Performing Arts Center Is Essential Element

Editor’s note: The following letter was read to the high school committee on Monday.

My name is Abigail Chandler. I have been a music teacher at MVRHS since 2009 and department chair since 2018. I am an alumnus of the Edgartown School and MVRHS, where I was involved in the band and choral programs. My own children are students here, one who is currently a sophomore and the other who will be a freshman next year. They have both been involved in Island public music programs since third grade. I have been the Island-wide performing arts teacher leader since the beginning of that program, and have worked closely with my colleagues in the elementary schools in strings, band, theatre and general music. 

All of this is to say that I have an intimate knowledge of all sides of the impact performing arts education can have on students. I am joined by my colleagues Steph Aurenz and Charlie Esposito. We are here to express our concerns about the possibility of the PAC being unavailable for performances for the 2027-2029 school years. 

We are asking that careful consideration be given to try to minimize the impacts to students in music and theatre, at the high school and elementary levels. The proposed 49-person capacity would throttle these programs Island-wide. We understand that this option is probably the cheapest and easiest for the building project, but we are asking that the 300-person capacity be the goal toward which we are all striving. At a 300-person capacity, we can still have regular publicly attended performances. At 49 persons, we cannot. 

At the high school, we use the PAC for performances eight times a year. We present four department concerts where all of our performing groups present the music they have been working on for the 10 weeks of classes prior. These serve as summative assessments in our classes. We also present a musical in February, as well as a play in May. The Minnesingers have a show in May, and the Evening of the Arts involves the PAC and the green room, also in May. Most of these events historically attract more than 300 people, but we could restrict the audience if it meant that we could keep the space usable.

At the elementary level, the All Island Strings and All Island Band programs each use the space twice a year. These four concerts include students from 3rd to 12th grade, involving literally hundreds of students. The beginning strings and band concerts often have close to 100 students on stage at a time. These programs directly feed into the strings and band program at the high school.

One of the hurdles we would face if the PAC is restricted to 49 people is finding a stage large enough to hold all of the performers — there isn’t another venue on the Island that could accommodate everyone. An even bigger hurdle in relocating these concerts would be all of the equipment that is used during these performances: chairs, music stands, heavy percussion equipment, choral risers, pianos, set pieces, tech, etc. All of this lives at the high school for use by both the high school and elementary groups. Moving all of this to another venue 12 times a year for two years in a row would cost money in moving van expenses, equipment repair and replacement from damage due to the moves, and rental fees at other venues. 

For the theatre program at the high school, a large part of the curriculum is in the technical aspects of theatre: lighting and sound design, set design and build, costuming, marketing, stage management, etc. While moving performances to another space is possible, the time spent in the classroom (the PAC) is meant to be leading towards a live performance where those students are running a show. We have had many students graduate from our program and immediately begin working professionally in these fields. Without the experience of running a large theater during a live performance, our students won’t have the hands-on, on the job training necessary to be gainfully employed, on Island and off.

As an Island, our schools are the only show in town when it comes to performing arts education. Our students don’t have the option of a community music school or a local college that could supplement an off-Island school in a similar situation. We know this building project is multi-faceted, many-layered, hugely expensive and affects many, many people. We are asking for the easy solution of closing the PAC to school performances to be considered from the performing arts view. If the solution really is to stop having performances, we object wholeheartedly. The performance aspect of the performing arts is not simply a fun time — it is a vital part of the process and of our curricula. It is the thing towards which we aim, the closing of the loop that starts with the composer or playwright, moves to the performer, and finally loops the audience in for the culmination of a human experience not paralleled in any other discipline. The PAC is crucial to this part of the process, and cannot be replicated on the Island.

For the elementary schools, losing PAC performances could start the same snowball effect we saw during Covid that we are just righting ourselves from: fewer kids would start playing and singing, more would quit and most of those wouldn’t return once we are open again. Our All-Island band program is already starting to fracture. This regionalized program has been going strong since at least the 1980s; losing the PAC I fear would be its death knell. 

For performing arts students, music and theatre are not just nice to have, they are vital to their wellbeing and senses of self. If a student is never given a real chance at experiencing what can be a life-changing endeavor, we are doing them a disservice. Two years in the life of a child is a really long time. My experiences as a student of, and a teacher of, and a parent of kids in, the performing arts on this Island is that what is taught in the classroom is, among other things, skills and techniques; what is learned on the stage is a clearer sense of who they could be in life. It is where our students find out what they are capable of, how to push themselves, and how to lean on their ensemble members. Please help us continue this important work by pushing for the 300-person capacity in the PAC.

Abigail Chandler is the department chair of performing arts at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. She lives in Edgartown.

This article appears in November 6 2026.