Nancy Spiller believes tradition is important, and that’s why, after 11 years, she’s brought “Fiddler on the Roof” back to the First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge.
As the church’s art director, Spiller creates artistic events to bring the members of the church closer together and to engage the rest of the community in activities. Spiller said she thinks there aren’t enough places in the city where people can have fun without emptying their wallets, and she’s committed to changing that.
“We accept donations, but this is a community event where people can have fun for free,” Spiller said.
As a diehard fan of the performance arts, Spiller directs plays as a matter of course, but it’s been more than a decade since she produced “Fiddler on the Roof,” a musical about a Jewish dairyman named Tevye who struggles to reconcile his Jewish identity with the shifting cultural landscape of tsarist Russia.
Spiller brought the play back to the church to fulfill a promise she’d made to Raul Gomez, a conductor in the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and a University alumnus. Spiller and Gomez built their friendship on their mutual appreciation of religion and musicals, and to honor their bond, Spiller invited Gomez to play in the production’s musical ensemble.
“When Raul plays the violin, he becomes the fiddler up on that roof,” Spiller said.
Gomez and the rest of his ensemble will play music alongside a cast of 60 performers. The cast will be led by Ray Gaspard, a local actor Spiller recruited to play Tevye. Gaspard has played the role of Tevye three times in his life, and Spiller said when he steps on stage, he channels the spirit of Zero Mostel, the man who popularized the role in the very first productions of the musical.
“He looks so much like Tevye that I’d think he was Tevye if I didn’t know him from church,” Spiller said.
Most of the actors in the play attend the church, but Gaspard brought additional talent with him from one of his acting classes to play the role of Fyedka, a Christian man who marries one of Tevye’s daughters.
Spiller integrated Gaspard’s talents into the musical with the help of a dedicated stage and directing crew. Together, the crew worked for months to craft a performance faithful to the original production of “Fiddler on the Roof.”
The group’s biggest challenge was transforming the church’s sanctuary into a replica of the sprawling farmlands of Russia. To make it look more like a theater, Spiller’s crew built a house over the organ pipes on stage and constructed the village of Anatevka, where the story takes place, in front of the church’s stained glass windows. The exposure and masking of the windows at different intervals will be important to the flow of the play, particularly when the cast performs the closing song of the first act, “Sunrise, Sunset.”
The church was even renovated to make it more conducive for plays and similar events. Spiller said railings were collapsed to make more room for actors and dancers to perform.
Because of these particular circumstances, Spiller’s production of the play will possess novel flair. For the most part, the play will stay true to the original version of the script and to the tradition Sholem Aleichem pioneered when he first penned the Yiddish tale that would eventually become an award-winning musical.
After all, without traditions, life would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof.
The play will be held at the First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 1:15 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.
In the March 20 article “Local church sustains musical tradition with ‘Fiddler on the Roof’,” Nancy Spiller’s name was incorrectly stated as Nancy Siller. The Daily Reveille regrets the error.

Gallery • 6 Photos

Taylor Balkom

Members of First Presbyterian Church rehearse "Fiddler on the Roof" Wednesday, March 19, 2014.