DIRECTOR’S NOTE:

According to Peter Pan the key to flying, besides pixie dust, is as simple as this: “You just think lovely wonderful thoughts…and they lift you up in the air.”  Think of chocolate cake, your favorite song, a cherished memory, and up you go. It sounds so simple. Just think lovely thoughts, and no matter how bleak or sad your reality, you can leave it all behind.

This past summer, I had the opportunity to visit the imperial war museum in London where I was inspired by the original play of PeterPan as well as the time period it was written. In this production we have set the Darlings home in that time period: World War I, London. Here, the Darlings house has become a Convalescent Hospital for the wounded. No darker time could need Peter Pan or imagination more, and it was this impending fear of war that led JM Barrie to Neverland.

Barrie penned Peter Pan after a summer of adventures with the five young Llewelyn Davies boys he had befriended in 1911; George, Nicholas, John, Michael and Peter. Unfortunately, all of these boys were eventually caught in the cross fire of growing up, and due to the great war, lost their ability to fly. JM Barrie outlived too many of them.

There is a catch to flying, Barrie’s book The Little White Bird explains, “the moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do

it. The reason birds can fly and we can’t is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.” So to fly, to be free, courageous and to have as grand adventures as Peter, we must soundly believe that nothing in the world can stop us. Today, we invite you to fly, to believe, to let your imagination soar, and to leave whatever worries, ailments and doubts firmly on the ground. Welcome to Neverland, it will always be here whenever you need it.

Click HERE to watch Carrie’s choreo in Blood Brothers.