Peter Pan & Wendy

Adapted from the original book by J.M. Barrie

 Directed by Margaret Larlham

with Musical Composition by Thomas Hodges

Playscript: http://www.stageplays.com/products/peter_pan_and_wendycategorycyberpresscode464

See VIMEO recording by Tim Powell:

Student producedmusicvideo:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCzAa3CH-HI#t=14

SDSU School of Theatre, Television, and Film Credits for the 2012 Production. Don Powell Theatre. San Diego State University.

Scenic Designer – Ryan Grossheim *Costume Designer-Kathie Taylor *Lighting Designer – Justin Van Hassel *Sound Designer – Kyle Schubert *Projection Designer  – Dominic Abbenante *Technical Director – Eben Alguire *Dramaturg – Erica Paulson *Stage Manager – Amanda Rose Johnson *

Music Arranged and Directed by Charlie Jirkovsky

CAST

Wendy – Allison Boettcher * Mary Darling, Light Shadow – Carrin Edwards *George Darling/Gentleman Starkey – Brian Butler* John/Light Shadow – Erika Appel *  Michael/Light Shadow – Kourtney Smith *Nana/ Neverland Bird – Angela Evers  * Peter Pan  – Krista Feallock *Tinker Bell  – Sophia Funicello *Dark Shadow/ Mermaid – Kay McNellen *Dark Shadow – Taylor Richardson *Dark Shadow – Levi Padilla *Captain Hook – Ryan Sandvick * Smee – Aaron Drake *Noodler  – Michael Italiano *Cookson – Bernardo Mazon* Tootles  – Shane Allen*  Slightly  – Kelsie Naugler *Curly – Rachel Robinson *Nibs – Xavier Scott *Fairy Shadow/ Mermaid – Hali Erikson *Mermaid – Amanda Burris *Tiger Lily – Chanel Lucia*  Band Director – Charlie Jirkovsky *Brave Bass -Valentino Nguyen *Brave Guitar – Melanie Medina *Brave Drummer – Dakota Ringer * Creative/Management

Asst. Director –Jamie Gilcrist * Asst. Dramaturgs – Shane Allen & Katerina Huffmaster*  Asst. Stage Managers – Megan McGrory & Kevin Sattler * Choreographer -Jessica Christman * Scenic Asst. Tech Directors  – Gabby Heerschap & James Ramirez* Prop Designer – Mason Daryl Lev *Prop Master – Jennifer Imbler * Scenic Artists – Chad Dellinger, Rene Nielson, Ryan Grossheim,  Mason Daryl Lev, Cara Tougas

SDSU TYA Peter Pan production was underwritten in part by contributions from Mr. John M. Brown.

Thanks to SDSU Film Department, Peter Barnett (Accent Coach), Peter Larlham (Voice and Accents), Eric Keledjian (Poster Design), Daniel Larlham (Contact Improvisation), Randi McKenzie (Sword Fighting), Tim Powell (Televised Filming), Zo Vallejo-Bryant (Combat), Joel Zwink (Photography).

PROGRAM NOTES:

Forever Growing Up

The novel Peter Pan and Wendy begins with “All children, except one, grow up.” Though children are the focus of the story, the inevitability of age and adulthood is always present. Peter Pan was created during a time when viewpoints on children had changed; no longer was the child a small adult, but rather, children were a separate entity from adults and viewed as having their own personalities and needs. Education was becoming a right for everyone, not just the elite, and the emergence of art intended solely for children was a recent phenomenon. The separation of childhood from adulthood often left adults feeling nostalgic for a time that they could seemingly never recover. Certain works such as Peter Pan bridged the interests of adults and children alike. Peter Pan appealed to children for the carefree, lighthearted fun and adventure possible in childhood and resonated with adults for the ability it gave them to live vicariously through children’s adventures while also exploring a sense of time and death. Peter Pan chooses never to grow up, preferring instead to have adventures, play forever, and live free from any adult or authority ruling over him. He lives in the rather dangerous Neverland, alongside vain mermaids, fairies, pirates, and braves who, in our production, live in-between childhood and adulthood and narrate our story. Peter’s own crew, the lost boys, consist of children who fell out of their prams as babies, were overlooked by negligent nannies, and became “lost,” or dead, from the cold nights. Though Peter has trouble differentiating reality from fantasy and believes that everything is a game, death is a real consequence in Neverland, just as in our world. When Peter loses his shadow after sneaking into the nursery of the Darling home, he returns one night to retrieve it. Wendy awakes, and Peter expresses his desire for her to come to Neverland and be/play the lost boys’ mother. While cleaning, cooking, and caring for the boys are all part of Wendy’s playing mother, the most important element is telling stories. Peter, the lost boys, and Wendy’s two younger brothers all love a good story, yet cannot construct their own despite all their adventures on Neverland. Peter and the lost boys have trouble with memory as ending adventures crowed out the memories of experiences. Time, remembered and forgotten, is essential throughout Neverland. It is a place of continual activity, yet there are reminders that time will run out, even in this fantasy space. The ticking alarm clock that the crocodile swallowed both warns Hook of the crocodile’s presence but also haunts him; Hook knows that once the clock stops ticking, his own time is up because he will be unable to detect the crocodile approaching. The lost boys have forgotten most of their time lived in London. Even Wendy and her brothers begin to forget their own parents and life in London, at which point Wendy decides that memory, progress, and aging are better than forgetfulness and the illusion of everlasting adventures. Just as Peter Pan is about having a sense of adventure and embracing childhood, so too is it a story about growing up. —Erica Paulson, Dramaturg For more information about Peter Pan and Wendy, please visit http://sdsupeterpan.wordpress.com/ Director’s Note “Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her children’s minds. It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can’t) you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it very interesting to watch her. It is quite like tidying up drawers… I don’t know whether you have ever seen a map of a person’s mind. Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a child’s mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time. There are zigzag lines on it, just like your temperature on a card, and these are probably roads in the island, for the Neverland is always more or less an island, with astonishing splashes of colour here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves through which a river runs, and princes with six elder brothers, and a hut fast going to decay, and one very small old lady with a hooked nose.” (J.M. Barrie) I don’t have a hooked nose but from the vantage of a home just above the ground (which is how I see theatre) and together with the fresh energy and inventiveness of all involved (see program credits) the zigzag lines of Neverland have led us all to…wait… where am I…where did they go? —Margaret Larlham