Jane Thorpe is hitting the road after 26 years teaching drama at the Bermuda High School for Girls.

This summer she and her husband, Mark Thorpe, are taking early retirement to travel the world.

“My husband and I have three children who are all grown up now,” the 54-year-old said. “I had a health scare, Covid-19 hit, and then I lost a young student. I decided life is too short.”

Looking for something different, the couple have bought a motorhome that is being custom-built right now.

“It is very exciting,” she said. “We are going to start in Europe, and we are just going to go. My mother wants to know when we will be back. I told her, when we have had enough. I do not know how long that will be.”

The couple love travelling and exploring. First though, Ms Thorpe, head of creative arts at BHS, has her last school production to tackle. Mary Poppins opens on Thursday at the Pembroke school.

Over the years she has presided over many dramas at BHS. She insisted she did not have a favourite, but admitted she got a real thrill out of the ones with special effects.

When she staged Peter Pan in the early 2000s, the school brought in a special crew from the United States to help the lead actors fly across the stage using a sling and pulley system.

In Chitty Chitty Bang Bang they made a car fly. “It was fantastic,” Ms Thorpe said.

This latest show, Mary Poppins, also has its sparkly bits.

“There is a lot of magic in it,” Ms Thorpe said. “For example, Mary Poppins has to bring an entire hat stand, and plants out of a carpet bag. I had to figure out how we were going to do that.”

She refused to give away any trade secrets, but did reveal they used all sorts of random objects to make it happen including an old Christmas tree stand and a boat hook.

As with every school play, there have been a few headaches.

“We carefully counted the number of chimney sweeps who needed brooms,” she said. “Then in rehearsal, ten students were without a broom. It turned out they had not been at the last production meeting.”

She was herself a student at BHS in the primary years but went away to school when she was 12.

While studying overseas, her first significant role was Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The problem was Pharaoh had a lot of singing lines, and she was not a singer.

“I remember the fear and the terror,” she said. “I said to my drama teacher, why cast me?”

Her teacher said it was because she could act the part. When she went to university her goal was purely to become an actress.

“In no way, shape or form, did I want to become a teacher,” she said. “I went to the University of Waterloo in Canada to do theatre arts and drama. You had the performance track, but you also had to do one year on the tech team.”

Performance and tech became her specialities. A summer job as a supervisor of a hospital candy striping programme showed her other options.

“I was working mainly with teenage girls,” Ms Thorpe said.

She laughed uproariously when the secretary suggested she become a teacher, because she was good with this age group.

“I took a year, and went travelling after university,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do with my life. Drama was my first love, but I was also very good at mathematics.”

When she came home her parents thought it was time she chose a career path.

“I had fought so hard to get my parents to agree to me doing drama in university that I thought I wanted to do something with it,” she said. “So I went away and did teacher training. I came back and realised that I actually really loved teaching.”

As a drama teacher she had the chance to see her student in a different light from the “chalk and talk” teachers.

“I have enjoyed working with my students,” she said. “I created and developed things as we went along.”

Her legacy has been growing the tech programme at BHS.

“The children know what they are doing,” she said. “I have children who can do the lights, sound and everything. It has been great to see them grow.”

On show night, she described her role as “literally opening and closing the theatre door”.

“I am also an emergency fix, if need be,” she said. “Otherwise, it is the children’s show. I love seeing them come together, participate, work and create, be imaginative and shine.”

She does not mind not being on the stage herself.

“The directing and producing side is much more in my wheelhouse,” she said. “I sometimes act in the classroom, but the ability to create and work with the children is much more satisfying.”

She said producing and directing school dramas can be stressful, but they are always the highlight of the year for her.

“I have loved getting to know the students,” she said. “I get a lot of satisfaction out of getting the thing done, and seeing what the children can do, whether it is backstage or onstage. It makes me so proud, in a way I can never really describe.”

One of her former students, Hailey Manuel, will be taking over from her at BHS. Ms Manuel is a secondary English and drama teacher and head of Year 7 at BHS.

• Tickets for the show, which will be run for five performances from January 30 to February 2, are available atbhs.bm