Warrior Players open production of Peter Pan
Sprinkle your pixie dust and set your compass by a cast of local stars as the Warrior Players will be leading tour groups to Neverland in their production of Peter Pan opening this week.
The show will open nightly at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 27 through Saturday, April 29 with Sunday matinee at 3 p.m. April 30. General admission tickets are $10, students $5 and children ages two and under are free.
The play, directed by Jefferson County High School drama teacher Mary Beth Westbrook, features students from grades three through twelve, alumni of the program, a couple of teachers and a parent.
“This is not just a high school production. The Warrior Players are striving to bring drama to all age groups because we don’t have programs in the younger grades so incorporating them in the after-school program has been really important to me,” Westbrook said.
She believes it bodes well for the future of the school’s drama program that so many students from the middle and elementary schools have chosen to spend so much of their after-school time preparing for this production.
"It’s really hard to interest high schoolers in dressing up and getting on stage,” Westbrook said. “Many are too cool for school or think they’ve grown out of playing pretend. So, it’s important to reach them at younger ages when they’re not afraid to be crazy and still buy in to the magic of the theater. If they start young, they are more willing to carry on with it. In high school so many kids are forced to grow up too quickly and that’s another tie to the play itself.”
In this production, some of the younger actors are performing some of the primary roles.
“Michael is played by a fifth grader. John is a sixth grader. We double cast Wendy. One is a seventh grader and the other is a junior,” Westbrook said. “We have seniors playing Captain Hook and Smee.”
The two seniors, Savannah Davis and Matthew Cooper, have been performing in the program for the last four years. Cooper has taken on the roles of Humpty Dumpty in Wonderland, Mr. Beaver in Narnia, the chief of police in Clue and the Mayor of Munchkinland in Oz. Davis has been the Mad Hatter, Mrs. White and the White Witch.
“Savannah and Matthew really helped to build the program that we have today,” Westbrook said. “And as Hook (Davis) and Smee (Cooper), I can’t imagine anybody better in either of those parts.”
The title role, the Pan himself, is played this year by freshman Wil Krackel.
The story of Peter Pan, the Darling children, the Lost Boys and the Pirates, have always held a special place in Westbrook’s heart and she said that she is excited about bringing the magic of Neverland to Jefferson County High School’s theater.
“It has timeless themes,” she said. “There’s the level for children but it’s also all about the crocodile, the ticking time clock that’s coming after all of us. Neverland is a place you visit in your dreams, but it also signifies life after death. The magic of flying, the idea of never growing up, I think all of us have that inner child who loves the idea of never having the responsibilities of an adult.”
The production is not using flying rigs, Westbrook said, but instead she has been working with her students to creatively use other elements to invite the audience into the magic of the play’s setting.
“Come willing to be drawn into the world of Neverland,” she said. “We’ve worked really hard on set and costumes. The community showed out with our Adopt-A-Costume program. If anyone has ever loved any version of Neverland, the novel, the play, the musical, the movies, Hook, the Tinkerbell series, they’re going to love this production.”
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Warrior Players open production of Peter Pan
