Gabby Cummings and Calissa Jones
On November 9th and 10th, the talented advanced theatre students of Laurel Highlands performed the swashbuckling, action-filled play, “Peter and the Starcatcher.” This humorous play is set as a prequel to the popular story of Peter Pan, taking place on the roaring seas and the faraway Mollusk Island. This time, the adventure is centered on a young orphan boy who is trying to find his place in the world.
For Cody Long, the senior playing this character, this main part primarily meant learning a lot of lines.
“It took me up until show week to have the entire show memorized like I did,” he says.
Besides this orphan boy (who- spoiler alert- eventually becomes Peter Pan), two other characters take up most of the time on stage: Blackstache (Emile Glad) and Molly, the young starcatcher (Colleen Cavanagh).
According to Emile, his part took the same amount of intensity: “We were supposed to have a month to learn (the lines), but I didn’t fully comprehend them until two weeks ago.”
Still, the hard work easily pays off. When asked what the best part of performing was, Emile immediately answered, “It’s not the applause. You may think it so. The best thing is when everything works as you want and the scenes flow well- that satisfaction. That’s the best part.”
On the other hand, Colleen replied with the answer of, “being on stage. It’s amazing, the feeling of being someone else.”
Either way, everyone answered with the same amount of energy and enthusiasm. It was easy to see how much pride and respect the cast had for their parts and each other, as well as all the hard work everyone had put in.
This excitement was what made “Peter and the Starcatcher” come to life both Friday and Saturday night. At the performances, the lights flashed, the fog rolled in, and the sound effects thundered, but nothing could match the liveliness of the students on stage. Laughs erupted from the audience and smiles were abundant afterwards, all due to the passion of the people behind the production.
With this being said, now that the curtains have closed and the final bows have been taken, the advanced theatre students are ready for a new challenge to latch onto.
According to Cody, they always have Charlie Brown in the winter, so most likely that will be their next project. But after that? “Who knows what’ll happen in the spring?”
And with that, the theatre-goers of Laurel Highlands are left with exciting things in store for the future, with both Charlie Brown and the Newsies coming soon. “Peter and the Starcatcher” was an immediate hit for everyone in the audience on November 9th and 10th, and if those shows were any indicator, this year’s productions look to be the most promising yet.