Fly away to Neverland with Peter Pan at VCA

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Fly away to Neverland in the VCA Musical Theatre production of “Peter Pan, Jr.” this weekend. The magic fairy dust that enabled Wendy, John and Michael Darling to fly off with Peter Pan and Tinker Bell to the island of the lost boys will be sprinkled on the stage of the Kay White Hall.

With a cast of 44 students, ages 7 to 15, co-directors Chris Dawson and Marita Ericksen used scripts from Musical Theatre International that modify Broadway hit musicals for youth productions.

In this case, “Peter Pan” becomes “Peter Pan, Jr.,” with a shortened show, adapted scripts and adjusted keys of songs for the younger actors.

“The plot, story line and characters are all there,” Ericksen said, “but the show essentially comes as a kit, and the kids get to keep their scripts. It’s a nice format for everybody, less costly.”

Ericksen said that while she directed the music from “behind the piano,” and Dawson directed the students on stage, her daughter Erika choreographed the dancing, created the costumes, was stage manager and rehearsal assistant.

“We couldn’t have done it without her,” Ericksen said.

Island artist Will Forrester and some of the cast members painted the backdrop. As for how to create the illusion of flying, one of the cast members, 11-year-old Richard Barrett-Wood, created the flying scenes with a little help from his dad, Chris Barrett. They filmed cast members in front of a green screen, then included a moving night sky background in the editing process.

Cast members include Orion Moss as Peter Pan, Mary Rose Krouse as Wendy, Gabriel Dawson as Captain Hook, Cypress Sechrist as Tiger Lily and Olivia Sherman as Tinker Bell.

An open dress rehearsal will be held on Thursday featuring the understudies. Morgan Sennett will play Peter Pan, Zoe Wilson will be Wendy and Stevie Ray will be Tiger Lily.

Tickets are sold at Heron’s Nest, VCA and vashoncenterforthearts.org.

— Juli Goetz Morser