Insights Study Guide (PDF)

Insights

A Study Guide to the Utah Shakespeare Festival

Peter and the Starcatcher

The articles in this study guide are not meant to mirror or interpret any productions at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. They are meant, instead, to be an educational jumping-off point to understanding and enjoying the plays (in any production at any theatre) a bit more thoroughly. Therefore the stories of the plays and the interpretative articles (and even characters, at times) may differ dramatically from what is ultimately produced on the Festival’s stages. The Study Guide is published by the Utah Shakespeare Festival, 351 West Center Street; Cedar City, UT 84720. Bruce C. Lee, communications director and editor; Phil Hermansen, art director. Copyright © 2008, Utah Shakespeare Festival. Please feel free to download and print The Study Guide, as long as you do not remove any identifying mark of the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

For more information about Festival education programs: Utah Shakespeare Festival 351 West Center Street Cedar City, Utah 84720 435-586-7880 www.bard.org. Cover photo by Karl Hugh

Peter and the Starcatcher Contents Information on the Playwright

About the Playwright: Rick Elice

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Information on the Play

Synopsis 5 Characters 6

Scholarly Articles on the Play

Bat Out of Neverland: Growing Young with Peter and the Starcatcher 7

Utah Shakespeare Festival

351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880

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About the Playwright: Rick Elice

By Rachelle Hughes Rick Elice started attending the theatre when he was just three years old and his mother took him to see My Fair Lady. Elice was hooked. With such an early love of theatre, maybe he was destined to make it his life, maybe it was the encouragement he got from his parents to read, go to theatre and interact with the arts. Maybe it was both: destiny and environment. Whatever the causes, Elice, who was born November 17, 1956, is currently one of the theatre world’s bright stars as the playwright for Peter and the Starcatcher (2004) and the book writer for the musicals Jersey Boys and The Addams Family. While he has sometimes referred to his success as luck, Elice has earned his place in the limelight. From actor to advertising copy writer to choreographer and finally to playwright, he has had his hand in every stage of producing a successful theatre production. He is now a two-time Tony Award-winning playwright and book writer. In fact, his first venture into writing a book with Marshall Brickman for the musical Jersey Boys garnered him a Tony Award for best musical in 2006. Six years later, Peter and the Starcatcher received nine Tony Award nominations and then came away from the 2012 Tony Awards with five of those awards. Elice’s success in such a short time period seems staggering. Yet, it is important to remember he put in years of hard work behind those successes and a lifetime of dreams that led him to Broadway. At age nineteen Elice fulfilled his lifelong dream and began his work on the stage. After graduating from Cornell with a B.A., he was accepted to Yale Drama School where he earned his M.F.A. He was fortunate to get work on Broadway the day he graduated from Yale. His Broadway dream came true, and he found himself working on and off for different Broadway projects for the next thirty-three years. “May I never be so old or jaded that working on Broadway—my dream since I was knee-high to a showstopper—is less than thrilling,” Elice said in an interview on The Broadway Blog (http://www.broadwayblog.com). Elice has an impressive resume of theatre work. He wrote the popular thriller, Double Double with his partner Roger Rees (translated into sixteen languages), Leonardo’s Ring (London Fringe, 2003), and Dog and Pony (New York Stage and Film, 2003). From 1982 to 2000 he worked as the creative director at Serino Coyne Inc. where he produced ad campaigns for some 300 Broadway shows, from A Chorus Line to The Lion King. He served as a creative consultant for the Walt Disney Studio from 1999 to 2009. He pays homage to his theatre education as a Teaching Fellow, Harvard University and as a charter member, American Repertory Theatre. In 2003, he appeared off-Broadway in Elaine May’s comedy, Adult Entertainment. He wrote the book for The Addams Family Broadway musical which is now on national tour. His latest success Peter and the Starcatcher is a play with music adaption of the original novel Peter and the Starcatchers by authors Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and author of more than two dozen books, most recently I’ll Mature When I’m Dead. Along with Ridley Pearson, he is the co-author of Peter and the Starcatchers, Peter and the Shadow Thieves, Peter and the Secret of Rundoon, Peter and the Sword of Mercy, and Science Fair. Their newest collaboration is The Bridge to Never Land. Ridley Pearson co-author of Peter and the Starcatchers with Dave Barry, is the award-winning author of the Kingdom Keepers series. He is the recipient of the Raymond Chandler/Fulbright Fellowship in Detective Fiction at Oxford University. Ridley has also written more than twenty-five best-selling crime novels Rick Elice is quick to give credit where it is due. His opportunity to write the play Peter and the Starcatcher had a lot to do with being in the right place at the right time, with the right people.

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Roger Rees and Alex Timbers, the directors of the play were approached by Disney Theatrical Productions to develop a play based on the original novel that tells the story of how an orphan became Peter Pan. Rees and Timbers asked (as a favor) Elice to write up some workshop scenes for the original development of the play. Tom Shumacher from Disney and Dave Barry and Pearson loved the scenes and asked him to write the play. The rest is history. Never one to sit on his laurels, Rick Elice is working on several new projects already. He stays true to his personal mantra penned by Tom Stoppard for the play The Real Thing. “If you get the right words in the right order you can nudge the world,” as he mentioned in his interview on The Graham Show (http://www.thegrahamshow.com). In the future we should see a musical set in the time period towards the end of the era of Studio 54. He is working on that project with Stephen Trask, who wrote Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Peter Yanowitz, who is writing the score with Trask. He has also been working on a musical with Will Van Dyke about the first man who tried to climb Mount Everest, The Magnificent Climb. “Got to keep busy!” Elice told Garth Jonston in an interview on Gothamist (http://www. gothamist.com).

Synopsis

It is 1885 during the reign of Queen Victoria and two ships from the British Empire set sail on the high seas for the imaginary kingdom of Rundoon. On one ship, The Neverland, three orphan boys encounter a smart and witty girl named Molly Aster, the daughter of an English lord and minister to the queen. Also on board is a trunk full of precious starstuff that Molly has promised to protect. One of the orphans, known only as Boy, is bitter and unpleasant. Once he meets Molly, his lonely and miserable world is turned upside down. On the other ship, The Wasp, Molly’s father, the famous starcatcher Lord Aster, guards a decoy trunk from pirates who are in search of treasure. The pirate captain, Black Stache, discovers the ruse and goes after The Neverland. A violent storm ensues, and Molly and the orphans find themselves trying to save the valuable trunk from Black Stache, his men, and both of the ships’ crews. The Neverland is torn asunder in the storm. In the midst of all the upheaval, Boy meets Black Stache who gives him the name of Peter while trying to convince him to become a pirate. The trunk is almost in secure hands, when in order to save himself from drowning, Peter rides it through the waves to a nearby island. And the adventures have only begun! What becomes of Molly, Peter, and the other lost boys? Why is everyone after the starstuff and what does it do? Does anyone—or anything—ever stop Black Stache and the pirates? Discover more than ever about these classic characters you thought you knew.



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Characters

The Orphans Peter: A nameless, homeless, and friendless boy at the beginning of the play and a hero by the end, Peter is brave and competitive, a survivor, and someone the other boys come to look up to. More than anything in the world he wants a home and a family. He doesn’t trust adults and, thus, never wants to grow up to be one. If he could grow up, he’d fall for Molly. Prentiss: Ambitious, logical, and a little bit older than Peter, Prentiss wants to be the leader but he knows he will never be one. Ted: Called “Tubby” by Prentiss because of his obsession with food, Ted is the most talented of the boys, an easy wit, a natural actor. He is fed up with Prentiss, but hungry for companionship. The British Subjects Lord Leonard Aster: The very model of a Victorian English gentleman, Lord Aster is a loyal subject of the queen, devoted father, and faithful friend. Molly Aster: Thirteen-year old girl and a natural leader, Molly was raised to believe females can do anything males can. She is fearless, curious, passionate, and devoted to her father, her country, her Queen, and the cause of the Starcatchers. Mrs. Bumbrake: Molly’s nanny, Mrs. Bumbrake is British through and through, no-nonsense, and not afraid of anything; but she likes a good time. She still has girlish charm, even though she’s older. Captain Robert Falcon Scott: Commander of the fastest ship in Queen Victoria’s fleet, The Wasp, Captain Scott is an old schoolmate of Lord Aster. Grempkin: Mean and nasty, Grempkin is the schoolmaster from St. Norbert’s Orphanage for Lost Boys. The Seafarers Aboard The Wasp The Black Stache: A ruthless, heartless pirate captain who captures The Wasp, Black Stache started shaving at age ten. He is proud of his magnificent facial hair and is partial to the poetical and the theatrical. Smee: First mate to Black Stache, Smee is simple-minded and single-minded to his captain’s every whim. Sanchez: A hard-working Spanish pirate, Sanchez has an identity crisis. Aboard The Neverland Bill Slank: A vicious captain with no ability to lead his crew, Slank is also an orphan. He is cruel to Peter and the boys and would sell his own mother for a ship to command. Alf: An old seadog who is far more proud of his rank of “Mister” than he should be, Alf is always in search of a damsel, any damsel. Mack: A very bad sailor, Mack wants to be anywhere else but under Bill Slank’s command. The Mollusks Fighting Prawn: King of the Mollusk natives and the son of Jumbo Prawn and Littleneck

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Clam, Fighting Prawn is kidnapped by British sailors and brought in chains to England where he served as a sous-chef. Since returning to his island kingdom, he has vengefully murdered any English person who dared set foot on his island. Hawking Clam: Son of Fighting Prawn. Teacher: Formerly a salmon, Teacher is now an ancient, knowledgeable mermaid.

Bat Out of Neverland: Growing Young with Peter and the Starcatcher

By Ryan Paul In the preface of The Great Gatsby, Matthew Bruccoli writes, “A popular classroom fallacy holds that classics are universal and timeless. Literature has staying power, but it is subject to metamorphosis. Every reader’s response to a work of fiction is determined by his presuppositional bias, beliefs, experience, and knowledge.” That, of course, is academic jargon used to communicate the notion that as one matures, ages, or has more life experiences, one’s perspective changes. In other words, as we grow up, so do our ideas. In classrooms across the country, students are forced to read the works of Shakespeare, Fitzgerald, and Orwell without having experienced the worldliness to truly understand them. One of my favorite quotes comes from British historian C. V. Wedgewood; “History is lived forward but it is written in retrospect. We know the end before we consider the beginning and we can never recapture what it was to know the beginning only.” We all have the shared experience of reading or seeing something for the first time, thinking that we will never forget that moment of reading that last line or watching the final scene. When we, after later years, revisit the novels, films, and television of our youth, they often leave us wanting. After all, I remember being terrified of Fantasy Island and, now, not so much. It seems to be the great dichotomy of life that on one hand we cannot wait to grow up but when we do, we spend a good portion of our time trying to figure out how to be young again. One thing is certain: answers often come from growing up, from replacing the bliss of youthful ignorance with the often challenging nature of adult knowledge. Playwright Rick Elice thoughtfully comments: “When I was a boy, I wished I could fly, and the notion of being a boy forever was pure delight. No homework, no chores, no responsibility, no sorrow. Now that I’m in the middle of my life, I understand what I’d have missed had I never grown up, or fallen in love, or stood my ground, or lost a battle—or written a play.” This brings us to Peter and the Starcatcher, a play, with music, about a boy we all thought we knew in our youth, created by J. M. Barrie, canonized by Walt Disney, and brought to vivid life this summer by the Utah Shakespeare Festival. I think I am in good company; at least if you consider my cousin Trent, and Utah Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Brian Vaughn good company, in saying that one of my favorite rides at Disneyland is the Peter Pan ride. The concept is genius. You climb into a pirate ship and fly through the night sky passing various vignettes of Walt Disney’s take on Barrie’s classic story. This ride is the genesis of Peter and the Starcatcher. While waiting in line, writers Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson were asked by their young daughters



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“Where did Peter Pan come from?” The authors decided that they would create their own tale answering the most asked questions: How did Peter become Peter Pan? How did Peter learn to fly? How did Peter get to Neverland? How did Peter meet Captain Hook and Tinkerbell? Most importantly, how did Peter become a boy forever? Their book Peter and the Starcatchers became an instant bestseller and launched a series of additional works fleshing out more of the story. Inspired by the novel, playwright Rick Elice and directors Roger Rees and Alex Timbers teamed up to create a play based on the adventures of Peter, before he became the Pan. The play, Peter and the Starcatchers, was first workshopped in 2007 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in a staged reading, with a few props that helped the actors establish the varied locations presented by the script. It then moved to the Lo Jolla Playhouse, and then was further developed in a subsequent off-Broadway production. Now titled Peter and the Starcatcher, the play opened on Broadway in April of 2012. The play was nominated for nine Tony awards and brought home five. However, while all this was exciting, another important development in the play’s history was about to occur. In June of 2012 it was announced that the Utah Shakespeare Festival would celebrate the regional premiere of Peter and the Starcatcher in 2013. According to director Brian Vaughn, Peter and the Starcatcher will be an “imaginative story-driven piece that forces the audience members to use their own imagination to help propel the story.” The play features twelve actors and two musicians playing a variety of roles, including sailors, seamen, pirates, orphans, and mollusks. Vaughn recalls: “When I first saw [Peter and the Starcatcher] I was completely mesmerized—not only at the sheer theatricality of it, but at the heart of what the story is all about . . . believing in oneself. I have seen many productions of the Peter Pan story; however, this one, to me, was fresh, theatrical, innovative, and most importantly . . . heartfelt.” Above all, Peter and the Starcatcher is a story of adventure. The Randall L. Jones Theatre stage will be awash with pirates, sea captains, mermaids, savage natives, a very unusual island, and a strangely mysterious trunk. The plot of our story centers on this trunk and its magical treasure. “A treasure,” according to Vaughn, “that makes everybody believe they can become anything their true heart desires.” Throughout the years, the story of Peter Pan has been adapted from the page to the stage many times. From puppet shows to popular musicals, from Japanese anime to straight up dramatic performances, from feature films to cable television, and, my personal favorite, a 1975 Kennedy Center rock opera which became the basis for one of the great rock albums of the 1970s: Meatloaf ’s Bat Out of Hell. Barrie’s tale of the boy who can’t or won’t grow up has captivated our attention. The Utah Shakespeare Festival’s Peter and the Starcatcher is the culmination of all that is magic about Peter and his adventures. According to the Festival’s Media and Public Relations Manager Nikki Allen, “Our version of this awardwinning play celebrates the enchanting and imaginative nature of theatre while remaining true to the source material about a boy who never grows up. It will enlighten and inspire our audiences to recapture the magic of their own childhood and treasure their memories.” There are two things I know for certain: first Utah Shakespeare Festival’s regional premiere of Peter and the Starcatcher will be one for the history books. In fact I am confident that those people who miss this show will, as Shakespeare’s young Henry V eloquently stated, “think themselves accurs’d they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap ” (Henry V, 4.3.65–66) The second thing I know is that listening to Bat Out of Hell as you travel to the show may enhance your experience; however, you better keep your windows rolled up as Meatloaf, like Captain Hook, likes his words to be heard.

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