On Saturday, June 18 during an understudy rehearsal of Measure for Measure, a crack was heard by the actors and stage crew, and staff immediately began to investigate the sound. One of the crew discovered a crack in a main supporting beam in the ceiling of the Angus Bowmer Theatre. The theatre was evacuated, and the afternoon performance of Measure for Measure was canceled.
That afternoon, an engineer from the City of Ashland, in a preliminary assessment of the damage affirmed that the beam required reinforcement and was unsafe for public gatherings.
The next day crews from Adroit Construction arrived to shore up the beam with supporting columns to halt additional damage. The 70-foot beam, 78 inches tall and 14 inches wide, is the main support of the theatre, spanning the ceiling in front of the stage from side to side, and supporting 30 glue-laminated beams.
As of July 1, the Adroit crew had raised the beam back in place and erected all the scaffolding so that Western Wood Structures’ crews can now come into the theatre and begin the repair process. They will drill some 130 to 160 holes, insert manufactured pins and epoxy, and then place and tighten cables around the beam.
