Mesa Encore Theatre presents…

Peter and the Starcatcher

APRIL 5-21, 2024

Play By Rick Elice

Music By Wayne Barker

Based on the Novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Peter and the Star Catcher is a prequel to Peter Pan based on the children’s book by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson and freely adapted for the stage by Rick Elice, with co-directors Alex Timbers and Roger Rees. For two-and-a-half hours, twelve actors make theatrical magic by playing dozens of characters: sailors, pirates, British naval officers, Mollusk natives and orphans in addition to eighteen major roles. The original Broadway production was a deliberately low-budget spectacle: an extravaganza of staging that relied on suggestion and storytelling rather than expensive set pieces like the chandelier in Phantom of the Opera or the helicopter in Miss Saigon. Elice’s script, jam-packed with poetry, fart jokes, gentle lyricism, and numerous nods to pop culture, is a coming-of-age adventure story about how a nameless orphan -- inspired by a remarkable and ambitious girl -- became the strange and celebrated hero that is the Boy Who Would Not Grow Up.

Credit: Stage Agent

Content Warning: Potty humor, some adult content and language, depiction of child displacement and abuse.

*The director acknowledges the harmful legacy of Native depiction in stories of Peter Pan. The Native characters in this production are designed to speak with Italian accents and do not reflect traditional Indigenous traditions