The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.
- Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie
Welcome to Neverland- a fantastical island that children can reach through their imagination! In our Neverland, you will find 180 Mechina- through Eighth graders on-stage and behind the scenes, leaping, dancing, flying, and singing out loud.
Producing Peter Pan, JR. this year as the school’s musical is of particular “note”, as we turn the page and write a new chapter in the canon of Davis musical stories we tell and “fly” collectively into our new theatre.
J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, written in the form of a 1904 play and a 1911 novel is a timeless classic, which never grows old for its audience. It has been adapted over 100 times into plays, musicals, movies, ballets, and made-for TV specials. Peter Pan is a universally beloved story by children and adults of all ages with its hope, wonder, adventure, exploration of the magic of childhood and bittersweet journey of growing up.
Peter Pan poses innumerable profound questions such as: What does it mean to grow up? Who or what defines us? What does it mean to “be an adult”? Is an active imagination “childish”? If so, why? What does it mean to be “young at heart”? What does it mean to believe and have faith? If you believe you can fly, you can, right? As we grow older, what happens to the “Neverland” that exists in all of our imaginations as children, the Neverland to which we went every day to play thinking everything was possible as we built worlds of wonder? Can we still find and visit our individual Neverlands any time we wish? I say “Yes!” In the words of Peter, “all it takes is faith, hope and pixie dust" and “we can fly” there any time we want.
Our production of Peter Pan JR. is adapted from Disney’s 1953 animated Peter Pan. Peter Pan’s journey takes place in twilight and in the beautiful state of dreaming. Told through Wendy’s imagination, Peter Pan JR. is a story for dreamers and by dreamers. While Peter Pan is the main character of our story, it is through Wendy’s vivid imagination and storytelling that we learn about Neverland as well as ourselves, our families, and the world around us.
An active imagination is a sign of a creative mind and creative minds are the resources of the future- the innovators, inventors, problem solvers, artists, entrepreneurs, and leaders. Imaginative minds shape the world by creating what has yet to be experienced, built, held, heard, tasted or seen.
This production is for every dreamer with an active imagination and stories to tell. Those creative individuals with ambitious visions and passionate ideas who look at life not as a page already writ or stage already designed, but look at life as a blank canvas with multitudinous possibilities. An active imagination and an eternal young mind is always beginning, forever learning, and delighted by what lies ahead.
