FREEPORT — Jennifer Bronder, Knoch High School teacher and director of its musicals and fall plays for the last 15 years, was scheduled to direct her first adult show this summer. Then the novel coronavirus changed the program.

Still, the show must go on even in the midst of a pandemic.

The Freeport Theatre Festival opened its 31st season July 10 with the original play “The Grimsby Lads.”

The play will go on at 7 p.m. this Friday, Saturday and Sunday the theater on the Steele Farm on White Cloud Road, two miles southeast of Freeport via Route 356. The building has barn doors that can be thrown wide open.

Bronder added that COVID-19 restrictions are in effect but haven't had too much of an impact on the production.

She said during rehearsals, “We take everyone's temperature and wear masks. We're fortunate that everyone turned out to be asymptomatic.”

Marushka Steele, who co-founded the festival with her husband Rennick, said the production is following all pandemic protocols.

She said, “We opened with only half the seating — 40 people — and we are using staggered seating to accommodate social distancing.”

Reservations are essential due to social-distancing protocols and can be made by calling 724-295-1934 or visiting www.freeporttheatrefestival.org.

Bronder, who is a member of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab, said her involvement with the Freeport Theatre Festival began when “I had done a theater camp for kids and my father (Howard Bronder) had done a poetry reading the year before.

“The Steeles had seen 'Oklahoma' (the Knoch High School 2018 musical) and asked if I would be interested in directing something for them.”

“The Grimsby Lads,” written by Rennick Steele, is set in Grimsby, England, during the years of the Cod Fishing Wars of Northern England, 1978-1984.

Marushka Steele says the setting is during the time when factory ships from Scandinavia, Holland and Russia began harvesting most of the fish from the North Sea, putting the small fishermen out of business.

It charts the course of the destinies of three young people of fishing families of Grimsby: Peter Hobson dreams of being an electrician and marrying Melanie McKenna; Tommy Hobson, brother of Peter, dreams of becoming an English literature professor at a university (and secretly loves Melanie); and, Melanie McKenna (Anne Lindsay), engaged to Peter, whom she loves, but dreams of going to London to pursue a career in modeling.

Bronder said, “I think it's serious. To me it's a family drama. It's two generations: the parents and the children coming of age wanting to leave Grimsby. That's my hook and my way in.”

Bronder brought in two of her actors from Knoch, Sam Thinnes and Brenden Smith, to play Peter and Tommy Hobson.

“Of the two brothers one is more outgoing and one is more reserved. Sam can play the outgoing one and Brenden the quieter and more studious brother,” she said.

They even look like brothers, she added.

“I enjoyed the experience, working with adult actors with their experience and instinct,” said Bronder, adding the older cast members provided mentoring to the younger actors.

Steele feels live theater, despite the added pandemic restrictions, is important. She said people need something more than screens and Zoom chats.

“People need something to give them some hope. If this was an enclosed theater, we wouldn't have a season,” she said. “But we were determined to open. We're not Pittsburgh; we're not New York City. We're lucky they are not epicenters.”

The Rennick Steele comedy, “Baboon,” about ethnic stereotyping, is scheduled to open Aug. 14.

The season-ending show, Mike Firek's new historical drama “President Arthur's Inspiration,” about a young girl whose letters inspire President Chester A. Arthur, is set to open Sept. 11.

All shows begin at 7 p.m. and run Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays for three weekends.

“The Grimsby Lads” ends on Sunday.