BWW Reviews: Disney's PETER PAN JR. Takes Flight with the 'Penguin Project' Production by Gettysburg Community Theatre

"Second star to the right and straight on till morning." Those words, written by J. M. Barrie in his 1904 play and 1911 book, PETER PAN, became far better known to generations of Americans thanks to Walt Disney's 1953 wildly popular animated musical movie of the same name. (Any movie with songs by Sammy Cahn, among others, was bound to catch on.) The same line's also in the Comden and Green play that starred Mary Martin, which hit Broadway the following year, but Disney made Peter and Tinker Bell visit Wendy Darling and her brothers first, and unforgettably. It's no surprise that when Disney began adapting their classic animated films into junior plays for children, PETER PAN made the cut.

But theatre for children hasn't always been accessible to all children, any more than it has been to all adults. Not only has it been difficult to accommodate disabled children as audiences, it's been worse to incorporate them into participants in the creation of theatre. If you're not ready to be a triple-threat actor/dancer/singer even as a kid, you're excluded from some theatrical productions - and you may as well not even leave the house if you're dealing with autism, cerebral palsy, intellectual challenges, or any number of other disabilities that complicate a director's or choreographer's life.

When Dr. Andrew Morgan began the Penguin Project nearly a decade ago in East Peoria, Illinois, it's likely that he never expected national awards, including being a finalist for a youth award from the National Endowment for the Arts, or that the project would begin to spread - in particular to Gettysburg, where Gettysburg Community Theatre's artistic director, Chad-Alan Carr has brought it as a joint project with GCT and the Gettysburg Area School District. Its first production, that of Disney's PETER PAN, JR., was just presented at Gettysburg Area High School on May 9 and 10 to the tremendous delight of the audience.

The Project relies on similarly-aged volunteer peer mentors to help project participants with their parts - and while they may come out on stage with their participant, it's the participant who's doing all the work of acting, singing, and dancing, with their mentor's support. And while its goals are many, including making traditionally-able children more aware of their challenged friends and their needs, and helping both sets of children bridge the social gap, it also does provide the same life experience that their traditionally-able friends have of participating in performing arts, and letting them work on developing their creativity. In the original Penguin Project, many come back regularly, on both sides, while others join in, continually growing this experience.

What those who don't know should realize is that a large number of presumably intellectually-challenged performers are working professionally, sometimes quite successfully - Marty Balin of Jefferson Starship, Courtney Love, and Daryl Hannah come to mind, as does Susan Boyle. Physically different actors, such as Marlee Matlin, the first deaf actor to win an Academy Award (she also has a Golden Globe and four Emmy nominations) are also finding increasing opportunities to share their talent professionally. No children should be excluded from the experience of performing arts based on physical or mental differences; not only is it good for their development, but there is no excuse that there's no place in theatre or music for them.

In working with the cast of Gettysburg's Penguin Project show, director Carr noted that the participants were enthusiastic, and that ones who had been timid or shy at first managed to acquire some real excitement about going on stage before the first performance - some who had been quiet and reserved were now among the most energetic and excited performers in the cast.

They also turned out to have some very fine voices and some real stage presence as well as talent. Rhiannon Calp as Peter Pan was a delightful young performer who would be wonderful in many shows in the area. Ella Scott as Peter's fairy friend Tinker Bell had the audience charmed with not only her costume but her talent and stage presence. Colin Kersey, possibly the Hookiest of all young Captains Hook, and TJ Williams as his chief cook and bottle washer, Mr. Smee, were certainly enough to make anyone in the audience want to volunteer to be pirates on the spot. They and their pirate band were more than able to make being dastardly look like an exciting career opportunity.

The Darling children, Wendy, John, and Michael, were played by Morgan Bowie, Tanner Lake, and Aidan Baker-Miller. Darling was their name, and darling particularly was Aidan Baker-Miller's Michael, while all three gave fine performances as the children taken by surprise to Neverland the night that Nana (also played by TJ Williams), their canine nursemaid, got shooed out of the nursery.

Kudos to the costumers, who had Tiger Lily's Indian tribe outfitted wonderfully and who had pirates looking properly daring and swashbuckling. Marilyn Lopes' choreography was nicely done, especially for the ensemble number with the Lost Boys and Indians.

The Penguin Project is an exciting addition to children's theatre opportunities in the area, and if all productions continue to work this successfully, will certainly be seen as fine children's theatre in its own right and not merely as a special project. It would do well for other community theatres in the region to develop full-scale participation programs for differently-abled children and not merely audience participation assistance. Every child needs to be allowed to participate in the arts, and we deserve the rewards that come from nurturing the artistic talent of all children. A production like this proves that those rewards are bountiful.

For information, check the GCT website at gettysburgcommunitytheatre.org, and the original Penguin Project website at penguinproject.org.

Photo credit: Leer Photography

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