Anyone who’s worked on a play before has had the nightmare about a performance where everything comes off the rails. However, in this case, it’s all part of the script.
This weekend, farce meets the fantastical as “Peter Pan Goes Wrong” opens at the Spokane Civic Theatre.
Co-directed by Karlin Kahler and Bryan Durbin, the show written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayers and Henry Shields opens Friday on the Margot and Robert Ogden Main Stage and runs through Oct. 18.
For Durbin, their mission with this show is to ensure that audiences go home with “sore sides and bellies” from laughing.
The show, as its name implies, is a play within a play. Because J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan” is such a well-known classic, the audience can anticipate what plot points are supposed to be occurring as the story veers further and further from its intended trajectory.
“Some of my favorite moments in the show are when what’s going on in the actor’s character’s life is also being played out through their action and dialogue in ‘Peter Pan’ as they’re putting it on,” Kahler said.
Layering in the chaos alongside some shining moments of the iconic children’s story has been a lesson in authentic storytelling.
“The biggest obstacle is truly trying to put on a show within a show within a show. … We’re making sure that the something that goes wrong, goes wrong safely and by pure happenstance,” Durbin said.
The play is also first and foremost an ensemble piece.
“There are times in the script where it says they’re doing a good job and those are some of the best moments because they have to snap back into it, but all of this is really happening to the characters who are the actors,” Kahler said.
As mishaps and injuries happen to actor characters, there are often replacements that must step up in the moment in order to make the show go on, one way or another.
Some of those stories may even lead to revelations for the characters.
“Sarah, who plays Sandra, who plays Wendy, has three Peters that she’s working with and she has to keep rolling with it in the way that Wendy feels the same about all of them even though Sandra feels different about them,” Kahler said.
While taking on the part of Annie in this production, Desirae West also managed to add some unexpected skills along the process to her repertoire.
“I am expanding myself in ways I wasn’t expecting to do in the same show,” West said. “I am being trusted to have my own composition for ‘Mary’s Lullaby.’ I would never have imagined at this point that I would have my own song on this stage.”
She also suggested doing American Sign Language for some of Tinkerbell’s moments, and to her surprise, the directors said to go for it.
“It’s been really special to have license over my character and be trusted with all of this stuff,” West said. “I’m completely submerged.”
But while West is delving into the many layers within her character, Mitch Heid is taking to the air as Jonathan, who is playing Peter Pan.
“When you fly high enough to where you are out of view of the audience, it does feel like bravery, especially when your life is in the hands of a lovely fly operator named Doug. Doug, my life is tied to you, my friend,” Heid said.
Although the flight as Peter Pan is a new theatrical experience for Heid, having done ziplining and rock-climbing before, the sensation of being in a harness up above was at least somewhat familiar.
Flight choreography is key for Jonathan throughout the show to varying degrees of success.
“It is as fun as it looks,” Heid said.
Smacking into the set or reacting to when a swing carries him further than expected adds yet another layer to the performance.
“You have to play the character playing it, then you’re also yourself and that is even further compounded when you are in the air not in control of all of your movements,” Heid said. “How would Jonathan react to that and then try to keep his composure playing Peter? For an acting nerd like me, it’s a very fun challenge.”
Kahler noted that the heightened errors which keep piling up throughout the show all come from reality, although the odds of all of them converging in one show are ridiculously unlikely.
“Everything that happens in this show comes from somebody’s real experience of a real thing that went wrong with a show, it’s just the magic of live theater in how when things do go right, it’s tremendous,” Kahler said.
For her, the scariest thing that went wrong was as a tech hand when she watched a pillar that was part of a set come loose in a production and her younger sister struggled to hold it up alone as everyone sprinted backstage to assist her.
In Durbin’s case, a real sail being used as part of a set got stuck right before intermission simultaneously as a circuit blew, and the orchestra’s music stand lights went out including the conductor’s. All of this happened, of course, just before the curtain needed to close at intermission.
“It finally comes loose and we’re sweating and covered with dust and one of the directors was sitting in the front row and saw everything,” Durbin said.
Above all, the show must go on, and the directors hope the hard work and joy behind the theatrical shenanigans of “Peter Pan Goes Wrong” comes through.
“We have done all of this very technical stuff very thoughtfully and very safely,” Kahler said. “Even though it’s all going wrong, it’s all going right, it’s okay. They shouldn’t fear for the actors’ lives, this is why we rehearse.”
The cast includes: Craig Hirt, Keith Edie, Gary Pierce, Sarah Plumb, John Chapdelaine, Desirae West, Ryan Wasson, Jeff Bryan, Mitch Heid, Heather Stephens, Hannah Kephart and Jordan Baird.
If You Go
‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’
When: Friday-Oct. 18; shows are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2 p.m. Sundays; Saturday performances at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Oct. 10; 2 p.m. Oct. 3 and 17.
Where: Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St.
Cost: $20-46.50, available at spokanecivictheatre.com or 509-325-250.
Read the full article here
Article by Carolyn Bostick
Photo by Adam Snow