Inside FMS’ Peter Pan!

We all know that the cast and crew of Peter Pan did an excellent job, but what do they think of their performance experience? Continue reading to find exclusive interviews from the cast, crew, and even directors of FMS’ very own Peter Pan!

Interviews With the Cast

Kate Hershberger (Liza)

Question: What was your favorite part of being in the play? 

Answer: “My favorite part of playing Liza is my feather duster. It was cool how it was like a part of my personality. I even had a whole dance with it!”

Michelle Jenkins (Pirate Ensemble)

Question: What are you going to miss most about the play?

Answer: “I think being with everyone, they are like a second family to me.”

Tara Gumpper (Tiger Lily)

Question: What was your favorite part of being tiger lily?

Answer: “Definitely getting to meet all you guys in the play. The dancing, acting and singing was super fun. I also think my favorite dance was Uga a wug! It was super fun to dance with all the natives and lost boys, and of course Peter Pan!”

Noelle Schilens and Abigail Baccaglini (Twin #1 and Twin #2)     

Question: What was your favorite part about the play?

Noelle: “I really liked the people. it was so fun to get to act with them and we’ve had so many laughs together.”

Abigail: “My favorite part of being in the play would be the ending of the show and everyone screaming and congratulating each other.”

Amelia Corcoran (Peter Pan)

Question: What was the most challenging part of being the lead?

Answer: “The most challenging part of being the lead wasn’t what you’d think, like memorizing lines and what not, but instead it was probably making sure that I was practicing consistently and that I was balancing the work for the musical with the rest of my life well. Overall, I honestly think I did a pretty good job of it. I learned a lot from the last musical I was in and built off of that for this one.”

Johannes Dohl (Captain Hook)

Question: What was your favorite pirate dance and why?

Answer: “I would say that it was the Waltz. It was the funniest and had the most character to it. I would also say that it had the most liveliness to it that you could tell when it was funny. It was always funny and I mean, it was a long song. The song was good and people hooked into the character.” 

Hailey McLaughlin (Tinker Bell)

Question: What was the most challenging part of moving around in your costume?

Answer: “The most challenging part of moving around in my costume were the wings. It was hard to move in tight places and sometimes uncomfortable.” 

Olivia Montague (Wendy)

Question: What was your reaction when you got the part of Wendy?

Answer: “When I got Wendy, I was absolutely ecstatic. It was like the world stopped spinning when I read my name next to ‘Wendy Darling’. It was also surreal, I nearly couldn’t believe it! I wanted to start working on lines right away. I started working on Tender Shepherd. I couldn’t wait to prove myself to everyone. Being the director’s daughter may have its perks. However it also meant I had to work twice as hard. I remember being very, very worried that people would hate me, believing that I got the role because I was Mrs. Montague’s daughter. But the cast and crew was so incredibly kind, I don’t know what I was worried about!”

Interviews With Crew

Savannah Paul (Photography)

Question: Why did you join crew?

Answer: “I joined crew because it was something new and felt like a good opportunity to make more friends. It was also fun painting sets and things like that.”

Charlie Allen (Lights)

Question: Why did you choose to work with the lights in the crew?

Answer: “I chose lights because of my love of Broadway and electrical things. I had also always wanted to be in a play because I can’t sing and after seeing Hadestown’s lights setup I knew it was for me.” 

Ava Gonzalez (Stage Crew)

Question: What was the most difficult scene you had to set up and why? During the actual show, did anything go wrong?

Answer: “The hardest scene to set up for me was the underground house because we had to push the big structure out and the slide, but there were also a lot of props on that scene! Something did go wrong during the show on the first night during the underground house. I left a tree onstage when it was supposed to be off, and yeah. I did get the tree off on night two so it was all good for trees!”

Penny Kilpatrick (Costumes)

Question: What was the hardest costume to work with?

Answer: “The skirts for the fairies.  We had to make those basically from scratch and we modeled them after the elements, so things like water, fire, earth.”

Interviews with the Directors

Mrs. Montague (Director)

Question: Why was Peter Pan chosen to be the musical this year? What were the ups and downs of working on this musical? What was the hardest part for you? 

Answer: “Peter Pan was chosen for the musical because it is a really fun story, and we knew that even if we had a small group trying out, we could make this story work with the cast we had.  The acting, music, and dancing were challenging, but also the characters were mostly children, so we knew that the plot was in the ‘wheelhouse’ of most of our actors because they are still young.  

The ups are pretty much everything!  It’s so much fun, and our cast really bonds over the two and half months that we work on it, so we become a really close little family, which is fantastic.  The difficulty is really just the time we have – there just never seems to be enough, and we want everything to be great, so there’s a lot of pressure to make the time work.  FMS Theater is magic though – so in the end, the show is always great!”

Ms. Francesco (Director of Crew)  

Question: Was it fun working with the crew? Were the sets hard to create?

Answer: “Working with the Stage Crew for Peter Pan was a fantastic experience. Part of the magic of theater is taking the audience – and actors! – into the world of a play or musical, and it feels very empowering to know that your team had a role in transforming the stage into a whole new world. One of the best parts of Stage Crew was getting to see how students used their own artistic skills to bring different setpieces to life and helping them bring their creativity to the stage. Creating the sets took a lot of teamwork and dedication, and I think that shows in how fantastic the final pieces were! There’s something very magical about seeing all the individual setpieces come together and create a full environment, and I think the Stage Crew did an amazing job of bringing that magic to life. I look forward to working with everyone again next year!” 

Ms. Bozza (Music Director)

Question: What was your favorite song from the musical?

Answer: “Peter Pan had so many great songs in it, and the different groups did such an amazing job performing them all!

I think my favorite song from Peter Pan is ‘I Won’t Grow Up’ because I love the idea of being able to keep a piece of childhood with you forever. 

I also don’t want to ‘wear a serious expression in the middle of July,’ and this song is a wonderful reminder to keep smiling and always keep some childlike wonder in your heart!”

Tribute to Peter Pan

Peter Pan was a very fun show to be in. It was one of the best moments of my life, being on stage – even though I did not have a big part. Though there were moments of fear and sadness, we came through it and put on the play seen by many. A big part of acting is being able to improvise, and recover from mistakes made. The audience doesn’t know there was a mistake, so don’t let them realize it! For example, on the Friday production, many things went wrong, like when the projector didn’t work. We were scared, but we recovered, and the show went on like nothing happened!

-Katherine Matras

Peter Pan was the most amazing, exciting, and fun production I have ever worked on. I loved getting to meet and act with everyone. The whole cast was so incredibly kind and amazing. They are like a second family to me. The crew and directors worked so hard to make this performance possible and they did a wonderful job. I am so glad I did Peter Pan, even if things did go wrong during the performance and we had our tough times during rehearsal. I wouldn’t have pictured myself anywhere else during those two and a half months we spent working on this musical. Overall, Peter Pan was a magical adventure and I loved working with everyone. Just like how you can never grow old in Neverland, I will never forget this wonderful experience!

-Mira Dickman

For me, being in the play was one of the most amazing things I have ever done. At first I was slightly nervous about memorizing my lines and performing but in the end it was so, so, SO fun! I met so many kind people and we have become family. I will miss Mrs. Montague a lot but I know I will see her in high school. Everyone who was in the cast and crew worked very hard and I am just so proud of everyone!

-Kiersten Van Ry