Some planned roadwork is forcing the Elkhart Civic Theatre to remove the iconic awning on the front of their Bristol Opera House. They plan to replace it but they’ll need to raise some money.
Elkhart Civic Theatre Executive Director Dave Dufour says the Indiana Department of Transportation in March plans some work on Vistula Street, that will require tearing up the sidewalk and removing the awning. The theatre wants to then replace the awning, add some sidewalk seating, and make some other improvements to the 130-year-old wood frame building’s decorative roof line.
Dufour says replacing the awning is important.
“It’s a unique feature of the opera house and it’s just sort of the charm of this old building, so it’s something we want to replace," he says.
A donor has pledged a dollar-for-dollar match for the first $12,000 raised. They hope to have the work done by early summer and can work around the sidewalk reconstruction for shows.
“Well in April we’ve got a Sherlock Holmes show called ‘Moriarty,’ then we have the ‘Sound of Music,’ and then in the summer we have a show called ‘Dear Evan Hanson,’ which is a fairly new musical, and right now we’re on schedule with all of that.”
