For over a month, the kids involved in the after-school program at Alpine Theatre Company in Whitefish have learned the fine art of stage acting, and spent hour upon hour rehearsing.
Soon, all of their hard work will pay off, and they will not only take to the stage, but rise above it and the audience, taking flight in the upcoming production of the classic children’s tale, “Peter Pan,” on Oct. 25 and 26.
“The flying has been really fun,” Luke Walrath, education and marketing director at ATP, said last week. “It’s a real trip to watch these kids all of a sudden just take off.”
While Peter Pan and his friends Wendy, John and Michael only needed fairy dust and happy thoughts to fly, the kids in the upcoming production are relying on a the wires and nationally acknowledged know-how of ZFX Flying Effects, the company responsible for flight in Peter Pan productions across the country, as well as other productions, such as Cirque de Soleil and film stunts.
“It’s actually the same company that flew Cathy Rigby in her role as Peter Pan,” Walrath said.
Adding the realistic look of flying actors to the stage will make this stage spectacle that much more interesting and fun for the audience, Walrath said, and it gives the kids who have been working on the production a chance to show off their skills.
The Peter Pan shows are the result of the Alpine Kids! Theatre Project, which is an after-school program where kids learns the basics of theater and creativity, with improvisation, movement, storytelling and games.
Fall productions are for the younger cohort of AKTP, with ages ranging from 6 to 13, encompassing grade school and middle school students. The spring production is for high school students.
All of the children who sign up for the AKTP program are cast in the play, Walrath said, because the production is less about stage perfection than it is about giving the kids a chance to experience everything they’ve been learning about for months.
“The fall program is always an interesting mix,” he said. “We didn’t start this program to create Broadway with kids, that wasn’t the goal. We started the program because we felt that theater is a great way for kids to find themselves and learn about discipline and confidence.”
With that in mind, there are 128 kids from 17 different valley schools cast for the Peter Pan productions, split into two entirely separate and whole casts. One group will perform on Saturday, Oct. 25, and the other takes the stage the next night.
One of the most rewarding aspects about teaching kids the art of stage acting and theater is seeing them understand they are actually in front of an audience, Walrath said. It’s one thing to tell them there will be people in the seats, but many don’t grasp that concept until the curtains go up.
“Then all of a sudden the light goes off in their mind,” he said. “What’s fun is just watching that light bulb go off, where they go, ‘Oh, I get it!’”
Though the goal of the production is educational, the performances are still sure to charm audiences, Walrath said. The story, the classic tale of the boy who never grows up and lives in Neverland with the Lost Boys, has been specifically adapted for the Whitefish stage, he said, and is a family-friendly, fun production.
“It’s actually going to be a blast,” Walrath said. “It’s a great show for all ages, and it’s actually the first show that we’ve adapted from the original Broadway production.”
Tickets are $8 for kids and $18 for adults. The Saturday shows are at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.
And while there may be wires holding up the flying actors, Walrath said it’s easy for audiences to imagine there is real fairy dust at work.
“It’s just magical, you know?” he said. “It’s Peter Pan.”
For more information, visit www.atpwhitefish.org.