A Quick Look Inside “Star Catcher”

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Lily Harris

Another school year, another play the school has given us. From the directors of the Theatre Department, Nicholas Mills and Annie Dragoo, comes a new imaginative project called Peter and the Starcatcher. Now, if you are wondering what the premise of the latest magnum opus is, Peter and the Starcatcher, which is based on the 2006 novel Peter and the Starcatcher, is a play retelling the origin story of how Peter Pan and Captain Hook became the legends they’re known as today, how the two of them became rivals and how Peter Pan learned the ability to fly.

The cast will consist of Nicholas Aragon-Maresca as the adventurous and rebellious Boy (also known as ‘Peter Pan’), Logan Robichaud as the maleficent Captain Stache (also known as ‘Captain Hook’), Mary Blanchard as the highly intelligent and heroic Molly Aster, Indigo Raetz as the pompous Prentiss, and Truman Matheny as an orphan boy named Ted.

What I heard about the project coming to fruition is that this school was one out of three schools in the nation to bring this mesmerizing retelling of Peter Pan to life on stage. One of the directors, who considered doing the project was Mrs. Dragoo, and one of the reasons why they chose the screenplay is because the theater teachers thought the rest of the students wanted to do this project. Unfortunately, Mrs. Dragoo (who was originally going to direct the whole project) became ill, and director Mr. Nicholas Mills had to take her spot in the director’s chair.

There are some techniques the play will use to make the play come to life. One of the techniques that will be used in this play is allowing the audience to invest in what’s going on. Since this is a fantasy filled with imagination, they would let the audience get involved with the play and to let use their imagination to believe that what is happening is really happening in front of our eyes.  What the director would also use to get the audience involved with the film and a part of the scenes, they’ll use a lot of elements like Fourth-Wall breaks to get the audience to get “hooked” and attached to the film. During scenes of pirates going from ship to ship, they’ll use ropes so the cast of characters can swing from one ship to another. Mr. Billy Dragoo and the rest of the classmates will design the sets they will use in the scenes that the actors will play their roles in. And for entertainment during points of the film, there will be some dance and musical numbers as the play goes on, and both of the dance and music numbers will all be choreographed by Mrs. Dragoo.

Star Catcher will have showings on October 20th-23rd and there will be other showings on the 27th -30th. This show may be one of the most magical plays that have ever been made by Austin High School Theatre Department, and hopefully when it comes out it’ll be just as exciting and entertaining as everyone hoped it would be. See you at showtime.