Peter and the Starcatcher

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Peter and the Starcatcher

Theatre in the Grove, 2017

All children, except one, grow up.

But how did this one boy become the infamous Peter Pan? From marauding pirates and jungle tyrants to unwilling comrades and unlikely heroes, Peter and the Starcatcher playfully explores greed and despair, friendship and love.

For me, the lure of Peter and the Starcatcher was strong enough to delay a cross-country move several months. It’s just that good. The first time I saw it, I was as delighted as I had been watching Mary Martin sing and soar across the TV screen as a child. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to delve into the beauty and excitement of this piece myself.

My initial idea for staging this show was to create a playground atmosphere. Characters in the play double as narrators over the course of the evening and it drew me into the idea of children playing make-believe. A lot of the story revolves around dreams and aspirations and the fantastical elements of the show help bring those childhood moments to life. I chose to keep certain elements of the show a little less realistic to add to that feeling of playing pretend.

One of the central ideas of the show revolves around dreams. There is a wonderful parallel between our hero and our villain who both have grand aspirations for what their lives could be, only to find that they're more tangled up in one another's than they realized. The orphan just wants to be a boy for a while and live a life of normalcy while the pirate captain searches desperately to make his mark on a world that's long ago forgotten him. In the end, despite the former hate, hate, hating grown-ups and the latter hate, hate, hating children, they are absolutely made for one another.

Add to that a host of sailors, pirates, mermaids, and mollusks, and you can expect an exciting evening of buckled swashes and tickled ribs. With creativity infused into every corner, Peter and the Starcatcher is a thrilling adventure that explores the limitless possibilities of imagination.