Jan 21 2012

PETER PAN: THE BOY WHO HATED MOTHERS – What’s it like to be Peter Pan??

Some Quick Questions for our Peter Pan, John Evans Reese 
John Evans Reese (Peter Pan)

John Evans Reese (Peter Pan)

 

What’s the most exciting part of playing Peter Pan?
The most exciting part of playing Peter Pan for me is PLAYING PETER PAN!!! What boy doesn’t want to be Peter Pan? He does every cool thing in the deck. He flies. He’s the best sword fighter in two realms. He can get the girl with a snap of his fingers (though, he’s not quite sure he wants ‘er). AND, he will NEVER GROW UP! Also, Peter Pan has always been a huge part of my life. To be playing a part that I’ve dreamed about since I was a child is a huge gift. I am incredibly grateful every day. I think the most challenging aspect about playing an iconic character like Peter Pan is that he already lives in most people’s subconscious. People know the story – how are we going to shake the ideas in their heads and make it fresh? That is our biggest challenge. I think with Michael Lluberes’ guidance and vision, we’ll give Cathy Rigby a run for her money.

How is this Peter Pan different than the version we’re all use to?
Well, to start this is Peter Pan: the Boy Who HATED Mothers. From the first scene of the play, you’ll realize you’re in for a treat. This is not your grandmother’s Peter Pan. Our Neverland is impulsive, aggressive, emotional, manic, quirky, hilarious, and seductive. Our Peter is wild boy raised by fairies. He’s got a lot of street smarts. Our Peter has a deep scar that he doesn’t want to show to any one. His mother locked the window after his first journey to the Neverland and replaced him with another little boy. He’s never recovered from this and never will. Finally, our Peter Pan is every game of make-believe you played as a child from sword fighting with sticks to making forts with pillows and sheets during thunderstorms. It’s simply imagination and pretend.

What do you think is the scariest part about growing up?
Well, gosh. This is the biggest question I’m dealing with playing Peter! I think some of the scariest things, for me, John, about growing up are: losing your sense of wonder and imagination, realizing your mortality, feeling the weight of life’s responsibilities, and carrying the weight of lost loved ones. All of these things make us heavy, no longer allowing us the fly. For a better answer, I turn to the man himself: Barrie wrote in his 1928 dedication to the Llewelyn Davies boys, “What was it that eventually made us give to the public in the thin form of a play that which had been woven for ourselves alone? Alas, I know what it was, I was losing my grip. One by one as you swung monkey-wise from branch to branch in the wood of make-believe you reached the tree of knowledge. Sometimes you swung back into the wood, as the unthinking may take a familiar road that no longer leads home; or you perched ostentatiously on its boughs to please me, pretending that you still belonged; soon you knew it was only as the vanished wood, for it vanishes if one needs to look for it.” In Michael Lluberes’ Peter Pan: the Boy Who Hated Mothers, we’re jumping back into that wood of make-believe trying to catch as many branches as possible. Every day is a new game. Everything is a new discovery. Its a dark wood, but we’re hungry explorers ready to play. I hope that you’ll jump in and play with us.

John Evans Reese (Peter Pan) is an actor currently living in New York. He is thrilled to be making his DC debut with No Rules Theatre Company! Most recently, he was seen Off-Broadway with the Repertorio Espanol’s production of Way to Heaven (NYTimes Critic’s Pick). Other credits include: Hally in Master Harold…and the Boys; Charles the Dauphin in St. Joan; Christopher in On the Razzle; Rozencrantz in Hamlet; Happy in Happy’s Funeral; Malvolio in Twelfth Night; and the Warner Brother’s independent feature film Do Not Disturb with score by Danny Elfman. John is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts and the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities actor training programs. He is incredibly grateful for this opportunity.

 
PETER PAN: THE BOY WHO HATED MOTHERS
WORLD PREMIERE

Adapted and Directed by Michael Lluberes
Based on “Peter and Wendy” by J. M. Barrie

This radically fresh retelling of the J.M. Barrie classic is a theatrical event not to be missed. Exploring the original ideas and inspirations behind this iconic fantasy, Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers tells the visceral story of the boy who wouldn’t grow up in a way you have never seen it before but how it was always meant to be told.

Appropriate for ages 10 and up.

 

 

H Street Playhouse
1365 H Street NE, Washington, DC
February 8 – March 3, 2012

Hanesbrands Theatre
209 N. Spruce St., Winston-Salem, NC
March 20 – April 7, 2012 

Tickets: $25   Previews: $10
Student Rush $15 – at the box office only, 1-hour before curtain

For Tickets and More Information CLICK HERE

Categories : Peter Pan |

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