A note from Director, Shannon Mitchell:
Helping to create "Peter Pan - The Musical" on our stage has been one of the most rewarding, challenging and memorable experiences of my life. Having been in a community theater production of "Peter Pan" when I was young, this production has been near and dear to my heart and as a part of the Marshalltown Community Theatre board, I know we were humbled and honored when the Martha-Ellen Tye Foundation agreed to help fund the production. We are so excited to be able to fly Peter Pan and the kids on stage and provide a summer youth camp based on the musical. We hope you enjoy our finished creation today. Thank you for coming!
Behind the scenes... I cannot begin to express how honored I am to have worked with such a great group of people over the last few months. These 32 actors and 40+ back stage crew and musicians prove that Marshalltown grows "the cream of the crop" in talented, hardworking people! It's been a privilege to have worked with each of them - it truly does "take a village"!
I would be remiss, however, not to mention how important Rick Gooding and Kevin Lageschulte have been to ensuring the show's success. Many people and many hours went into this show... but these two theater veterans, leading by example, have been an inspiration to me and to everyone who has ever worked with them. I can't thank them enough for their vision, stick-to-itiveness, passion and hard work!
It has been my dream to help provide youth in our community the opportunity to learn about the magic of live theater and what goes on "behind the scenes" and thanks to "Peter Pan" and the Martha-Ellen Tye Foundation, this summer marks the first ever "Kids Acting Academy". With 72 kids slated to arrive on July 24th, we, as a board, are excited to continue to grow and expand our efforts in providing arts learning opportunities to our youth! We hope to continue to engage, educate and enterain our community for years to come!
And now on with the show... We all know the story of "Peter Pan", the story of a boy who wouldn't grow up. But the story is so much more than that. It's an adventure. It's the story of good being triumphant over evil, about how love is the most powerful weapon of all... and, most importantly, it reminds us to believe in magic once in a while too!
Written in 1954, the story may be aging, but the messages ring as clear today as ever!
Today, it doesn't matter what age you are...
Just sit back, relax and enjoy the show...It's time to believe in magic.
I DO BELIEVE. I DO BELIEVE. I hope you will too!
A note from Director, Rick Gooding:
When I saw "Peter Pan" as a child I was amazed and it became a favorite of mine. As I grew older and became involved in theater, I wanted to bring the show to our stage. I wouldn't attempt the show unless we could "fly" our actors professionally. The generous grant from the Martha-Ellen Tye Foundation made this possible. My thanks to them for believing in us and enabling us to bring this production to the Playhouse stage. This show required over seventy actors, technical crews, front of house people and musicians who have put in hundreds of volunteer hours. My thanks to all of them and especially my co-director, Shannon Mitchell, for her unwavering dedication to producing this show. We hope you'll "never grow up" and that you come fly with us to Neverland.
