The award-winning theatre program at Hillcrest High School is busy preparing for their next large production: “Wendy and Peter Pan” by Ella Hickson. It is set to run from November 13 through 17. The modern adaptation of the classic story has piqued the interest of the student body. This year, a staggering 150 students entered Neverland as pirates, lost boys, and shadows, making this Hillcrest’s largest non-musical play.
The huge ensemble is a key component in what makes this play unique. The different ensemble groups allow for students to gain unique perspectives and specialized skills. Two of those groups, Swashbuckler Pirates and Lost Boys, have begun their combat training. Here, they do intensive physical warm-ups and work on their fight choreography.
“I’ve learned how to fall safely,” Amaih Rogers says. Rogers is playing a Swashbuckler in the play. “I’ve also learned how to wrestle, swordfight, and make fake punches look real.”
Not everyone in this play is throwing punches and swinging swords, however. Many of the students are portraying the magical and elusive shadows. “We get to reflect what Grant, who plays Peter, is doing,” Joslyn Shewy, a shadow, says when describing rehearsals. “A lot of the time we’ll figure out some physical theater problems in relation to flight. I’m not sure I have the liberty to say too much because the director wants to keep it a bit of a secret, but there’s going to be some cool stuff happening.”
Along with using physicality to create magic, students have to use their imagination. Much of the ensemble is required to create their own character and backstory for the play. “Every rehearsal we add a paragraph to our biographies. For most of them, we’ve been learning dancing, like Irish dancing. Last week, we did improv to flesh out our characters,” Mali Montague tells us. Montague is a ‘shipmate’ pirate.
But the actors aren’t the only busy ones. Stage crew has been putting a lot of effort into crafting the scenes of Neverland. Due to huge, moving pieces, the set for this play has been quite difficult
to create. However, the Hillcrest community has been working hard to tackle this challenge. “I’ve just been super excited working on this,” stage crew member Elise Perry says . “We have a
few kids welding bed frames, hidden vines being built into this Nursery set, and a whole other team starting to create the pirate ship.”
You can be part of making the magic, too, Parry offers. “If someone is wanting to come and help out, or wants to use a multitude of tools and to try building, I would talk to Ms. Gremmert and get the build dates. It’s super fun, and we love having any helper. Everyone’s welcome to come, and we’ll have people there to help you figure out what to do.”
The work of hundreds of people is going into this play. Hillcrest is expecting a large, all ages turnout as audiences for this family-friendly show. “This play is so, so much fun,” Shewy says. “It’s like Peter Pan, but even better, if I do say so myself. This show is going to be absolutely amazing.”