Spokane Civic Theatre is beginning its jam-packed 2026-27 season with one of the most meta plays produced in the last decade and a half: Peter Pan Goes Wrong.

From Sept. 25 to Oct. 18, a cast of actors chosen by the Civic will depict a cast of actors chosen by the Cornley Drama Society attempting to stage Peter Pan, but who continue to fail miserably. And with each disastrous misstep, the audience will begin to wonder if the show really must go on.

Executive Director Jake Schaefer says the production is one of the most technical that’s come to the Spokane theater in recent years. To understand the work it takes to bring this comedic calamity to life, we spoke with those working behind the scenes to make sure the play goes off with a hitch.

JAMIE SUTER, COSTUME SHOP MANAGER & DESIGNER

In 2018, Jamie Suter moved to Spokane with her husband and daughter and began working at the Civic as a costume designer. A graduate of Marymount Manhattan College, Suter utilizes her design and technical production degree to ensure cast members each season look their best.

“The pressure of the job, I think, is that you have to be creative on demand, and that’s not always very easy to do,” Suter says. “The show is going to go on, so I better come up with something on the fly.”

While characters like Peter Pan or Willy Wonka are generally going to look the same from production to production, Suter says she avoids copying costumes from the original productions of Civic shows. To do that, she reads each script twice.

“I think it’s really important to get a feel for the play as a whole. Then what I’ll do is I’ll read through the play again, and I’ll look at all of the technical elements, which for the Peter Pan Goes Wrong specifically is a lot of stage direction,” she explains. “They’re pretty much guiding you as to what is actually going to go wrong. So I’ll take that into consideration as well as entrances, exits, who the characters are playing, who they have to be dressed as at any given time, and I highlight all that.”

Once she’s got an idea of what’s needed for each show, Suter gets to work. Up above the theater, the costume department is overflowing. Racks and racks of costumes and stacks of organized fabric are framed by more intricate statement hats hung on the walls than one can even imagine. With a shoestring budget, she says she tries to make everything in house or thrift options that can be reused later.

While Suter doesn’t want to spoil any of the costume gags in the show, she had to take those disastrous scenes into account. For example, one scene that was later cut would have involved a character’s sleeve catching on fire.

“I certainly don’t have as many challenges as the set department does,” she says, “but I have a lot of quick changes and sight gags that’ll be incorporated.”

ADAM SNOW, STAGE MANAGER

Unlike Suter’s work, which can be seen in final form on stage, a stage manager’s work at its best is completely invisible to the audience. But for the cast, the position is vital.

“The biggest compliments I can hear are ‘You made our hell week doable,’ and ‘I felt safe and comfortable to work on your show without issues,’” says Stage Manager Adam Snow. “At the end of the process, if all of the actors are ‘This has been amazing,’ that’s how I know I’m doing a good job.”

Peter Pan Goes Wrong is the sixth show Snow has managed at the Civic. When I meet Snow at the theater three weeks before the show’s Sept. 25 premiere, he’s sitting beside four binders filled to the brim with every detail of the production. There’s the blocking and the line notes and cues for sounds, lights and tech, all of which Snow is responsible for taking care of and disseminating to actors.

“Really, the role of a stage manager during the rehearsal process is to make sure everything runs smoothly,” he says.

That includes ensuring actors take their breaks and that any mental or physical health issues are handled with care.

For the upcoming show, Snow has also employed a consent-forward coordinator — commonly referred to as intimacy coordinators — for the cast.

“They come in and say, ‘OK, how would you feel about so-and-so putting their hand here? How about putting pressure here? Would you like the pressure to be one to five? How much pressure would you like?’ That’s kind of the process of it,” he explains. “I feel so passionately about intimacy and consent-forward coordination because it just completely changes the experience for everyone involved.”

Normally, if the show runs smoothly and actors are happy, Snow knows he’s succeeded. But for Peter Pan Goes Wrong, the more mayhem the better.

“This is a really unique show; it’s fun for the whole family,” he says. “And it’s not a musical, which I love as the season opener, because we haven’t done a non-musical opener in like five years.”

 

Peter Pan Goes Wrong • Sept. 25-Oct. 18; Thu-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm, Sat Oct. 3 and 17 at 2 pm only • $20-$47 • Spokane Civic Theatre • 1020 N Howard St. • spokanecivictheatre.com • 509-325-2507