US Theater director Eric Severson learned about Peter/Wendy through Maggie Vliestra (‘16) who was in a summer program production of it at Northwestern and her director was friends with the playwright. “The playwright came and talked to them, and she told me one of the big notes that the playwright gave to the cast was to “remember to talk to your audience like they are adults. This is not a kids show, per se. The story is something we all remember from our childhood but remember to treat your audience like the intelligent adults they are” and that has really stuck with me.”
“Peter/Wendy” offers a fresh, more chilling child’s story
The first and the longest of the five acts, “Peter/Wendy” was directed by Upper School Theater Director Eric Severson.
Written by Jeremy Bloom, “Peter/Wendy” is a darker version of the the fairy tale.
“[Peter/Wendy] is an adaptation taken from J. M. Barrie’s “Peter and Wendy” as well as “The White Bird.” It is a play on the Peter and Wendy story but Michael and John do not exist, and it is not your Disney Peter Pan,” Severson said.
“[Bloom] has tapped into more of the beauty and lyricism of Barrie’s storytelling,” he added.
The stage was lit with blue and black hues for the performance. The interactive set included windows and walls covered in happy thoughts written in chalk.
“There is a slightly darker edge to it,” Severson said.
“When you actually think about it, there is a boy that we do not really know how old he is because he never grows up […] and he shows up at a window to listen to stories and then lures a young woman away to be his mother.”
Severson learned about Peter/Wendy through Maggie Vliestra (‘16) who was in a summer program production of it at Northwestern and her director was friends with the playwright.
“The playwright came and talked to them, and she told me one of the big notes that the playwright gave to the cast was to ‘remember to talk to your audience like they are adults. This is not a kids show, per se. The story is something we all remember from our childhood but remember to treat your audience like the intelligent adults they are’ and that has really stuck with me,” Severson said.
Severson particularly enjoyed questioning how to make flying interesting and theatrical without truly flying the actors.
“Our first rehearsal was basically just that,” Severson said, “We played around with the childish thing where someone is lying on their back, we called it ‘supermanning’ and we built some rolling mini sawhorses, so we had some people dressed in black, pushing them so it is theatrical and it was really fun to play around [with].”