Summer's end ushers in PETER PAN AND WENDY

By Mithra Ballesteros, First Stage Children's Theater

The scorching days of August are a mirage now.  Children crunch through the first fallen leaves, finding their way to new classrooms where they start the year with clean faces and high hopes. 

Photo by Mithra Ballesteros, First Stage Children's Theater

Here at First Stage, we have our own fresh start, and we too are quickening our stride as the new season approaches.  The scene shop and costume shop, shuttered and dormant a few weeks ago, are lit up and buzzing again.  Kids jam into the commons awaiting their auditions.  Tickets slide out of the printers into heaps on the floor.

Everything is possible.  Look at this photo of Hook's costume. It's sewn out of canvas, literally a spotless and clean slate on which to create a costume.  This is our version of laying out clothes on the last night of summer.  We mull over costume renderings and perfect the arc of Hook's hook.  Because next month, Lost Boys will battle pirates and Wendy will grow up. We will be reviewed by you and others.  But right now, the future is unformed except for our hopes.  We keep them in the front of our minds as we walk towards the new season, eager in the possibility of earning straight A's this year.

PETER PAN AND WENDY opens October 15th at the Todd Wehr Theater.  Click here for tickets.