and windows. Volunteers joined him at the Audi and got to work attaching molding, doors and the new windows. Kim Miracle drove to Bedford and picked up a green-and-blue couch, perfect for a play set in 1967.

The play takes place in a divorced man's messy New York City apartment. Piles of carefully crafted trash - Styrofoam transformed into rotten grapefruit, for example - were destroyed when the roof collapsed. Prop designers rebuilt the mess over the weekend.

The job wasn't all bad. Delzell has a picture of a volunteer eating takeout Chinese food to clean the box for a prop.

"God, what a dump. It looks great!" Delzell said yesterday, as actors milled about the stage reading their lines and adjusting to the new space.

Some of the volunteers who built the set had never been involved with the organization before. Others, like Stuart Russell, helped out in the past but drifted away in recent years.

"I read the article in the paper and then called up to help," Russell said, after touching up windowsill paint. "That's just one of the great things about Concord. People step up as a community, and that just makes all the difference."

The new set is less elaborate than the original one. The walls appear shorter, and there are no longer stairs to the front door.

The loss of studio space is a major setback for the company. The building that collapsed was paid for by donations and built in the 1990s. The 80-year-old community theater group was the first in the state to have its own custom space, according to longtime members.

The group had been planning to produce The Full Monty in May. Set design was scheduled to begin Saturday, but plans have been put on hold.