Perseverance Theatre’s first play of the 2016-2017 season, “Peter and the Starcatcher,” is set to open Friday, Aug. 19, with previews beginning Tuesday, Aug. 16.
According to a synopsis provided by Perseverance Theatre, “Before Captain Hook, before Wendy, Before Tinkerbell — there was simply a lost boy who never grew up.”
Teresa K. Pond directs this imaginative prequel to “Peter Pan.” Pond is now the producing artistic director of Cyrano’s Theatre Company. Her experience spans the continent, from executive director of Anchorage Community Theatre to New York Classical Theatre, Vital Theatre, and the New York Fringe Festival.
“Peter and the Starcatcher” is a Tony Award-winning play adapted by Rick Elice from the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. Molly Aster and her father, by order of Queen Victoria, are headed to dump a trunk of dangerous star-stuff into Mount Jalapeño when they are separated by a pirate attack. In this irreverent, whimsical comedy with music filled with wacky theatricality, Molly encounters some lost boys who help her battle a pirate captain and his sidekick Smee. Molly searches for her father and the orphans take up residence on an island where dreams are born and time is whatever you wish it to be.
Molly is played by Los Angeles actor Sylvia Kwan, who Perseverance Theatre audiences will recognize from Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike, and has an acting resume spanning both theatre and television. “The Boy” (Peter) is played by local actor Austin Roach, and Kelly Rossberg, most recently in Perseverance’s production of Sweeney Todd, plays the foreboding Black Stache.
Tickets are available at the Perseverance Theatre box office, by calling 463-TIXS, and at www.ptalaska.org. The play heads to Anchorage after its run in Juneau finishes Sept. 18.
Peter and the Starcatcher is aimed at families with school-aged children and those who like fantasy stories.
