A.R.T. Summer Guide, July - September 2014

FREE

guideamerican repertory theater | expanding the boundaries of theater

1415

July

– Septem

ber

Learning to Fly withMia Michaels

The Many Faces of Peter Pan

FindingNeverland

A New Musical

Open November 16

Experience the new Harvard Art Museums. Three extraordinary museums united under one glass roof.

harvardartmuseums.org

#OpenThisFall

1

americanrepertorytheater.org 2014/15 SEASONLO

EB

DR

AM

A C

EN

TE

R 6

4 B

rattLe

St., Ca

mb

ridg

e |

OB

ER

ON

2 A

rrow

St., Ca

mb

ridg

e

BOARD OF TRUSTEESSteve Johnson,

ChairmanAmy BrakemanLaurie BurtPaul ButtenwieserKevin Cole CostinRoAnn Costin Mike DreeseZita EzpeletaMichael FeinsteinProvost Alan M. GarberRebecca GraftsteinLori GrossAnn GundSarah HancockJonathan HulbertAlan K. JonesFumi MatsumotoThomas B. McGrathRebecca MilikowskyWard MooneyRobert MurchisonAndrew Ory

Diane PaulusWilliam RussoMike SheehanDiana Sorensen

BOARD OF ADVISORSRachael Goldfarb,

Co-ChairAnn Gund, Co-ChairFrances Shtull AdamsYuriko Jane AntonRobert Bowie, Jr.Philip Burling*Greg CarrAntonia Handler

Chayes*Lizabeth CohenKathleen ConnorRohit DeshpandeSusan Edgman-LevitanJill FopianoErin GilliganCandy Kosow Gold

Barbara Wallace Grossman

Horace H. Irvine IIEthan W. LasserDean Huntington

LambertEmma JohnsonTravis McCreadyKaren MuellerIrv PlotkinEllen Gordon ReevesPat Romeo-GilbertLinda U. SangerMaggie SeeligDina SelkoeJohn A. ShaneMichael ShinagelLisbeth TarlowSarasina TuchenStephen H. Zinner, M.D.

*Emeriti

FOUNDING DIRECTORRobert Brustein

A.R.T. BOARDS

CO

VE

R IM

AG

E: D

ETA

IL O

F S

CE

NIC

CO

LLA

GE

BY

SC

OT

T P

ASK

FO

R F

IND

ING

NE

VE

RLA

ND

Finding

Neverla

nd

Our 2014/15 Season features five world premiere productions that will give you the opportunity to be among the first to experience some of the most exciting new work in the country. From a family musical to an apocalyptic vaudeville to an opera set in a Civil War hospital, this season is one of our most ambitious yet, and I look forward to experiencing this diverse range of work on our stages with you.

I am thrilled to be directing the opening production of our season, Finding Neverland, a new musical inspired by the story of J. M. Barrie creating his beloved classic, Peter Pan. With music and lyrics by U.K. pop sensation Gary Barlow (Take That) and his longtime writing partner Eliot Kennedy, a book by British playwright James Graham, and choreography by Mia Michaels ("So You Think You Can Dance"), Finding Neverland has brought together an extraordinary group of artists from around the world. When Peter Pan was first performed in 1904, it was a daring theatrical experiment that featured pirates, flying, a crocodile, and a boy who wouldn’t grow up. The creative team of Finding Neverland has brought boundless imagination to our production, channeling J. M. Barrie and his gift for seeing the world through the eyes of a child.

Read on in this Guide for profiles of the artists, articles on J. M. Barrie and Peter Pan, and an essay by Harvard Professor, Maria Tatar, Chair of the Program in Folklore and Mythology and editor of The Annotated Peter Pan. Then flip this Guide over to read more about our winter productions: O.P.C. ("obsessive political correctness"), a wildly provocative new play by Eve Ensler; and The Light Princess, last season's popular holiday show.

Enjoy!

WELCOME TO THE AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATER

DIANE PAULUS, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

2

20

14

/1

5 S

EA

SON

61

7.5

47

.83

00

| a

me

ric

an

rep

ert

ory

the

ate

r.o

rgFi

ndin

g N

ever

land FINDING NEVERLAND

WORLD PREMIERE MUSICALJuly 23 - September 28, 2014Music & Lyrics by Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy | Book by James Graham

Directed by Diane Paulus | Choreography by Mia Michaels

Based on the Miramax motion picture by David Magee and the play The Man Who Was Peter

Pan by Allan Knee, Finding Neverland follows the relationship between playwright J. M. Barrie

and the family that inspired Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, one of the most

beloved stories of all time. This new musical explores the power of imagination to open up new

worlds, and the pressures put upon those worlds by the inevitability of growing up. Finding Neverland is presented by A.R.T. by special arrangement with Harvey Weinstein.

There are at least three original Peter Pans. During his lifetime, Peter Pan’s creator, J. M. Barrie, wrote about Peter in a series of short stories (The Little White Bird, 1902), a play (Peter Pan, 1904), and a novel (Peter and Wendy, 1911). These multiple adaptations made Peter Pan seem like a mythical figure just a few years after his first appearance. As a result, confusions about the “real” Peter Pan have grown stronger with every new adaptation and performance over the last century. But just as Peter returns in the last chapter of Peter and Wendy to take Wendy’s daughter, Jane, to Neverland, the story of Peter Pan finds a way into the hearts of each new generation. No matter how many times he appears onstage and on film, at his core Peter Pan remains forever young.

The character of Peter Pan appeared for the first time in 1902 in J. M. Barrie’s The Little White Bird, a collection of fantasy vignettes set in and around London. Unlike the character we know today, this Peter Pan was only a week old. Barrie claimed that all children are born as birds, and in The Little White Bird, Peter escaped growing up by flying out the window of his nursery to live with the fairies in Kensington Gardens.

Despite the success of The Little White Bird, Peter Pan didn’t become world famous until he was seen on the stage. Barrie was already a well-established playwright when he came to his friend and producer Charles Frohman with the idea for Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Would Not Grow Up. However, Barrie knew that the play was so risky that he offered Frohman a second more conventional play, Alice Sit-by-the-Fire, as collateral. Nothing like Peter Pan had been attempted before onstage. London theatergoers at the turn of the century were used to parlor-room melodramas, not pirates, fairies, and crocodiles. Even more worrisome than the content were the logistical hurdles of staging Peter Pan. The play asked for a cast of fifty, many of whom were required to take

AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTUREThe Evolution of Peter PanBy Christian Ronald

MARY MARTIN AS PETER PAN, 1954

3


EB

DR

AM

A C

EN

TE

R 6

4 B

rattLe

St., Ca

mb

ridg

e |

OB

ER

ON

2 A

rrow

St., Ca

mb

ridg

eFind

ing N

everland

out life insurance policies in order to use the flying apparatuses specially constructed for the production. Nevertheless, on December 27, 1904, Peter Pan opened to an ecstatic audience at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London. As would be the tradition for most of the twentieth century, Peter was played by a woman, the whimsical and enchanting Nina Boucicault.

Barrie’s Peter Pan became an instant classic. From 1904 to 1962, the play was revived on the West End every year except for two (and those were during the Second World War air raids). Barrie tinkered with the script of Peter Pan for its first few seasons, adding the famous Mermaids’ Lagoon scene in 1905 and the ending in which Peter takes Jane to Neverland in 1907. In 1911, Barrie published the novel Peter and Wendy, which mostly solidified the story of Peter Pan as we know it now. That same year, Sir George Frampton was commissioned to build a statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, where it still stands today as a pilgrimage site for Peter Pan fans from around the world. Copies from the original mold of this statue were erected in Liverpool, Brussels, New Jersey, Newfoundland, Toronto, and Australia. Less than ten years after his birth, Peter Pan was a British national treasure.

When Charles Frohman opened the first Broadway production of Peter Pan at his Empire Theatre on November 6, 1905, he proved that Peter Pan could find a place in America as well. Audiences fell in love with Maude Adams as Peter Pan, and the play was met by almost universally positive reviews, including one from Mark Twain in The Boston Globe that called the play “a great and refining and uplifting benefaction in this sordid and money-mad age.” The success that Peter Pan experienced on Broadway and on tour inspired Paramount to create a silent film adaptation in 1924. In 1939, Walt Disney acquired the film rights to Peter Pan, and in 1953, he released what is still one of the most recognizable adaptations. Although neither as subtle nor as contemplative as Barrie’s original, Disney brought the story of Peter Pan to new heights of spectacle with its technicolor flying

sequences and animated choreography modeled after a cast of live-action dancers and actors.

After Disney’s spectacular Peter Pan, Americans couldn’t get enough of the boy from Neverland. On October 20, 1954, Peter Pan returned to Broadway in a brand-new musical adaptation under the direction of Jerome Robbins. Mary Martin won the Tony Award for her performance as Peter and NBC aired the musical live and in color on March 7, 1955. A record-breaking sixty-five million viewers tuned in for the broadcast, and the program was so successful that NBC aired it again in 1956, 1960, 1963, and 1966. Peter Pan returned to Broadway in 1979, starring Sandy Duncan, and then again in 1990, 1991, 1998, and 1999 starring Cathy Rigby. In an amazing feat of endurance — she was a two-time Olympic gymnast, after all — Rigby played the role of Peter from 1990 to 2013, when she gave her final performance at the Citi Center in Boston at the age of sixty.

In recent years, adaptations of the Peter Pan story have expanded their scope, with prequels like the play Peter and the Starcatcher and the upcoming movie Pan, or alternate histories like Steven Spielberg’s Hook. In 2004, the film Finding Neverland intertwined the world of Peter Pan with the life of his quirky creator J. M. Barrie, played by Johnny Depp. David Magee's screenplay serves as the inspiration for the new musical at A.R.T., which revisits the agelessness of Peter Pan by providing a window into the boundless imagination of J. M. Barrie. Demonstrating once again the long life of Peter Pan, the premiere of Finding Neverland at A.R.T. marks a homecoming of sorts. Magee's film saw its earliest beginnings in Allan Knee’s play The Man Who Was Peter Pan (originally titled The Lost Boys), which ran as part of the A.R.T.’s 1990/91 Season starring Jeremy Geidt as J. M. Barrie and Cherry Jones as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies.

J. M. Barrie always described Peter Pan as a “Fairy Play.” According to him, “the difference between a Fairy Play and a realistic one is that in the former all the characters are really children with a child’s outlook on life.” What has kept Barrie’s Fairy Play so vitally relevant is the respect he gives to children’s beliefs about the world. Peter Pan did not trivialize the beliefs of children; on the contrary, by enrapturing its audiences it convinced adults and children alike of the importance of cultivating imagination, especially in the face of growing up. The best adaptations of Peter Pan have continued this tradition, bringing generations together as they are whisked off for the first or the five-hundredth time on their journey to Neverland.

Christian Ronald is a second-year dramaturgy student at the A.R.T./Moscow Art Theater School Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.

"Just as Peter returns in the last chapter of Peter and Wendy to take Wendy’s daughter, Jane, to Neverland, the story of Peter Pan finds a way into the hearts of each new generation. No matter how many times he appears onstage and on film, at his core Peter Pan remains forever young."

CHERRY JONES AND JEREMY GEIDT IN A.R.T.'S PRODUCTION OF THE LOST BOYS, 1990

PH

OTO

: RIC

HA

RD

FE

LDM

AN

4

20

14

/1

5 S

EA

SON

61

7.5

47

.83

00

| a

me

ric

an

rep

ert

ory

the

ate

r.o

rgFi

ndin

g N

ever

land

GARY BARLOW has captivated audiences worldwide, starting with his popular band Take That in the 1990s and continuing through a flourishing solo career. With over fifty million records sold, along with three Number 1 singles and two Number 1 albums as a solo artist, Barlow has earned his place as one of Britain’s most successful singer-songwriters. He has also made a name for himself on television, as the head judge for three seasons of the singing competition, “The X Factor UK.” 2012 was a particularly banner year for Barlow: within a month of organizing the Queen's Diamond Jubilee concert — where he was honored with an Order of the British Empire — Barlow and Take That played at the Olympic closing ceremony in London and were broadcast to nearly 750 million viewers.

Barlow entered the limelight at just 18, when casting agent Nigel Martin-Smith heard an early demo of his “A Million Love Songs.” Martin-Smith, who was looking to start a boy-band, was taken with Barlow’s strong vocals and his singular songwriting voice, and he chose to build his band with Barlow as its creative center. Take That began performing in 1990, and quickly developed an international fan base: it went on to chart fifty-four Number 1 hits and thirty-five Number 1 albums worldwide. Their single “Back for Good” in 1995, which was written and sung by Barlow, hit Number 7 on the American Billboard charts, marking the band’s ascendance as an international brand. The band’s mega-popularity in England was so significant that, as the New York Times reported, the announcement in 1996 that the group planned to disband caused “weeping girls [to] build a shrine of flowers and candles on Oxford Street in London,” while the British children’s crisis hotline, Childline, was swamped with calls from “many children who had built their lives around the

band and now faced a void.”After separating for nearly a decade to pursue solo projects,

Take That officially reunited in 2006, and is currently recording a new album. In recent years, Barlow has balanced his band commitments and television persona with a thriving solo career. His most recent solo album, Since I Saw You Last, went Double

Platinum, making it his most successful album yet. Now he's embarking on a new adventure, writing the lyrics and music

for the musical Finding Neverland with longtime collaborator Eliot Kennedy.

Whether he’s writing solo material, songs for his band, or a sweeping musical score, Barlow crafts emotionally charged music that is singularly his, and his contributions to Finding

Neverland are sure to enthrall first-time listeners and diehard fans alike.

Julia Bumke is a second-year dramaturgy student in the A.R.T./Moscow Art Theater School

Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.

FINDING NEVERLAND COMPOSERS/LYRICISTSGARY BARLOW AND ELIOT KENNEDY

ELIOT KENNEDY is an internationally recognized songwriter and record producer. He still proudly produces his music out of his hometown of Sheffield, in the North of England, where he also runs his charity, the One Song Foundation. He has worked with major British recording artists, and his recognizable pop melodies form an integral part of the contemporary British music landscape. The following is just a small selection of his discography:

Songs Kennedy has written…“Never Gonna Break My Faith,” performed by Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige, won Kennedy a Grammy Award and also earned him a Golden Globe nomination

“Say You’ll Be There,” performed by the Spice Girls, which was #1 on the UK Singles Chart

“Everything Changes,” performed by Take That, also #1 on the UK Singles Chart

“Picture of You,” performed by Boyzone, which won Kennedy an Ivor Novello Award, Britain’s major award for recognizing artistic excellence in music composition

“Never Let Go,” performed by Bryan Adams, which earned a Critics Choice Award nomination

Notable artists he has worked with…Gary Barlow, Spice Girls, Celine Dion, Bryan Adams, Take That, Lulu, S Club 7, Five, Delta Goodrem, The Wanted, Janet Devlin, Lovers Electric, and MJJ Records, Michael Jackson’s record label – where he has written for Rebbie Jackson, 3T, and Brownstone

Movie soundtracks to which he has contributed songs…Spice World (1998), The Princess Diaries 2 (2004), Racing Stripes (2005), Bobby (2006), The Guardian (2006), and Bridge to Terabithia (2007)

Christian Ronald is a second-year dramaturgy student in the A.R.T./Moscow Art Theater School Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.

Compiled by Christian RonaldBy Julia Bumke

5


EB

DR

AM

A C

EN

TE

R 6

4 B

rattLe

St., Ca

mb

ridg

e |

OB

ER

ON

2 A

rrow

St., Ca

mb

ridg

eFind

ing N

everland

6

20

14

/1

5 S

EA

SON

61

7.5

47

.83

00

| a

me

ric

an

rep

ert

ory

the

ate

r.o

rgFi

ndin

g N

ever

land

“Never conform,” says acclaimed choreographer Mia Michaels. “Define yourself. The world worships the original.” Part of the success of Michaels's work is her ability to find and develop the essence of every performer and fuse it with her own style of contemporary dance. The tension and power of her choreography, full of leaps and throws, inspires the belief that people can do anything, even fly. Her expressive animation of the whole body from gracefully extended, twisting fingers to powerfully flexed, stomping feet creates stories that can be at once joyfully uninhibited and emotionally complex.

Best known as a choreographer and judge on multiple seasons of the television dance competition “So You Think You Can Dance,” Michaels’s brand of contemporary movement reflects her own passionate, creative, and tenacious personality.

Michaels comes from a family of dancers and fell in love with the art at a young age; she recalls keeping time with her bottle while still in diapers at her father’s dance studio. A choreographer in the making since the age of two and an unabashed defender of individuality, Michaels’s work has grown from her bottle-bopping days to a multi-faceted, award-winning career including work

with pop icons, dance companies, and educational institutions on concerts, stage shows, television commercials, and feature films like the recent stage-to-screen adaptation of Rock of Ages starring Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, and Julianne Hough.

Michaels developed her artistry with her New York-based company R.A.W. (Reality At Work), where she acquired her signature artistic vocabulary. This work led her to choreograph Madonna’s “Drowned World Tour” and Céline Dion’s “A New Day” concert, directed by Franco Dragone, with whom she would later collaborate on Cirque du Soleil’s Delirium. “A New Day” played a sold-out run for five years at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas and earned Michaels the recognition that brought her to her Emmy Award-winning stint on “So You Think You Can Dance.”

The tension in Michaels’s style between unbridled artistic expression and grounded humanity complements J. M. Barrie’s journey in Finding Neverland.

Brenna Nicely is a second-year dramaturgy student at the A.R.T./Moscow Art Theater School Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN FLYFinding Neverland Choreographer Mia MichaelsBy Brenna Nicely

7


EB

DR

AM

A C

EN

TE

R 6

4 B

rattLe

St., Ca

mb

ridg

e |

OB

ER

ON

2 A

rrow

St., Ca

mb

ridg

e

8

20

14

/1

5 S

EA

SON

61

7.5

47

.83

00

| a

me

ric

an

rep

ert

ory

the

ate

r.o

rgFi

ndin

g N

ever

land

For over a century, people have referred to James Matthew Barrie as the boy who never grew up, citing his small stature (he stood at approximately five feet), his love for games, and his close friendships with children. When he wrote the play Peter Pan in 1904, Barrie infused part of his own childlike mischievousness and whimsy into the boy from Neverland. The character Peter Pan is defined by his obliviousness to the real world; he understands neither the concept of aging nor the fear of death that constantly haunts his archrival, Captain Hook. J. M. Barrie himself, however, experienced more than his fair share of tragedy during his life and grew painfully aware that he could not stay young forever. Unlike Peter, Barrie had to grow up, and he spent much of his life trying to reclaim the type of childhood wonder he wrote about in Peter Pan.

J. M. Barrie was born on May 9, 1860, in the village of Kirriemuir, Scotland, the son of a local weaver, David Barrie, and his wife, Margaret Ogilvy. At the age of six, Barrie experienced his first real tragedy when his brother David died. When his mother went into a deep depression, James took it upon himself to nurse her back to health. In his attempts to bring joy to the

Barrie household, little “Jamie” developed a lifelong passion for storytelling, adventures, and drama. But it was also during his adolescence that Barrie developed his characteristically shy, contemplative personality. The more he grew up, the more he regretted leaving childhood behind: “Grow up & have to give up marbles,” Barrie noted in an early journal, “awful thought.”

Channeling his knack for storytelling, Barrie began his career as a freelance journalist and wrote a series of whimsical tales about Scotland, published as Auld Licht Idylls (1888) and A Window in Thrums (1889). Although Barrie established himself as a writer through his novel The Little Minister (1891), he experienced the majority of his success as a playwright. After forming a partnership and friendship with American producer Charles Frohman, Barrie started seeing his plays staged to great acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1897, Barrie’s stage adaptation of The Little Minister shattered all previous box office records on Broadway.

It was also in the theater that Barrie met his wife, the actress Mary Ansell, who had appeared in Barrie’s 1892 play,

PHOTO OF THE LLEWELYN DAVIES BOYS FROM THE BOY CASTAWAYS, PUBLISHED BY J. M. BARRIE, 1901.

THE MAN WHO CREATED NEVERLANDBy Christian Ronald

9


EB

DR

AM

A C

EN

TE

R 6

4 B

rattLe

St., Ca

mb

ridg

e |

OB

ER

ON

2 A

rrow

St., Ca

mb

ridg

eFind

ing N

everland

Walker, London. The couple wed in 1894, but eventually divorced in 1909.

In 1897, on one of his many walks in Kensington Gardens with his giant St. Bernard, Porthos, Barrie met and formed an instant friendship with the Llewelyn Davies boys: George, Jack, Peter, and Michael (and later Nico, who was born in 1903). Barrie grew close with their family, and soon became known as “Uncle Jim.” He spent most of his free time with the Llewelyn Davies boys, telling stories, playing games, and launching off on imaginary safaris and jungle excursions. With them, he fully embraced his childlike sense of wonder, and it wasn’t long before their adventures inspired him to write the defining story of his career.

Barrie dedicated Peter Pan to the Llewelyn Davies boys, telling them that the play was “the spark I got from you.” The Llewelyn Davies family became the rough inspiration for the Darlings, and Sylvia’s brother Gerald even originated the role of Captain Hook. When Peter Pan premiered in 1904, it made Barrie an international icon, and he shared the fruits of his success with the Llewelyn Davies family, bringing them along on vacations and out to his summer retreat, Black Lake Cottage. In 1906 alone, Barrie earned £44,000 (the equivalent of about £4.5 million today) and he became the richest writer of his era. Yet, amid the joy and security of Peter Pan, Barrie once again faced tragedy. In 1907, the Llewelyn Davies's father, Arthur, succumbed to cancer, as did his wife, Sylvia, three years later. After spending so much time with the Llewelyn Davies boys reclaiming his youth, Barrie now had to step in and become a parent. Although he continued to write, Barrie’s priority for the rest of his life became raising the Llewelyn Davies boys with the help of their nanny, Mary Hodgson, and their grandmother, Emma du Maurier. “I take care of them,” he wrote to a friend in 1911, “and it is my main reason for going on.”

In April of 1929, the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children received a surprise gift: J. M. Barrie had bequeathed to them the rights to Peter Pan. And that December, Barrie began a tradition at Great Ormond Street, arranging for the cast of a London production of Peter Pan to visit the hospital and perform the nursery scene for an audience of bedridden children. For more than eighty years, the royalties from Peter Pan have helped ensure that thousands of children can experience a happy and healthy childhood, while serving as a constant reminder of Barrie’s dedication to young people. Barrie spent his whole life caught between his responsibilities as an adult and the expansive world of his imagination. With the help of the Llewelyn Davies boys, and their gift of inspiration, he was able to find a place for both.

Christian Ronald is a second-year dramaturgy student at the A.R.T./Moscow Art Theater School Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.

J. M. BARRIE, THE DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND, AND GEORGE, PETER, NICO, AND MICHAEL, 1911.

PH

OTO

S: J

MB

AR

RIE

.CO

.UK

. CO

PY

RIG

HT

© G

RE

AT

OR

MO

ND

ST

RE

ET

HO

SPIT

AL

FO

R C

HIL

DR

EN

'S C

HA

RIT

YMICHAEL, AS PETER PAN, WITH J. M. BARRIE AS CAPTAIN HOOK, 1906.

MICHAEL, AGE 6, AS PETER PAN, 1906, PHOTO BY J. M. BARRIE.

10

20

14

/1

5 S

EA

SON

61

7.5

47

.83

00

| a

me

ric

an

rep

ert

ory

the

ate

r.o

rgFi

ndin

g N

ever

land

BRENDAN: How did you guys get into acting?

SAWYER: I was never one of those tap-dancing one-year-olds. I grew up in New Orleans and did my school’s play of Little Red Riding Hood. I just kind of fell in love with it. Theater was something I knew I wanted to do, so I came up to New York to audition for Matilda and I got that role. So, thank you school plays!

ALEX: Well, my preschool teacher’s son was in a few Broadway shows, so she encouraged my parents to get me to see

a manager she knew. She encouraged the manager to take me.

HAYDEN: I was inspired by my sister. She came up to me and was like, “Get mom to allow us to act.” We walked right up to our mom — she was ten, I was four — and we said to her: “We want representation!”

AIDAN: My friend Zach acted, and he said, “Hey you should do this,” and I was like, “Okay, fine.” That’s the really short version.

HAYDEN: Me and Aidan did Mary Poppins

together. BRENDAN: So Matilda, Mary Poppins… you guys have experience in some major shows. What has it been like working with Diane Paulus as a director?

HAYDEN: Diane has a vision of what she wants to do, and has very interesting ways of doing it. For instance, she gave us a project to do. It’s a five-minute presentation of a bunch of things about your character. You bring in an object, do a little jig, etc. She really just wants to see

I’LL NEVER GROW UP... NOT ME!A Conversation with the Young Stars of Finding Neverland and A.R.T. Education and Community Programs Manager Brendan Shea

PH

OTO

: EV

GE

NIA

ELI

SEE

VA

LEFT TO RIGHT: SAWYER NUNES, AGE 12; ALEX DREIER, AGE 11; AIDAN GEMME, AGE 11, AND HAYDEN SIGNORETTI, AGE 11

11


EB

DR

AM

A C

EN

TE

R 6

4 B

rattLe

St., Ca

mb

ridg

e |

OB

ER

ON

2 A

rrow

St., Ca

mb

ridg

eFind

ing N

everland

BACKSTAGE AT THE 2014 TONY AWARDS

who you are as an actor, and how you incorporate some of your own imagination into your part.

SAWYER: Like Hayden says, she has a vision, but it’s also very free. Everything comes from what your character is feeling in the moment. It’s really nice to work like that.

BRENDAN: Do you remember your first experience with Peter Pan? How have your ideas about the original story changed now that you’ve learned more about where it came from?

HAYDEN: I was three and I had a book of all these children’s stories going back to the 1800s. One of the stories was Peter Pan and that’s how I first came to know him.

SAWYER: I first saw the Disney movie when I was young. I was kind of that kid who was jumping around on the couch pretending to be Peter Pan. What I really fell in love with was the fact that Peter Pan was always optimistic. That sort of relates to the story we’re doing right now. In this show, not everything is peachy-keen-milk-and-cookies, you know what I mean? But if we see the optimistic side of what’s facing us, it can make things a whole lot better.

BRENDAN: Do those of you who have siblings bring some of that relationship into this show, since you’re all playing brothers? Or is it completely different at home?

HAYDEN: It’s completely different!

SAWYER: The cast is really a family while you’re here; there are people in my actual family, like my cousins, that I don’t talk to as much as I talk to these guys. It’s really nice being in a show with people you can connect with on things you love to do outside of theater.

HAYDEN: He means video games. That’s kind of what we plan to do. BRENDAN: The balance between playing and keeping yourself emotionally grounded is one of the big themes of Finding Neverland, and one that definitely resonates with me. How about you? What in Finding Neverland speaks to you? HAYDEN: I think the show is purely about imagination. SAWYER: I feel that these kids needed J. M. Barrie.

Peter Pan could fly in the story, and these kids did fly through their friendship with Barrie. They needed him, and he needed them, and together they created a relationship that brought them through the toughest times in their lives.

BRENDAN: Finding Neverland is truly enjoyable for everybody, but do you think it’s especially important that people your age get a chance to see this production?

ALEX: Yes. Some kids who see Finding Neverland might be going through a similar situation to this family. I think this play might help kids get a better attitude about bad things that happen in their lives.

BRENDAN: Do you want to be like Peter Pan and never grow up?

AIDAN: I think Hayden wants to grow up.

HAYDEN: Yeah, I do.

AIDAN: I never want to grow up, I like my childhood.

SAWYER: I’m alright. I’m good right now.

ALEX: Yeah, I think I’m good, too, at least for a while.

"I first saw the Disney movie when I was young. I was kind of that kid who was jumping around on the couch pretending to be Peter Pan."

PH

OTO

: ME

LAN

IE M

OO

RE

12

20

14

/1

5 S

EA

SON

61

7.5

47

.83

00

| a

me

ric

an

rep

ert

ory

the

ate

r.o

rgFi

ndin

g N

ever

land

$10

ACTOrsSHaKespEareprOjEct.org

Tickets on sale August 1subscriptions available now!

2014-2015 Season

the Comedy ofErROrsb y W i l l i a m S h a k e s p e a r eSeptember 24 - October 19, 2014

phÈdre b y J e a n R a c i n e

November 19 - December 7, 2014

measurE forMeASuReb y W i l l i a m S h a k e s p e a r eJanuary 7 - February 1 , 2 0 1 5

byJenny SchwartzMarch 25 - April 12, 2015 god’s ear

God’s Ear is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC

Henry Vi, p A r T 2

b y W i l l i a mS h a k e s p e a r eMay 13 - June 7, 2015

13


EB

DR

AM

A C

EN

TE

R 6

4 B

rattLe

St., Ca

mb

ridg

e |

OB

ER

ON

2 A

rrow

St., Ca

mb

ridg

e

How do we explain Peter Pan’s enduring hold on our imagination? Why do we get hooked (and I use the term with all due deliberation) when we are children and continue to remain under the spell as adults? J. M. Barrie once observed that Huck Finn was “the greatest boy in fiction,” and Huck, who would rather go to hell than become civilized, may have inspired the rebellious streak found in Peter Pan. Like Dorothy, who does not want to return to Kansas in The Emerald City of Oz, Huck and Peter have won us over with their love of adventure, their streaks of poetry, their wide-eyed and wise innocence, and their deep appreciation of what it means to be alive. They all refuse to grow up and tarnish their sense of wonder and openness to new experiences. ...

Peter Pan creates a true contact zone for young and old. In fact it is his story, as staged in the play Peter Pan and as told in Peter and Wendy, that helped break down the long-standing barrier — in literary terms — between adult and child. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, with its enigmatic characters, allusive density, playful language, and sparkling wit, had already gone far in that direction, uniting children and adults in the pleasures of the reading experience. Earlier children’s books, seeking to teach and preach, had not been designed to draw adults in. ...

Fairy tales and adventure stories, which flourished in the nineteenth century, reoriented children’s literature in the direction of delight rather than instruction, and both literary forms inspired the narrative sorcery of Peter Pan. Drawing readers into exotic regions and magical elsewheres, they promised excitement and revelation where there had once been instruction and edification. The expansive energy of Peter and Wendy is not easy to define, but it has something to do with the book’s power to inspire faith in the aesthetic, cognitive, and emotional gains of imaginative play. As sensation seekers, children delight in the novel’s playful possibilities and its exploration of what it means to be on your own. In Neverland, they move past a sense of giddy

disorientation to explore how children cope when they are transplanted from the nursery into a world of conflict, desire, pathos, and horror. Adults may not be able to land on that island, but they have the chance to go back vicariously and to repair their own damaged sense of wonder.

Barrie’s refusal to serve as adult authority reveals just how determined he was to break with tradition and to write a story that appeared to be by someone whose allegiances were to childhood. In a book on Peter Pan, Jacqueline Rose famously proclaimed the “impossibility” of children’s literature, claiming that fiction “for” children constructs a world in which “the adult always comes first (author, maker, giver) and the child comes after (reader, product, receiver).”

Basing her observations chiefly on J. M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy, she concludes that authors of children’s fiction use the child in the book to take in, dupe, and seduce the child outside the book. She is particularly incensed by the narrator of Peter and Wendy, who refuses to identify himself clearly as child or adult: “The narrator veers in and out of the story as servant, author and child.”

Undermining the very idea of

authority and authorship, Barrie dared to disturb the notion of a strict divide between adult and child.

To be sure, much of what Rose has to say rings true, and, when we read about J. M. Barrie entertaining children in Kensington Gardens with his St. Bernard named Porthos, we cannot help but have the sneaking suspicion that children’s fiction

PETER PAN: BETWIXT AND BETWEENBy Maria Tatar

Finding

Neverla

nd

HARVARD PROFESSOR MARIA TATAR, AUTHOR OF THE ANNOTATED PETER PAN

"The expansive energy of Peter and Wendy is not easy to define, but it has something to do with the book’s power to inspire faith in the aesthetic, cognitive, and emotionalgains of imaginative play."

14

20

14

/1

5 S

EA

SON

61

7.5

47

.83

00

| a

me

ric

an

rep

ert

ory

the

ate

r.o

rgFi

ndin

g N

ever

land “The difference

between a Fairy Play and a

realistic one is that in the former all

the characters are really children

with a child’s outlook on life.

This applies to the so-called adults

of the story as well as the young

people. ... This, then, is the spirit of the play. And

it is necessary that all of you — no matter what

age you may have individually attained — should

be children. Peter Pan will

laughingly blow the fairy dust in your eyes and

presto! You’ll all be back in the

nursery, and once more you’ll believe in fairies,

and the play moves on.”

— J. M. Barrie, “Introduction to

Peter Pan”

may indeed be “something of a soliciting, a chase, or even a seduction.” But it is equally true that Barrie’s addiction to youth — his infatuation with its games and pleasures — enabled him to write something that, for the first time, truly was for children even as it appealed to adult sensibilities. And beyond that, Barrie turned a category that was once “impossible” (for Rose there is nothing but adult agency in children’s literature) into a genre that opened up possibilities, suggesting that adults and children could together inhabit a zone where all experience the pleasures of a story, even if in different ways. Old-fashioned yet also postmodern before his time, Barrie overturned hierarchies boldly and playfully, enabling adults and children to share the reading experience in ways that few writers before him had made possible. ...

Like Lewis Carroll, who developed and refined his storytelling skills by co-narrating (telling stories with children rather than to them), Barrie did not just sit at his desk and compose adventures. He spent time with young boys — above all, the five he adopted — playing cricket, fishing, staging pirate games, and, most important, improvising tales. ...

Barrie, more than any other author of children’s books, attempted to level distinctions between adult and child, as well as to dismantle the opposition between creator and consumer…. He aimed to produce a story that would be sophisticated and playful, adult-friendly as well

as child-friendly. At long last, here was a cultural story that would bridge the still vast literary divide between adults and children. Like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Peter and Wendy could be a shared literary experience, drawing two audiences together that had long been segregated into separate domains.

“If you believe,” Peter shouts, “clap your hands; don’t let Tink die.” In urging the suspension of disbelief, Peter not only exhorts readers young and old to have faith in fairies (and fiction) but also urges them to join hands as they enter a story world in a visceral, almost kinetic manner. Whether entering Neverland for the first time or returning to it, we clap for Tink and, before long, begin to breathe the very air of the island as we read the words describing it.

Maria Tatar is the John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. She chairs the program in Folklore and Mythology and teaches courses in German Studies, Folklore, and Children’s Literature.

Excerpted from The Annotated Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie, edited with an introduction and notes by Maria Tatar. Copyright © 2011 by Maria Tatar. With permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

AUDIENCE MEMBERS AT A.R.T.'S OBERON WATCHING A PERFORMANCE OF BOOM BOOM'S BOW

PH

OTO

: GR

ETJ

EN

HE

LEN

E P

HO

TOG

RA

PH

Y

15


EB

DR

AM

A C

EN

TE

R 6

4 B

rattLe

St., Ca

mb

ridg

e |

OB

ER

ON

2 A

rrow

St., Ca

mb

ridg

eFind

ing N

everlandPROUD TO BE THE A.R.T.'S

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION PARTNER

FOR GREAT ARTS COVERAGE TO GO DIGBOSTON.COM

New

Yor

k, N

Y

Slee

p N

o M

ore

[The

McK

ittr

ick

Ho

tel]

Mar

ch 2

011

- P

rese

nt O

nce

the

Mus

ical

[B

erna

rd B

. Jac

ob

s T

heat

re]

Feb

ruar

y 20

12 -

Pre

sent

Pip

pin

[M

usic

Box

The

atre

]A

pri

l 20

13 -

Pre

sent

The

Lig

ht P

rinc

ess

[New

Vic

tory

The

ater

]F

ebru

ary

- M

arch

20

15

Cos

ta M

esa

, CA

Th

e Te

mp

est

[So

uth

Co

ast

Rep

erto

ry]

Aug

ust

- S

epte

mb

er 2

014

US

TOU

R O

nce

the

Mus

ical

Oct

ob

er 2

013

- O

cto

ber

20

14

The

Ger

shw

ins’

Por

gy

and

Bes

sA

ugus

t 20

13 -

Jul

y 20

14

Pip

pin

Sep

tem

ber

20

14 -

Pre

sent

ABR

OA

D

Onc

e th

e M

usic

al [

Pho

enix

The

atre

]Lo

ndo

n, U

.K.:

Mar

ch 2

013

- P

rese

nt

Onc

e th

e M

usic

al [

Pri

nces

s T

heat

re]

Mel

bo

urne

, Aus

tral

ia: O

cto

ber

- N

ovem

ber

20

14

The

Hea

rt o

f R

obin

Hoo

d [

Roy

al A

lexa

ndra

The

atre

]To

ront

o, C

anad

a: N

ovem

ber

20

14 -

Mar

ch 2

015

GET

YO

UR

TIC

KET

S TO

DA

YA

.R.T

. in

the

Wor

ldB

elo

w is

a s

elec

tio

n o

f sh

ow

s

that

sta

rted

at

the

A.R

.T.

and

co

ntin

ue t

o e

ngag

e ne

w

aud

ienc

es a

roun

d t

he w

orl

d.

July

201

4 - J

anu

ary

201

5

PR

EV

IEW

S

OP

EN

ING

NIG

HT

RE

GU

LAR

RU

N

KEY

- A

SL

INTE

RP

RE

TED

T -

PO

ST S

HO

W T

ALK

-B

AC

KS

A.R

.T.

SEA

SON

A.R

.T. A

T O

BE

RO

N

As of 7/1/2014

THE

LIG

HT

PR

INC

ESS

Lo

eb

Dra

ma

Ce

nte

r

SUN

MO

NT

UE

WE

DT

HU

FR

ISA

T 12/6

10

:00

A

12/7

10

:00

A12

/13

10:0

0A

12/1

4

10:0

0A

12/1

9

11:0

0A

2:

00

P

12/2

0

10:0

0A

12/2

1 10

:00

A12

/22

11:0

0A

2:0

0P

12/2

310

:00

A12

/26

11:0

0A

2:0

0P

12/2

710

:00

A

12/2

810

:00

A12

/30

11:0

0A

2:0

0P

12/3

1 10

:00

A1/

211

:00

A2:

00

P

1/3

10:0

0A

1/4

10:0

0A

O.P

.C.

Lo

eb

Dra

ma

Ce

nte

r

SUN

MO

NT

UE

WE

DT

HU

FR

ISA

T

11/2

8

7:30

P11

/29

7:30

P

11/3

0

7:30

P12

/2

7:30

P12

/3

7:30

P12

/4

7:30

P7:

30P

12/6

2:

00

PT

7:30

P

12/7

2:

00

P7:

30P

12/9

7:

30P

12/1

0

2:0

0P

T7:

30P

12/1

1 7:

30P

12/1

2 7:

30P

12/1

3 2:

00

PT

7:30

P

12/1

4

2:0

0P

12/1

6

7:30

P12

/17

2:0

0P

T7:

30P

12/1

8

7:30

P12

/19

7:

30P

12/2

0

2:0

0P

T7:

30P

12/2

1 2:

00

P12

/22

7:30

P12

/23

2:0

0P

12/2

67:

30P

12/2

72:

00

P7:

30P

12/2

82:

00

P7:

30P

12/3

07:

30P

12/3

1 2:

00

P7:

30P

1/2

7:30

P1/

32:

00

P7:

30P

1/4

2:0

0P

7:30

P

FIN

DIN

G N

EV

ER

LAN

DL

oe

b D

ram

a C

en

ter

SUN

MO

NT

UE

WE

DT

HU

FR

ISA

T

7/23

7:30

P7/

247:

30P

7/25

7:

30P

7/26

7:30

P

7/27

7:30

P7/

297:

30P

7/30

7:30

P7/

317:

30P

8/1

7:

30P

8/2

2:

00

P7:

30P

8/3

2:0

0P

8/5

7:30

P8

/67:

30P

8/7

7:30

P8

/8

7:30

P8

/9

2:0

0P

7:30

P

8/1

02:

00

P8

/12

7:30

P8

/13

7:30

P8

/14

7:30

P8

/15

7:30

P8

/16

2:

00

PT

7:30

P

8/1

72:

00

P

7:30

P

8/1

97:

30P

8/2

02:

00

PT

7:

30P

8/2

17:

30P

8/2

2 7:

30P

8/2

3 2:

00

PT

7:30

P

8/2

42:

00

P8

/26

7:30

P8

/27

2:0

0P

T7:

30P

8/2

87:

30P

8/2

9

7:30

P8

/30

2:

00

P7:

30P

8/3

12:

00

P9

/27:

30P

9/3

2:0

0P

T

7:30

P

9/4

7:30

P9

/5

7:30

P9

/6

2:0

0P

T7:

30P

9/7

2:0

0P

9/9

7:30

P9

/10

2:0

0P

T

7:30

P

9/1

17:

30P

9/1

2 7:

30P

9/1

3 2:

00

PT

7:30

P

9/1

42:

00

P9

/16

7:30

P9

/17

11:0

0A

T

7:30

P

9/1

87:

30P

9/1

9

7:30

P9

/20

2:

00

PT

7:30

P

9/2

12:

00

P9

/23

7:30

P9

/24

2:0

0P

T

7:30

P

9/2

57:

30P

9/2

6

7:30

P9

/27

2:0

0P

T7:

30P

9/2

82:

00

P

THE

DO

NK

EY

SH

OW

OB

ER

ON

— E

VE

RY

SA

TU

RD

AY

NIG

HT

SUN

MO

NT

UE

WE

DT

HU

FR

ISA

T 7:30

P10

:30

P

am

eric

an

rep

erto

ryth

eate

r.or

g/A

RT-

InTh

eWor

ldV

isit

us

onlin

e fo

r m

ore

info

rma

tion

:

Our

frie

nds

are

you

r fr

iend

s.M

eet o

ur lo

cal p

art

ners

.Fo

r cu

rren

t pro

mot

ions

and

dis

coun

ts:

am

eric

anr

eper

tory

thea

ter.

org

/dis

coun

ts

PD

ISC

OU

NT

ED

PA

RK

ING

IS A

VA

ILA

BLE

. FO

R D

ETA

ILS,

VIS

IT A

ME

RIC

AN

RE

PE

RTO

RY

TH

EA

TE

R.O

RG

/PA

RK

ING

RE

FR

ESH

ME

NTS

AR

E A

VA

ILA

BLE

IN T

HE

LO

BB

Y B

EF

OR

E A

LL

PE

RF

OR

MA

NC

ES

& D

UR

ING

INT

ER

MIS

SIO

NS

AT

TH

E L

OE

B

DR

AM

A C

EN

TE

R.

A F

ULL

BA

R IS

IN T

HE

PE

RF

OR

MA

NC

E S

PAC

E A

T O

BE

RO

N.

DO

N’T

FLI

P O

UT—

FLIP

IT

OV

ER

. TH

IS IS

A D

OU

BLE

IS

SUE

GU

IDE

WIT

H IN

FO

AB

OU

T A

LL O

F O

UR

P

ER

FOR

MA

NC

ES

THR

OU

GH

JA

NU

AR

Y.

ASL

INT

ER

PR

ETA

TIO

N A

ND

AU

DIO

DE

SCR

IPT

ION

IS

OF

FE

RE

D A

T D

ESI

GN

AT

ED

PE

RF

OR

MA

NC

ES.

EM

AIL

: TIC

KE

TSE

RV

ICE

S@A

MR

EP.

OR

G F

OR

TIC

KE

TS

ASS

IST

IVE

LIS

TE

NIN

G D

EV

ICE

S A

RE

AV

AIL

AB

LE

FO

R A

LL P

ER

FO

RM

AN

CE

S A

T B

OT

H V

EN

UE

S.

BO

TH

TH

E L

OE

B D

RA

MA

CE

NT

ER

&

OB

ER

ON

AR

E F

ULL

Y A

CC

ESS

IBLE

.

LAR

GE

PR

INT

LAR

GE

PR

INT

PR

OG

RA

MS

AR

E A

VA

ILA

BLE

FO

R U

SE

DU

RIN

G E

VE

RY

A.R

.T. P

ER

FO

RM

AN

CE

.

CR

OSS

ING

: A N

EW

AM

ER

ICA

N O

PE

RA

Cit

i Sh

ub

ert

Th

eat

re

SUN

MO

NT

UE

WE

DT

HU

FR

ISA

T

5/29

7:

30P

5/31

2:

00

P6

/2

7:30

P6

/4

7:30

P6

/6

7:30

P

FATH

ER

CO

ME

S H

OM

E F

RO

M T

HE

WA

RS

Lo

eb

Dra

ma

Ce

nte

r

SUN

MO

NT

UE

WE

DT

HU

FR

ISA

T

1/23

7:30

P1/

247:

30P

1/25

7:

30P

1/27

7:

30P

1/28

7:

30P

1/29

7:

30P

1/30

7:

30P

1/31

2:

00

PT

7:30

P

2/1

2:0

0P

7:30

P

2/3

7:30

P2/

4

2:0

0P

T7:

30P

2/5

7:30

P2/

6

7:30

P2/

7 2:

00

PT

7:30

P

2/8

2:

00

P2/

10

7:30

P2/

11

11:0

0A

T7:

30P

2/12

7:

30P

2/13

7:

30P

2/14

2:

00

PT

7:30

P

2/15

2:

00

P2/

177:

30P

2/18

2:0

0P

T

7:30

P

2/19

7:30

P2/

207:

30P

2/21

2:0

0P

T7:

30P

2/22

2:0

0P

2/24

7:30

P2/

25

2:0

0P

T7:

30P

2/26

7:30

P2/

277:

30P

2/28

2:0

0P

T7:

30P

3/1

2:0

0P

THE

LA

ST T

WO

PE

OP

LE O

N E

AR

TH:

AN

AP

OC

ALY

PTI

C V

AU

DE

VIL

LEL

oe

b D

ram

a C

en

ter

SUN

MO

NT

UE

WE

DT

HU

FR

ISA

T 5/9

7:30

P

5/10

7:

30P

5/12

7:

30P

5/13

7:

30P

5/14

7:

30P

5/15

7:

30P

5/16

2:

00

P7:

30P

5/17

2:

00

P7:

30P

5/19

7:

30P

5/20

2:

00

P7:

30P

5/21

7:

30P

5/22

7:

30P

5/23

2:

00

P7:

30P

5/24

2:

00

P5/

26

7:30

P5/

27

2:0

0P

7:30

P

5/28

7:

30P

5/29

7:

30P

5/30

2:

00

P7:

30P

5/31

2:

00

P

Up

Nex

t at A

.R.T

.

am

eric

an

rep

erto

ryth

eate

r.or

g

Join

us

Onl

ine!

A.R.T. Summer Guide, July - September 2014

Documents

Transcript of A.R.T. Summer Guide, July - September 2014