I’ll admit that I slept through the Park Place Theatre fire. My first waking moments on Sunday morning, June 1, were met with a flood of text messages from Shakespeare By The Sea’s co-artistic director Elizabeth Murphy and actor/technical director Tom Gordon Smith. When Tom isn’t joking you know it’s a serious matter.
I leapt out of bed and it feels like I’ve been running ever since. Things were already feeling busy with the beginning of rehearsals for Shakespeare By The Sea’s 2014 season just 48 hours away. Now we had to add deal with a fire to our expansive list of Things To Do. I raced down to the theatre, in enough shock to think that dealing with the aftermath of even a small fire was as easy as adding it to the list.
I met Tom at the space. Elizabeth had gone home to try and get some sleep, as she had been up all night coordinating with fire and police departments about the next steps. At first glance, most of the damage was to the exterior of the building, and it looked like the fire was started in a garbage can out front. The fire’s path could be traced from that can, up the side of the wall and clear across the attic. On the inside, we encountered the heavy smell of smoke, and water rained down from the ceiling where hours before firefighters expertly had doused the flames.
By the time Elizabeth rejoined us about an hour later, there was a crew of people beginning to assemble, including staff from the City of Halifax, eager to help out in any way that they could. Councillor Waye Mason stopped by to survey the damage and support our efforts. Cars cruising down to Point Pleasant Park on a beautiful Sunday afternoon slowed and stared, creating a seemingly endless line of interest in the flurry of activity outside the theatre as we emptied the space of chairs, risers, props and lights.
As we worked through the day and into the evening, one thing was always clear: the old show business mantra of “the show must go on” was repeated, and never in doubt. The strategy of how we were to keep going through this adversity developed almost automatically, and before we had a chance to reach out for help, we found that help was reaching out to us. Our cell phones rang all day. Prominent leaders from the arts community pledged that whatever help we needed was an ask away. Facebook messages poured in. For a brief, glorious moment we trended on Twitter across Canada.
Reality kept creeping back in. All of this attention was great, but oh yeah–someone tried to burn down our theatre. Add this to the list of disasters that the company has faced over the years: hurricanes, floods, droughts, beetle infestations, more hurricanes and now fires. When frogs start falling from the sky I honestly won’t even blink an eye. The show goes on, frogs or not.
The most profound and overwhelming aspect of all of this is the way this city has shown its support for Shakespeare By The Sea. Not just from within the cultural sector, but from individuals, other not-for-profits, corporations and municipal government. We launched an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign on Monday night and raised over $13,000 in the first five days, with all proceeds going toward fire recovery. Our Sneak Peek fundraiser that had already been planned for June 19 now seems all the more urgent.
I am from Halifax. I grew up here. I’ve chosen to raise my family and make my living as an artist here. Feeling the love from this city at this moment makes me so damn proud to call this my home. Oh yeah, I guess someone did try to burn down our theatre, but screw them. We open on July 1. The show must go on.
Jesse MacLean is the co-artistic director of Shakespeare By The Sea. He hopes to see all of you (yes, you) at one of his shows sometime soon. To donate, visit indiegogo.com/projects/shakespeare-by-the-sea-fire-recovery-fund and follow @SBTSHalifax.
This article appears in Jun 12-18, 2014.