About Peter and the Starcatcher
Production of
PETER AND THE STARCATCHER
A Play by Rick Elice
Based on the Novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Music by Wayne Barker
Originally produced on Broadway by Nancy Nagel Gibbs, Greg Shaffert, Eva Price, Tom Smedes, and Disney Theatrical Productions.
Scenes:
Act I
P. A BARE STAGE
- THE NEVERLAND - ON DECK
- MOLLY'S CABIN
- BOWELS OF THE SHIP
- BILGE DUNGEON
- THE WASP - CAPTAIN'S CABIN
- THE NEVERLAND - PASSAGEWAY
- THE WASP - CAPTAIN'S CABIN
- THE NEVERLAND - BILGE DUNGEON
- THE NEVERLAND - ON DECK
- THE NEVERLAND AND THE WASP
Act II
P. MOLLUSK ISLAND - SHORE
- MOUNTAINTOP, MOLLUSK ISLAND
- JUNGLE
- MOLLUSK TERRITORY
- MR. GRIN’S CAGE
- BEACH
- JUNGLE’S EDGE
- UP THE MOUNTAIN
- GROTTO
- MOUNTAINTOP
- BEACH
- THE END
Characters:
THE ORPHANS
Boy (Peter): A boy who doesn't miss much. Nameless, homeless, and friendless at the beginning of the play and a hero by the end. A survivor. More than anything the world, he wants a home and a family. If he could grow up, he'd fall for Molly in a big way. But it'll never happen.
Prentiss: Ambitious, hyper-articulate, logical; yearns to be a leader, even as he knows in his heart that he never shall be one. A bit of a blowhard with just the teeny-tiniest touch of cowardice.
Ted: Obsessed with food: the eating of, the fighting over, the dreaming about. A natural actor, an easy wit, perhaps a future poet. Called "Tubby" by Prentiss, though not due to girth, of which orphans, given their meager diets, have very little indeed.
THE BRITISH SUBJECTS
Lord Leonard Aster: The very model of a Victorian English gentleman, loyal subject to the Queen, devoted father, faithful friend. Also, and not irrelevant to our story, Lord Aster is a Starcatcher - dedicated to protecting the Earth and all who dwell thereon from the awesome power of starstuff.
Molly Aster: A true leader at a time when girls are mostly followers. Will risk everything for the sake of Doing Right. Curious, intelligent, beginning to feel things she doesn't yet understand - romantic longings that revert to childish tantrums under pressure - because, after all, she's a thirteen-year-old kid. She'll be a great woman one day.
Mrs. Bumbrake: Molly's nanny. British to the bone. Still has enough of her girlish charm to turn a sailor's head and leaven his dreams. Stiff in the lip, loose in the hip, fun on a ship.
Captain Robert Falcon Scott: Captain of the Britain's fastest frigate, the Wasp. Years later, he would lead an expeditionary team to the South Pole, freeze to death, and become the iconic British hero, Scott of the Antarctic.
Grempkin: The mean and malodorous schoolmaster of St. Norbert's Orphanage for Lost Boys. Likes to keep his boys in the dark, as sunlight is known to feed rebellious notions, and on account of the preference in certain quarters for lads that are white and pasty.
THE SEAFARERS
Bill Slank: The Neverland ‘s vicious captain, without the skill or quality to lead anyone but himself - and always into disaster. A greedy fool who’d sell his own mother for a ship to command and send boys to their doom for the favor of those who would use starstuff for personal gain, global domination, or worse. An orphan, too.
Alf. An old sea dog. Something about him appeals to the feminine sensibility - might be his bow legs, his saucy gait, or his kind heart.
Mack: A very bad sailor who wants to be anywhere but under the thumb of Bill Slank.
Black Stache: Long after everyone else got out of the pirate business, Black Stache continues to terrorize the seven seas in search of a hero worthy of his villainy. Famous for his face foliage, he started shaving at age ten, had a bushy handlebar by eleven, and the blood of twenty crews on his hands by twelve. Heartless, suspiciously well read, partial to the poetical and theatrical, and given to a ferocity from which no good shall ever spring.
Smee: First mate to Black Stache. Single-mindedly dedicated to his captain's every whim. His motto: "Tis good to be busy."
Sanchez: A hard-working Spanish pirate with an identity crisis.
THE NATIVES
Fighting Prawn: King of the Mollusks, son of Jumbo Prawn and Littleneck Clam. Kidnapped by British sailors and brought in chains to England, he served as sous-chef in a country estate in Derbyshire, where, for no good reason, he learned Italian wines and mastered Italian cuisine. Since returning to his island kingdom, he vengefully murders any English with the temerity to land on his Mollusk Isle domain.
Hawking Clam: Son of Fighting Prawn and Sweet'n'sour Shrimp. One day, he will ascend the Clam throne as head of the Royal Clam Clan.
Teacher: Formerly a salmon; now an ancient, knowledgeable mermaid.
PETER AND THE STARCATCHER
Is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.mtishows.com
Any video and/or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.
About Rick Elice:
Broadway: The Cher Show, Peter and the Starcatcher, Jersey Boys (with Marshall Brickman, Bob Gaudio, Bob Crewe; directed by Des McAnuff:Tony Award, Best Musical); The Addams Family (with Marshall Brickman, Andrew Lippa; directed by Jerry Zaks). Regional: Turn of the Century (with Marshall Brickman; directed by Tommy Tune); Double Double (directed by Roger Rees); Dog and Pony (with Michael Patrick Walker); Studio 54 (with Stephen Trask, Peter Yanowitz; directed by Christopher Ashley). His book Finding Roger, An Improbably Theatrical Love Story is published by Kingswell.
About Wayne Barker:
2011 Drama Desk Award for Peter and the Starcatcher. B'way: Dame Edna: Back With a Vengeance (composer, co-lyricist with Barry Humphries). Reg'l: The Great Gatsby (Guthrie), Twelfth Night and The Three Musketeers (Seattle Rep). TV: "A LIttle Curious." Other: Mark Bennett's A Midsummer Night's Dream (orchestrations). Chicago City Limits, the Raymond Scott Orchestrette, orchestras worldwide. Upcoming: I Heart Bob. Dramatists Guild: artistic associate for new musicals at NYTW.
More about Peter and the Starcatcher from MTI:
Tony-winning Peter and the Starcatcher upends the century-old story of how a miserable orphan comes to be The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up (a.k.a. Peter Pan). A wildly theatrical adaptation of Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson’s best-selling novels, the play was conceived for the stage by directors, Roger Rees and Alex Timbers, and written by Rick Elice, with music by Wayne Barker. From marauding pirates and jungle tyrants to unwilling comrades and unlikely heroes, Peter and the Starcatcher playfully explores the depths of greed and despair... and the bonds of friendship, duty and love.
A young orphan and his mates are shipped off from Victorian England to a distant island ruled by the evil King Zarboff. They know nothing of the mysterious trunk in the captain’s cabin, which contains a precious, otherworldly cargo. At sea, the boys are discovered by a precocious young girl named Molly, a Starcatcher-in-training who realizes that the trunk’s precious cargo is starstuff, a celestial substance so powerful that it must never fall into the wrong hands. When the ship is taken over by pirates – led by the fearsome Black Stache, a villain determined to claim the trunk and its treasure for his own – the journey quickly becomes a thrilling adventure.
Featuring a dozen actors portraying more than 100 unforgettable characters, Peter and the Starcatcher uses ingenious stagecraft and the limitless possibilities of imagination to bring the story to life. It can be expanded or pared down technically to fit the specific needs and abilities of any theatre company.
The King's Academy
The King's Academy is a Christian School in Jonesboro. At this school students don't just learn things they need for their futures. They have an opportunity to encounter God every day in so many ways, such as chapels. It is a great community where teachers are very invested in the students' lives and their well being. At this school you will also find many students that care deeply for one another.