"And that night I had the strangest dream..."

Issue 24: For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday

Hello Friend,

Listening in on rehearsals of Sarah Ruhl’s For Peter Pan on Her 70^th Birthday makes my heart ache for my siblings – in resonance with the familiar banter sprung from both around kitchen tables and the heightened moments absorbed together in hospital rooms. Such is the power of Ruhl’s compassionate and nuanced portrait of a family wrestling with what it means to “grow up.”

This play is a gift in many ways. It was a literal gift from the playwright to her mother (who portrayed “Peter Pan” in a community theatre production) on the occasion of her 70^th year and is also a love letter to theatre. Additionally, For Peter Pan… descends, as a gift, on People’s Light, as we rejoin so many long-time friends and collaborators. And finally, it feels like a gift to our present moment – even when we disagree (as the characters sometimes do), this story has the magic needed to bring us together.

Preparing for lift-off,

Marcie Bramucci,
Director of Community Investment

Inside For Peter Pan...

Cast members of 'For Peter Pan...' tell stories at a recent Spotlight Society event.

“Storytelling as an act of love is at the heart of For Peter Pan on Her 70^th Birthday,” according to Abigail Adams, our Executive Artistic Director and director of this production. “Ruhl deftly intertwines the story of how this family experiences death with the original story of Peter Pan. And she does this while unabashedly reminding you that in the theatre, we tell stories for the same reason. We tell them to the people we love—to offer a sense of belonging.”

The rapport between the artists has an uncanny familial feel – this is a group who knows and cares for one another deeply. The cast, a constellation of familiar faces – all long-time company members, including Marcia Saunders as Ann, Stephen Novelli as John, Peter DeLaurier as Jim, Leonard C. Haas as Michael, Mary Elizabeth Scallen as Wendy, and Graham Smith as George, their father – have indeed shared much between them. Like their characters, even when they disagree with one another, it is rooted in love.

And introducing our canine company, appearing in alternating performances:

Reg "Reggie" Adams

Bobby "Big Legs" Sheffield

Company members Marla J. Jurglanis, Dennis Parichy, and Christopher Colucci design costumes, lighting, and sound, respectively. Frequent guest artist Tony Cisek returns as set designer. Our trip to Neverland is brought to life with Charles Conwell as Fight Choreographer and People’s Light General Manager Erin Sheffield as Flight Choreographer. Resident Dramaturg Gina Pisasale dramaturgs the production, and company member Audrey M. Brown rejoins us as stage manager.

FUN FACTS

The story of Peter Pan is woven and filtered through the experiences of this family. Early in rehearsal, each actor was asked to share their own individual experiences of and encounters with Peter Pan – quite a few occurred on People’s Light stages.

Our director, Abbey Adams actually adapted a version of Peter Pan all the way back in 1978, when we were based in Yellow Springs.

People's Light then produced the original J.M. Barrie version in 1993, in which:

Marcia Saunders played a mermaid
Mary Elizabeth Scallen played "Nana" (the dog!)
Leonard C. Haas played a pirate named "Skylight"

Surrounding For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday

We invite you to check out these opportunities to discuss and engage more fully with the production.

Get the Scoop

At 6pm before each Wednesday evening performance, Resident Dramaturg Gina Pisasale hosts Peter DeLaurier or Leonard C. Haas (Jim and Michael in For Peter Pan...) for Scoop, a casual conversation with fellow theatre-lovers.

Gina invites you to meet the cast, enjoy light snacks, and get a behind-the-scenes look into the making of this production while discussing the background of the play with an intimate group of theatre lovers like you. You can call 610.644.3500 to add Scoop to your tickets, or purchase separately online for just $5.

Gina sat down with Leonard to learn about how this rehearsal process has compared to his many other appearances on our stages.

G: What has excited you the most about working on this play?

L: At this point [partway through rehearsals] what has excited me the most has been the opportunity to work with my fellow actors, whom I have known and worked with for over 30 years! And it has been feeling very much like we are brothers and sisters (which of course we play in the production!)

G: Considering your history with this company, what has been unique about the process this time around? What has stayed the same?

I guess the most unique thing has been a noticeable feeling of acquired “depth” and maturity, regarding how I approach “The Work”… Also the total embrace of diversity and inclusion feels a million times stronger and more prevalent than in the past… What has stayed the same is the commitment to the luxury of affording ourselves the time to really delve deep into the work, and not rush the process. Many theatres can’t afford extra rehearsal weeks, so it is pretty amazing and refreshing to have the luxury of extra time.

Thursday AfterWORDS

Stick around for informal post-performance conversations after Thursday evening performances.

April 18, April 25, May 2, May 9

Open Caption Performances

At these performances, an LED screen near the stage displays dialogue in real-time, simultaneous with live speech and action. No other aspect of the performance is altered.

April 30, 7:30pm
May 1, 2pm
May 2, 7:30pm
May 3, 7:30pm
May 4, 2pm & 8pm
May 5, 2pm & 7pm

More Access

People's Light is wheelchair accessible, service animal-friendly, and we offer assistive listening devices and large print programs at every performance.

Spotlight on New Play Development:
Harmony Lab Workshops

In State College and NYC, respectively, we hosted two Harmony Lab development workshops last month. Steve H. Broadnax III’s Inside Ashland, or Troublemaker (team pictured above, left), a play centered around local Civil Rights legend Bayard Rustin (which will premiere next summer), enjoyed further development in Nittany Lion territory with collaborator Jason Webb (composer/arranger) and a team of Broadnax’s theatre graduate students and professionals.

While in the Big Apple, Harmony Lab team Jonatha Brooke (My Mother Has Four Noses) and Geoffrey Nauffts (Tony Award Winner for Next Fall) shared their collaboration called Switched (above, right). The piece is about two women who, at the age of forty, discover that they were switched at birth. Presented in partnership with New York Stage & Film, this workshop also brought together other Harmony Lab artists and previous People’s Light guests (recognize any vampire-battling Preventers below?).

Photos by John Robert Hurley, courtesy of New York Stage and Film

Claire Inie-Richards is in the throes of Measure for Measure as Isabella, at Lantern Theater Company now through 4/21.

Kathryn Petersen presents a staged reading of her brand-new play Chrysalis at Villanova later this month, 4/27 & 4/28.

Susan "Sooz" McKey wraps up an exciting semester with a newly launched Adult Acting class at People's Light. Sooz used games, exercises, and techniques to make up playful and joyful stories, characters, and scenes. She also just launched into rehearsals for The Christians at Bristol Riverside Theatre (4/30–5/19).

Playing myriad roles, Greg Wood performs in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the Walnut Street Theatre through 4/28. Then, keep an eye out for his appearance in McCarter Theatre Center's Skylight (5/3–6/2).

Melanye Finister dives into some Oedipal family dysfunction in the Wilma's world premier of Dionysus Was Such A Nice Man (4/23–5/12).

Cathy Simpson has been enjoying a very full season of theatre-going as a 2018-19 Barrymore Judge.

Interfaith panel: At the Intersection of Faith & Activism

Nina Simone: Four Women brought the house down – with sold out performances for the closing weekend, and matinees for more than 1,500 students from 20 schools throughout the run.

Our final week of performances included a robust Relaxed Performance; a powerful and moving interfaith conversation, “At the Intersection of Faith & Activism," with a remarkably insightful and passionate panel and a lobby full of patrons; a pre-performance gathering and tour with a professional women’s group from Vanguard; a post-performance meet and greet with 50 Virginia-based students from Forest Park High School; and many groups, including individuals from St. Paul’s Baptist Church (West Chester), Chester Senior Center, Blazers Ski Club, Mainline Mentoring and more.

Audience feedback:

“...a powerful theatrical production that will burn your soul in a good way. I cried. I laughed. I reflected. I prayed. I embraced so much more of who I really am. It's life-changing.”

“Those four women showed up and showed out!!”

Attendees at the Relaxed Performance.

NPF Writer Spotlight: Dominique Morisseau

On Broadway, in Malvern, oh my!

Dominique celebrates at the pre-Broadway opening of Ain't Too Proud in LA this fall.

According to the Washington Post, the newly-opened Broadway production “Ain’t Too Proud proves to be two or three cuts above the standard-issue anthology pop musical... This result is achieved courtesy of the storied group’s deep melodic library, as well as book writer Dominique Morisseau’s dexterity at conveying each member’s journey.”

In an interview with CBS News, Dominique notes the current relevance of The Temptations’ story:

"Here we are, at this moment in their story, where these young men are in a moment in their nation that's in great civic unrest…They're trying to navigate who they're gonna be as artists, coming from a city that is also in great civic unrest. And I thought, 'That's where we are right now. That's where we are once again.'"

In the same week of her Broadway debut, Dominique spent a day with director Steve Broadnax III (Skeleton Crew, The Mountaintop), Producing Director, Zak Berkman, and a revolving door of talented artists in a casting session for our upcoming world premiere of Dominique’s NPF play-in-progress, Mud Row – which is set in and inspired by the East End of West Chester from the Civil Rights era to today. Stay tuned for official casting announcements.

Psst... A New Frontier for Arts Access: Now Seeking Participants

I’d like to share with you, beloved subscriber, some real-deal insider skinny on an incredibly exciting project that is underway. As I hope is evident in our work and welcome, People’s Light is committed to expanding inclusivity for all members of our community. We know that people with disabilities often encounter significant obstacles to participation in the arts. In partnership with the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University (producers of A Fierce Kind of Love), and the National Theatre in London, we are embarking on a project that will revolutionize arts accessibility for the deaf, hard of hearing and non-English speaking communities.

By integrating Augmented Reality/Smart Glasses technology with a new voice-following algorithm developed by the National Theatre, we will provide patrons with real-time captioning for live performances. Our project brings AR/Open Captioning to the US for the first time. But shh... it’s still under-wraps for the moment, while we gather needed insights from key stakeholders and community members. Informal focus groups will begin at the end of this month. Stay tuned for a formal announcement and more details.

For more information, or to participate in a focus group, please reply to this email (bramucci@peopleslight.org) and let me know of your interest.

Stepping into the future: from left, Lisa Sonneborn (Institute on Disabilities), Roger Ideishi (Temple University, Department of Occupational Therapy, our local RP-guru), Celia Feinstein (Institute on Disabilities), & yours truly.

Announcing the 2019-2020 Season

The chocolate-covered pretzels have arrived, which means subscription renewal season is upon us! You should have received the details of our exciting 45^th season in the mail. Remember to re-subscribe by May 13^th in order to keep your seats from this season. Hope you are as excited as we are about what’s on the horizon!

I also hope you'll take a moment to visit our Subscriptions Manager, Eve Trojanov, in the Steinbright Lobby before a performance of For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday, to connect in person and ask any questions you might have.

Click below to read more about all of next season's plays.