Living in Neverland

 

My title to this blog post really says it all. For the past four months my family and the 35 kids in the picture above have lived, eaten, and breathed the show Peter Pan Jr.  This is truly the best group of kids. I will miss them terribly over the summer break.

 

 

We worked together one day a week for 1 hour and 15 minutes until we got closer to performances dates and then amped it up to a few three hours practices. What they were able to create was really breathtaking. It is always so much fun to watch the students blossom into their characters and see the creation of a story take place on stage for the audience.

 

As always we will be singing the songs for a couple of weeks until the they start to fade away and different lines will be brought up for appropriate situations. (We still do this with all the plays from the past)

 

I try  to let the kids be a part of the process of producing a show as much as possible. This go around students helped with backstage and setting scenes, lighting, construction and deconstruction of the stage, painting the backdrop, and creating props.

 

I also have a lot of help. Women and men that devote countless hours to sound, lighting, stage construction, advice, sewing costumes, selling concessions, videography, photography, and so much more. We even had edible pixie dust for sale.

 

I love watching these kids grow up and go from extras and smaller parts into leading roles. I had a handful of newbies this semester that had never performed in their lives on stage and I am so proud of what they were able to accomplish.

 

I will be so sad when a few age out of the program this year and next year.

 

Our Cooperative continues to grow and bring so many wonderful families!

 

Peter Pan Jr. was so much fun to direct and perform!

 

 

 

Two performances just didn't seem like it was enough!

 

This is one of my favorite pictures of the fairies so far!

 

Chief Tiger Bamboo in all his glory!

 

Thank you so much to all who were involved! I wish I could take credit for the above photos but one of the parents (Nerissa) was gracious enough to send me some and allow me to use them on the blog. You see it is quite hard for the director to take pictures during the performance. I am to focused on following along in the book to prompt actors if needed. Luckily no one needed prompting for either performance.