Hi,
There are many benefits to living in a very liberal college town when it comes to producing challenging works of theatre at the HS level. While we can put most anything on our stage, we do have community members who can get very upset-and become very vocal-at the depiction of characters such as the Indians in Peter Pan.
My musical director and I wrote the following for our program. As a result we didn't receive a single complaint (with audiences over 3,000), and did hear from people who told us this program note helped them understand our choices.
Feel free to edit and use as needed.
Peter Pan first comes on the literary scene as early as 1902 and has since been adapted into many literary and stage versions. The world was a very different place over a hundred years ago and so we must keep in mind that societal ideals have obviously changed and "norms" in 1902 are no longer common place. Peter Pan is a "period piece;" a piece of art, theatre, or music, that is extracted from a certain era to give us a picture of society and life at that time and thus to modify a period piece would, in a way, be a bit like modifying history. Turn of the century Europe was fascinated with the romanticism of the "American Wild West" and so "Indians" were common in the literature of the time including Peter Pan. The directors have chosen to adhere to the original script in referring to Tiger Lily and her peers as "Indians," despite its known inaccuracy, because, first, we are under contractual agreement not to alter the script; second, it is only through the accurate portrayal of history that we can see how far we have advanced as a society and how much further we still need to go. It is impossible to learn from history if we rewrite the narrative. This topic was addressed with the cast early in the creative process so that open, honest, and mature conversations could be had during rehearsals.
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Krista Carson Elhai
Theatre Director
Claremont HS
An International Baccalaureate World School
Claremont CA
Original Message:
Sent: 06-29-2016 10:04
From: Michael Hancey
Subject: Peter Pan
We are calling them Neverland Natives and are creating their own mythology, costumes, and movement. Fortunately with the script we are using we are able to take some creative license. I read a lot of articles and did some soul searching about this very thing before approaching my production team about this very thing.
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Mike Hancey
Musical Theatre, Drama, Theatre Guild, & Theater Manager
Laramie High School
Laramie, WY
Original Message:
Sent: 06-28-2016 10:46
From: Jeffrey Davis
Subject: Peter Pan
Thank you everyone for the responses, advice, and especially pictures! One more question - how did you handle the racist portrayal of the Indians? My set designer brought that up, and sent me some articles. Did anyone have any push-back or offended audiences?
Thanks.
Jeff
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Jeffrey Davis
Plainsboro NJ