Three members of the Vicksburg Theatre Guild walked around the charred Parkside Playhouse Tuesday afternoon expecting devastation, but they said what they found was not so bad.

Puddles of water left by fire hoses filled the floor of the green room. Walls were spotted with soot from flames, obscuring cinder blocks colorfully painted with the date and titles of past performances. Debris filled the floor of the electrical room, where two antique pianos and a wardrobe closet for the 70-year-old melodrama &#8220Gold in the Hills” were piles of ashes and rusted metal. The lighting system was rusted and pulled apart.

Still, there was optimism.

&#8220I’m more heartened,” Jim Miller said as he and building and grounds director Garrett Wallace and publicity manager Mike Calnan toured the building at Iowa and Confederate avenues with insurance adjusters. &#8220I expected a lot more damage.”

Miller, who acts in VTG productions including &#8220Gold,” was surprised at how the fire was mainly contained to the electrical room.

The stage area was intact. Rooms on each side were blackened but the bulk of the smoke appeared to follow a hallway, called &#8220the tunnel,” from the electrical room to a shop area.

&#8220It’s not as bad as I figured,” Wallace said. &#8220But, it’s a lot of cleanup.”

The fire was reported just before 4:30 p.m. Monday and was believed to have started in the electrical room. Vicksburg Fire Chief Keith Rogers said debris samples will be tested for an official cause and that could take several days.

Adjusters said the theater will need to be cleaned by a professional and the electrical room, which no longer has a roof, will be off limits for a while.

They had more measuring and figuring to do before giving VTG an estimate on damage, but VTG members are ready to get started so they can get back in before the season that begins in September.

&#8220Gold in the Hills,” planned for July 7, will go on – just on a different stage.

&#8220We will do it on the same weekend – even if it’s under a tent in the parking lot,” Wallace said.

He added that VTG members had picked up applications to use auditoriums at Vicksburg High School, Warren Central and Bowmar Elementary and were awaiting a decision.

&#8220Gold,” an 1890s melodrama first performed in 1936 on a stage built in the front part of the boiler room of the Sprague, a steam-powered boat that was docked at City Front, has been followed by fire.

The Sprague burned in 1974 and the production was forced to a former church on Bowmar Avenue that housed VTG’s main stage plays. In 1977, Parkside Playhouse was constructed as the guild’s first home, just before the Bowmar church building was destroyed by fire.

Miller, also an engineer, said the theater’s first priority will be to replace lighting.

&#8220The lighting system is junk now, and of course you can’t do anything” without it, he said. &#8220I hope within a month we will be well down the road.”