On October 25, a flood hit North Haven County and caused knee-deep waters on the eastern side of campus. The Paul Mellon Arts Center stage, which supports the majority of the school’s productions, faced significant flooding during the storm. The water, reaching one-foot deep at the back of the theatre, destroyed the stage as well as the set of Noises Off! meant to be completed in following weeks. With the stage currently undergoing extensive repairs, the fall production Noises Off!, the parents weekend instrumental and choral concerts, and the incoming Wallingford Symphony Orchestra performance, have been postponed or moved to different locations.
“We put a few scenarios on the table, but the best one is to move the fall production into the winter,” says Deighna DeRiu, the director of Noises Off!, “This show is heavily set-based. The main concern would be the heavy two-story set breaking through what was left of the stage.” Noises Off! will now premiere in the winter term with the same cast, meaning that the originally planned Midsummer Night’s Dream will now open in the fall of 2019.
The entire cast and crew of Noises Off! has had to find new sports or activities for the remainder of fall term. This poses a challenge for certain members.
Luckily, the PMAC auditorium’s hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of technical equipment only faced minimal damage. Mark Gostomski, technical director, said, “As far as the overall building, we’re pretty OK. The stage floor took a very significant hit and that’s where the largest amount of concern is. The floor is actually about five separate layers. The top black layer was utterly destroyed, so absolutely nothing could be saved and everything had to be removed. We know that there is water damage which is causing mold and mildew issues.”
The overall costs and timeline of repair work is currently being discussed by the inspection crew. However, apart the main stage’s “apron,” which will be used for school meetings and the upcoming show Tsidii Le Loka, the theatre will not be used in the fall term.
