Brelby's PETER AND THE STARCATCHER Takes Glendale by Storm Today

About his (and Ridley Pearson's) prequel to Peter Pan, writer/humorist Dave Barry said, "When you write for adults, unless you happen to write some kind of transcendent classic, it's pretty much forgotten within a few months. But kids read a book, and tell their friends, and tell their brothers and their sisters, and they read it again. There's a lot longer shelf life."

BRELBY is proud to present the highly inventive PETER AND THE STARCATCHER - a play by Rick Elice (Jersey Boys - Addams Family) based on the 2004 novel by humorist Dave Barry and suspense writer Ridley Pearson. The production is directed by Louis Farber with musical direction by CJ O'Hara. It plays January 20th to February 12th at the Brelby Playhouse in historic downtown Glendale Arizona.

It's the adult's prequel to Peter Pan wherein 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, containing a precious, otherworldly cargo. At sea, 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 it must never fall into the wrong hands, discovers the boys. 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.

A dozen actors play more than 100 characters, engaging brilliant stagecraft and the magical landscape of human imagination. The actors enter a bare stage and tell us that we will encounter flying, dreaming, and adventure, and we are immediately transported to a bustling port in the British Empire where our journey begins. There we find Lord Aster and his daughter Molly, preparing for a secret mission of the Queen. Also on the dock are two identical trunks, which are key to the plot of our story as each is about to be loaded onto the wrong ship.

The cast includes BRELBY's co-founder, Brian Maticic, as Black Stache, John Perovich as Lord Aster, Connor Wanless as Smee, Elizabeth Lyon as Captain Scott, Amber Wright as Slank, Luke Gomez as Fighting Prawn, Clayton Caufman as Alf, Jon Gradilla as Ted, Cliff Williams as Prentiss, Stephanie Spencer as Mrs. Bumbrake, Jared Queen rounding out the ensemble and featuring Brelby Artistic Director, Shelby Maticic, as Molly.

The playwright sets the time and place - via the official Peter and the Starcatcher web site - "...on an island, our Neverland. Wendy has not yet appeared. Instead, we have Molly, our hero, in a time before girls were encouraged to be heroes. We have no Captain Hook...or rather, we have no Hook yet. Instead, we have the pirate who shall become Hook, but not until we're through with him. He, whom the pitiful pirate kingdom calls Black Stache. We have our orphans, perpetually lost, though not quite yet Lost Boys. We have natives and mermaids and a perilously hungry crocodile. Even Tinker Bell reaches our island before we leave it, because she could not stay away. The nameless boy at the center of our story ironically learns what it is to be a man over the course of our play, when he's destined to stay a boy forever. The principle difference between our play and Barrie's is that we bring this boy and Molly to the brink of understanding what love might be, so that the thrill of an eternity of 'awfully big adventures' is tinged with the ineffable sadness of what a boy who will never never know. Only when Molly leaves him behind, bound for adulthood, does our boy truly become Peter Pan." Elice concluded, "James Barrie found his character [Peter Pan] by embracing the notion of never growing up. I found mine by realizing I had."

Brelby partners with local downtown Glendale businesses to offer more options for audience members. By showing their digital ticket, audiences can receive 10% off of their bill at the Hop Stop Diner, 10% off of any entrée at Haus Murphy's Restaurant, and 10% off of a customer's bill at the Olde Towne Glendale (OTG) Beer & Wine Bar or the Gaslight Inn.

PETER AND THE STARCATCHER performs Jan 20-21, 27-28, Feb 3-4, Feb 10-11 @ 7:30PM and Jan 22, 29, Feb 5, 12 @ 2PM. Tickets are available by visiting the official web site at brelby.com/tickets.

General admission is $25 per performance. Admission to PETER AND THE STARCATCHER is included in the benefits of Brelby's ShowGO subscription:brelby.com/showgo. The Brelby Playhouse is located at 7154 N 58th Dr, Glendale, AZ 85301.

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