Maine West spring play 'Lost Girl' inspired by classic tale of Peter Pan
Maine West High School's Drama Department will present this year's spring play, "Lost Girl" by Kimberly Bellflower, at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 21, and 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 22 and 23. Tickets may be purchased at mainewesttheatre.seatyourself.biz or at the door. Admission is $7 for students and $10 for adults.
This contemporary coming-of-age story explores the tale of Peter Pan through the eyes of Wendy Darling after she returns from Neverland. At the age of 20, she must confront her feelings about first love, friendship and painful loss. The play takes the beloved story and changes an important aspect: now, Wendy is the girl who had to grow up.
Playwright Kimberly Belflower won the 2018 Kennedy Center Darrell Ayers National Playwriting Award for "Lost Girl." Although the play takes place in the present, Belflower expertly intertwines memories from Wendy's past to fill in the blanks for the audience.
"Belflower's writing is poetic. The cast spent a significant amount of time analyzing the simple and direct language in the dialogue in order to understand the subtext," director Judy Klingner said.
The ensemble cast has worked hard to bring this challenging script to life. Junior Kris Modi explains his character like this: "Playing Toodles - who is still a child, while in reality being the oldest out of the Lost Boys - is both eye-opening and very fun, indeed. We have a very tight-knit cast for this production, and you will see the impact this has made on stage."
The play's impact has not only been on stage, however. Junior Raphael Ranola revealed the impact that playing Peter has had on him in general.
"Acting has, overall, done wonders for my public speaking skills," he said. "A big part of performing is charging your words with motivation in order to make an effect on others."
While the content of the show is appropriate for younger audiences, some of the themes are best-suited for audiences ages 10 and older.
According to Klingner, "Audiences must be able to connect with the emotions that come with different types of relationships: The unconditional love between a mother and daughter, the earnest love between best friends and, of course, the innocence of first love."
To move forward with her future, Wendy must face her past and make an effort to reconcile each of the relationships she experiences throughout the show.
The crew is excited to do this production in the black box style, where the audience is on stage surrounding the actors on three different sides. The set is a combination of realism with a hint of fantasy, which adequately reflects the tone of the play itself.