“Panic and sadness,” are the first emotions Pentucket’s Theater teacher and Theater Club Director Brooke Snow felt when she heard about the three-foot fire that broke out in the auditorium of Pentucket High School on Saturday, January 25th, charring the stage and causing smoke damage to the auditorium and cafeteria. 

For most students at Pentucket, the fire did not affect them, in fact, some students were even happy when they were notified of the incident and had to stay home for two days. 

But for the art department of Pentucket, the fire had lasting effects that will impact the theater community’s future years of production. 

“Two seconds later, I was thinking about alternatives in case Mary Poppins couldn’t happen,” Snow said about the musical, which the theater club was set to perform in the middle of March. 

But without an auditorium to perform in, what will the musical’s cast do for their upcoming show? 

Kevin Berube, Pentucket’s Theater Manager and Technical Theater Specialist said, “It’s really testing our ability [as a team] to make changes and pivot on the fly.” 

 “The arts department knows how to be flexible and adaptable without seriously compromising the experience for our students,” Berube added. In the past, the theater department has always found methods to perform despite the circumstances, Snow and her team were still able to present a performance of A Midsummer’s Night Dream via Zoom in 2020, despite the fact the production had been interrupted in March due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

But even with quick problem solving, Pentucket High School junior Summer Welper says she is “concerned [with] the systems in place,” because “the fire reached about 3 feet tall, yet the heat sensors in the auditorium did not go off.”

Welper conveyed worry for her own safety and “the safety of our crew, because the safety systems in this new building did not work at all.” 

This puts the Pentucket Theater Department face-to-face with another point: If the new safety systems fail, it is important to consider the possibility of a fire breaking out during the school day, or worse, again during after-school hours. 

Welper’s fears about the safety of the auditorium, students, staff, and the future of theater at Pentucket goes to show just how much of an impact theater has on students and the Pentucket community as a whole. “Theatre, especially at Pentucket, is incredibly important to me, and the fact that the state of the program was up in the air for days was very scary,” Welper concluded.

On the contrary, when asked about his overall concerns about the future of the arts department, Berube said, “I feel like everyone involved in restoring the space is doing an excellent job to ensure that everything is returned to normal.”

Snow, similar to Welper, expressed she was “concerned about the smoke damage” and hoped “there’s not too much damage to valuable equipment.” She concluded by expressing, “I was very stressed last week about the fire but I am [doing] better [now that we have a plan].”

All in all, the arts department has decided to hold off on performing Mary Poppins until the fall of the 2025 school year.

As for all the concerts and band jamborees to take place in the spring, they will be held in the gym. The auditorium is set to be fixed most likely in the summer, and ready for students and staff to use when they return to school in late August.

Even though Mary Poppins will not happen this year, the Theater Club has decided to perform a new musical that will be announced in the upcoming weeks and will take place in the black box room, where the theater and choir classes are held. 

It goes to show despite the circumstances, Pentucket perseveres through hard times and ultimately comes out stronger on the other side.