Peter pan the musical study guide

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PETER PAN;

THE MUSICAL

Study Guide

Introduction

The Theatre Institute at Sage (TIS) is under the umbrella of the Department of Arts and Letters (DAL) at Russell Sage College and is dedicated to providing quality live theatre and arts-in-education programming to Capital Region students, teachers and residents and enhancing the educations of Sage students by providing opportunities through involvement as support staff and student teachers

Programs include educational support services for TIS and DAL productions (such

as in-class preparations, teacher in-services and study guides), a Saturday Theatre Arts school, a Winter break Circus Skills camp, a Spring break Stage Combat camp, and two three-week summer camps; Summer On-Stage and Summer Shakespeare Institute

Theatre at Sage

The Theatre Institute at Sage represents a commitment by Russell Sage College to develop and continue to provide teachers, students and Capital Region residents with quality live theatre and arts-in education opportunities

Theatre Etiquette

Live theatre is an active and interactive experience

As members of the audience, you play an important part in the success of a

theatrical performance Please review the following theatre rules with your

students prior to your visit Food, drinks, candy and gum are not permitted in the

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theatre The Theatre at Sage is a nut-free zone Many children have severe life-threatening allergies; NO PEANUTS or NUT products may be brought to our

theatre No electronic devices are permitted in the theatre because they affect our sound system Photography, audio and video recording during a performance are prohibited Students are not permitted to leave the theatre unless they are accompanied by an adult

Theatre Is a Two-Way Exchange/ You are our partners

Actors are thrilled when the audience is engaged and responsive We want you to laugh, cheer, clap and really enjoy your time at the theatre However, please be considerate audience members Talking, whispering and excessive movement during a live performance is distracting for the actors, and disruptive for other audience members Enhance your visit by encouraging your students to look at different aspects of the production Before the show, identify tasks for your class Have one group of students look at the set, another listen for the music and sound-effects, a third watch the lighting and a fourth, the costumes Ask them to observe how details in the production elements help clarify the story of the play Compare notes after the show about what they observed Your students will be more informed and they’ll be surprised by how much they noticed

This Study Guide

This study guide has been prepared by the staff of the Theatre Institute at Sage to help you prepare your students to see the play and to work the performance into your curriculum In addition to background on the author, story and production history, we have identified activities and areas of curriculum that relate directly to

Peter Pan: the Musical Often activities will satisfy two or more of the NYS

Learning Standards For example, an improvisational activity can be used to

explore character relationships as preparation for a writing exercise, constructing

a model of the stage flight rigging can be used to explore technology, geometry and physics and a visual art activity can be used to identify community members

It is our objective to suggest ideas for the creative, intellectual, social, physical and emotional development of your students We believe that drama, music and dance activities are vital to a child’s development!

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Table of Contents

Introduction, Theatre at Sage, Theatre Etiquette 1

Novel and Character History, Production History 5

Biography and Historical Context

Tonya Moutray, PhD, Professor, Russell Sage College Dept of Arts and Letters

Barrie, author of Peter Pan, was one of ten children born to parents

Margaret and Alexander, in Kirriemuir, Scotland Barrie’s childhood was not an easy one; his brother David was tragically killed in an ice-skating accident the day before his fourteenth birthday, leaving his mother inconsolable; his father, a weaver, did not support Barrie’s desire to become a writer, although he supported his education Studying literature at the University of Edinburgh, Barrie began reviewing drama and was a full-time writer of fiction and short stories

by the 1890s Having no children of his own, Barrie befriended the

Llewelyn Davies family to whose five boys he dedicated Peter Pan, first staged in London in

1904 and New York City the next year A hit from the start, the play became the novel Peter and Wendy (1911) and a series of adaptations and spin-offs followed, including a silent film in 1924

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and Disney’s animated classic in 1953 In 1912, Barrie commissioned the design and surprise installation of a statue of Peter Pan, based on photographs of Michael Llewelyn Davies, the child whom Barrie associated most with the legendary

character However, the artist, Sir George Frampton, used

another child model and did not, according to Barrie,

capture the “devil” in Peter Pan Appearing magically on May

1st in Kensington Gardens, where Barrie had met the

children originally, the statue memorialized not only his

relationship with the Llewelyn Davies family, but also his

story’s hold over the public imagination Barrie published

the following announcement in the Times: "There is a

surprise in store for the children who go to Kensington

Gardens to feed the ducks in the Serpentine this morning

Down by the little bay on the south-western side of the tail

of the Serpentine they will find a May-day gift by Mr J.M

Barrie, a figure of Peter Pan blowing his pipe on the stump of

a tree, with fairies and mice and squirrels all around It is the

work of Sir George Frampton, and the bronze figure of the

boy who would never grow up is delightfully conceived."

Barrie was knighted into the Order of Merit in 1922 and

before his death, he bestowed the copyright of Peter Pan to

the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children

Historical and Literary Contexts

By the time the character Peter Pan appeared on stage, the British Empire had enabled many young men and some women to live far away from home The young man who bucks

convention, preferring the fantasy of life-long adventure to the pressures of conforming to British society, Peter Pan epitomizes male escapism in the twentieth century Just as reading adventure fiction was its own form of escape from the harsh realities of modern life, Peter’s refusal to grow up signals the allure of a life of care-free adventure to the drudgery of school, work, and family-life

The presence of the British in places such as China, Africa, and the Malaysian Archipelago also opened up limitless Neverlands, inspiring writers of fiction to explore the literary terrain of

adventure and travel From Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island to W Somerset

Maugham’s South Sea stories, adventure fiction was highly popular both before and after Peter Pan Beyond new settings, writers could also respond to current conflicts between local

populations and British colonials For example, Barrie’s work was written during the Boer Wars

in South Africa, which involved British troops in a fight to suppress farmer’s revolts and to

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Illustration of Peter Pan playing the pipes, by F

D Bedford from Peter and Wendy (1911)

maintain control of the region That Peter cannot go home may reference the stark reality that many British youth did not return once they left Although colonial outposts could quickly become little “Britains,” accommodating mothers and wives in new and possibly dangerous locales was yet another concern in both fiction and life

Novel/Character History

The character of Peter Pan first appeared in 1902 in a section of The Little White Bird, a novel

written by J M Barrie for adults

The stage play Peter Pan also known as The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up debuted on December 27th 1904

The play was adapted and somewhat expanded as a novel which

was published in 1911 as Peter and Wendy (later as “Peter Pan and

Wendy", and still later as simply "Peter Pan")

Following the highly successful debut of the 1904 play, Barrie's

publishers, Hodder and Stoughton, extracted chapters 13–18 of The Little White Bird and republished them in 1906 under the title Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, with the addition of illustrations by

Arthur Rackham

Peter Pan has appeared in a number of adaptations, sequels, and

prequels since then, including the widely known 1953 animated feature film Walt Disney's Peter Pan There have been various stage musicals (including one by Jerome Robbins, starring Cyril Ritchard and Mary Martin, filmed for television) and multiple live-action feature films: Hook (1991) and Peter Pan (2003) In 2006 Peter Pan in Scarlet, an authorized sequel novel was

published; the character has also appeared in various works not authorized by the holders of the character's copyright, which has lapsed in most parts of the world

Production History

The play Peter Pan started out as skits acted out for (and with) the sons of Sylvia and Arthur

Llewelyn Davies, but turned into one of the most popular plays ever Barrie wrote the full-length play in reaction to the Davies children's reaction to a pantomime play Barrie figured it would be easy and profitable to write a similar play However, Barrie's script was originally rejected because it was so elaborate In 1904, plays generally did not involve flying and such frequent and major scene changes

With the confidence of producer and friend, Charles Frohman, Barrie put Peter Pan into

production Actress Nina Boucicault originated the role of Peter And as if having a 37-year-old

woman play a one-day-old boy was not unusual enough, the production of Peter Pan did not

follow a traditional path Barrie gave minimal character notes to actors, as well as only a few pages of script at a time He was a perfectionist as a director, often keeping cast and crew up

to 15-18 hours at a time Plus, the cast tended to find out about flying at the last minute

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Cover of 1915 edition of J M

Barrie 's novel, first published in

1911,

illustrated by F D Bedford

Maude Adams 1905 Mary Martin 1954 Sara Curtis Sage/2010

Photo Elivia Bovenzi

Despite elaborate technical requirements, unusual rehearsal process and absurd, fantastical

plot elements, Peter Pan was a success It swept England and then the United States in 1905,

with Maude Adams as the lead Adams would go on to play the role of Peter Pan until 1915 Oddly enough however, in all the seasons that Maude Adams played the role, Barrie never got the opportunity to see her perform as Peter

For nearly 70 years, the role of Peter Pan has been played by grown women Though some men and even boys have taken on the role in recent film versions, the memorable Peter Pans have always been women Pauline Chase was Barrie's favorite She played the role for nine straight seasons in London, from 1906-1914 Another actress who played Peter Pan for nine seasons in London was Jean Forbes-Robertson She played the part from 1927-1935, and again during the 1938-1939 season In London, the role would later be played by such actresses as Hayley Mills and Maggie Smith On Broadway, Peter Pan has been played by Maude Adams (1905-1915), Marilyn Miller (1924-1925), Eva La Gallienne (1928-1933), Anne Edgar (1946), Jean Arthur (1950-1951), Mary Martin (1954), Sandy Duncan (1979-1980) and most recently Cathy

Rigby (1990-1991) In addition, Peter Pan has been shown on television, been immortalized by Walt Disney as a cartoon film, and been made into two other movies: Peter Pan (1924) and Hook (1992)

History of Stage Flight

Flying by Foy/Peter Foy

While the history of theatrical flight dates back over two millennia, the art of stage flying took a quantum leap in 1950 with the arrival in America of the dashing young Englishman, Peter Foy,

to stage the flying for a Broadway production of Peter Pan, starring Jean Arthur and Boris Karloff Foy returned four years later to fly Mary Martin's Peter Pan when the musical version premiered on Broadway He developed a new system allowing Martin's soaring aerial

choreography to thrill audiences and this marked the beginning of a new era in stage flying Peter Foy's technical innovations soon established "Flying by Foy" as the standard of the

industry

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Photo Rebecca Barton Photo Tamara Hansen

For our production of Peter Pan, the actors are flown by ZFX Flying Effects

Themes

The value of childhood innocence

As children, our innocence allows us to imagine the unthinkable We can dream of being a magnificent painter, a most adored ballerina, a brave fireman, a life-saving doctor or a world-class singer unencumbered by the practical or the rational In our imaginations we are without limits Through the character of Peter Pan, J.M Barrie encourages us to retain those qualities of childhood that allow our imaginations to soar and to refuse to let anyone tell us that our

dreams are impossible!

The conflict between the innocence of childhood and the responsibility of

adulthood

Peter Pan refuses to grow up He also encourages the lost boys to stay forever children While Wendy, Michael and John are attracted to the irresponsibility of Neverland, they eventually realize the negative aspects of childhood chaos In the end, they and the lost boys chose the world of parents and responsibility

The conflict between the search for adventure and the desire for the stability of home

The attraction of adventure can be a tempting lure Wendy, Michael and John are drawn to the excitement of Neverland However, the children eventually long for the stability of home Even Peter, though committed to staying forever the adventurer, longs for the comfort of a mother’s love

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Synopsis

Peter Pan tells the story of Peter – a mischievous young boy who will never grow up, and the Darling children – a family of 3 children with riotous imaginations In the beginning of the play Peter sneaks into the Darling children’s nursery with his fairy sidekick Tinkerbell to hear the children’s mother tell them their bedtime stories He mistakenly leaves his shadow behind When he returns the next night to retrieve it he wakes the eldest sister Wendy and a great friendship is formed Peter tells Wendy about the magical island he is from, a place he calls Neverland, where children will never grow old He also tells her of the Lost Boys – forgotten children living in Neverland Wendy promises Peter that she will tell him and all of the Lost Boys many great stories if he will bring her and her brothers into Neverland with him Peter agrees but first must teach them all to fly Peter sprinkles all the children in fairy dust and tells them they must all “think happy thoughts” and soon they will be flying The act ends as Peter and the children fly off into the night on their way to Neverland

The second part of the play is filled with little boys, kindly Indians, fearsome pirates and their crazy adventures The Darling children arrive in Neverland just as a chase between the Indians and the pirates has concluded where in they learn of Captain Hook the leader of the pirates who is out to poison Peter Pan and all the Lost boys They also learn of Tiger Lilly the leader of the Indians – a wild, pirate hunting band of natives The Darling children fight

alongside Peter Pan and the Indians in many battles against the villainous pirates until one day the Darling boys become homesick and wish to return home Wendy agrees that she is

homesick too and the many Lost Boys become sad that they do not have parents Wendy offers for her mother and father to adopt all of them and they become very excited to travel to

London and meet their new parents After a final battle between the pirates and the children in which Peter defeats Hook, the Darlings return with all of the Lost Boys to their home where their parents are anxiously awaiting their return After many years, Peter returns to the

Darling’s nursery to see Wendy and is surprised to find that she is all grown up and has a

daughter of her own Wendy is too old to visit Neverland but her daughter, Jane, and Peter become fast friends and, as the play concludes, fly off to Neverland together

Characters

Peter Pan: A boy who does not want to grow up, who can fly

Tinker Bell: A fairy

The Darling Family, both generations

Wendy Moira Angela Darling: the eldest of the Darling children

John Darling: Wendy's younger brother

Michael Darling: Wendy's youngest brother

Mr George Darling: the father of the Darling family

Mrs Mary Darling: their mother

Nana: the dog/nurse

Liza: the family's maid

Jane: Wendy's daughter

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The Lost Boys of Neverland

Slightly Soiled

Tootles

Twin #1, Twin #2

Curly

Nibs

Tiger Lily, the princess of the Indian tribe

The Pirates

Captain Hook: Peter's nemesis

Smee: Hook's 1st Mate

Starkey

Bill Jukes

Cecco

Noodler

Mullins

Our Production

Director’s Statement/Michael Musial

When I was a kid, I remember watching the television and chancing upon an image of a boy chasing his shadow I became curious and sat through the entire movie From that moment on,

my relationship with the character of Peter Pan was never the same

Throughout the years, I found myself collecting Peter Pan memorabilia Family and friends would give me Peter Pan themed ornaments at Christmas time When I was in college I music directed “Peter Pan” and later attended a Shaw Festival production of the play that used grown men in ragged business suits as the “Lost Boys” and interpreted Peter as a grungy twenty-something searching for himself During a visit to London, where the whole story of the magical boy began, I marveled at and took pictures of the Big Ben clock tower imagining Peter Pan, Wendy, Michael and John flying around it

So what’s all the fuss about the “Boy Who Never Grew Up?” For

me, there’s something more than the flying, the stunning scenery, the clever Indians, the swashbuckling sword fights and the breath-taking flying scenes I think what makes an impact on me, as a Peter Pan fanatic, are the great lessons to be learned from his adventurous life, lessons that can teach us the power

of believing and imagination

Peter Pan strongly believes in dreams If we look past the curious tale and listen closely, he shows us how to reach them Compelling life lessons to take from his story include producing tangible and touchable results using child-like faith and imagination

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