Guyer High School theater students are studying theater without a net.

DRC/Al Key

Lucas Reid as John, left, Haven Hendrik as Michael and Amber Warner as Wendy fly during a rehearsal for Peter Pan at Guyer High School earlier this week.

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A handful of students have belted up and learned to fly in Peter Pan, the musical adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s novel by Moose Charlap and Jule Styne. The students who haven’t taken the flywire for a spin have logged hours rehearsing dances and building the most exhaustive sets in the young department’s history.

“We’re the district children’s show, and I love working with the little ones,” said program director Eleshia Crotwell. “I love the connection with the high school students and the children.”

Each year, a Denton school district high school is selected to produce a children’s show, and the district brings the elementary school students to the play.

Crotwell said Peter Pan is a great choice for young audiences and a good unit in theater education for theater students. Peter Pan is the famous story of a pixie-like boy who chases his fugitive shadow all the way from Neverland, an island where boys can enjoy eternal childhood, to London. Peter follows his shadow — and his favorite fairy, Tinker Bell — into the bedroom of John, Michael and Wendy Darling, the children of a prim and well-heeled English clan. The meeting makes fast friends of the children, and a trip to Neverland is inevitable.

“You do a show when you’ve got the group of students that can do it,” Crotwell said. “This is the group of students that could do this show.”

Guyer has bitten off huge chunks of theater already — the full libretto of Cats and The Wizard of Oz, to name a couple. Peter Pan brings with it the typical theater exercises: music and dance that can be vexing and demanding technical rigors for students in the light and sound booth. And there are lots of costumes, including intricate construction projects such as mermaid tails that look like satin scales.

But Peter Pan requires students to learn to fly, using the performance flight monopoly Flying by Foy.

Junior Shane Wilson, a flight operator, said the responsibility of making characters fly is serious. The department is limited by contract in discussing the mechanics of flight, but the media were allowed to watch as two students operated a pulley system to hoist the diminutive Josylynn Reid, who plays the title character, into the air. For the operators, sweat is part of the magic.

“The most difficult thing for me was jumping in on the last day the company was here [conducting training],” Wilson said. “You almost have to split your brain into three parts. One part is paying attention to what your fly guy is doing. One part is on what you’re doing. The third part is on what the actor is doing and if they’re going in the right direction at the right time. I put [Reid] where I need her to be, and if she wants to swing around and move, I have to get her back where I need her.”

Reid, a senior, has to do everything the star of a musical is expected to do, but in the air.

“I’m supposed to be a character who flies all the time,” she said. “You have to look like you’re used to it. You can’t look like you’re just hanging on a wire. That’s why I make sure I do all sorts of things when I’m up there — like I’m running or jumping.”

For senior Amber Warner, who plays Wendy Darling, the challenge is the opposite.

“My biggest challenge would be the surprise of flying for the first time,” she said. “When the audience comes in, Wendy has never flown before. We’ve practiced it a lot, but we can’t look like we have. You have to see the surprise.”

For senior Matt Price, who plays Captain Hook and Mr. Darling, and senior Jessi Taylor, who plays Smee, the challenge is to bring their own ideas to well-known characters.

Price wears a scarlet jacket, a shiny hook on his hand and the trademark black ringlets as Captain Hook.

“He’s definitely a villain, which is quite fun to play. I thought a lot about the Walt Disney version, and I realized that the Captain Hooks who have been good, like in the Cathy Rigby version, have been both comic and kind of dark. The good ones have balanced that out,” Price said. “That’s what I’m trying to do.”

He was surprised when some of the elementary students approached him after a show.

DRC/Al Key

Josylynn Reid plays the title role in Guyer High School’s production of Peter Pan.

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“Some of them thought I was cool; they liked the hook,” he said.

Taylor said she nudged the character Smee, the buffoonish first mate of the captain, out of the two dimensions of Disney and into life by putting some work into her character.

“I really personalize it,” she said. “Everything that I thought was funny in the script, I brought that out. You might think you’ve reached the greatest depth the character can go to, and then discover you can go deeper. And that’s really fun.”

For junior Rachel Pegram, who plays the American Indian princess Tiger Lily, the play has been a chance to shatter stereotypes.

“Although your characters might be these stereotypes with just one tone, you can make more of them than that. You can do that. I think we’ve made them deeper. Some people think of Tiger Lily as just an Indian princess, but to me she’s really independent.”

The students described the musical as a play written for children, with a lasting appeal to the youth in everyone.

“We try not to do ‘children’s show work,’” Price said. “We always work to keep what we do at a high level. That way, the audience gets a good show, no matter how old they are.”

LUCINDA BREEDING can be reached at 940-566-6877. Her e-mail address is cbreeding@dentonrc.com.

‘PETER PAN’

Who: Guyer High School theater arts department

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 2 p.m. Saturday, with tea served at 12:30 p.m.

Where: Guyer High School, 7501 Teasley Lane

Details: Show tickets cost $8. Tea tickets cost $5 and are sold separately.

Credits

Cast

Main characters

Peter Pan: Josylynn Reid

Wendy: Amber Warner

Tiger Lily: Rachel Pegram

Captain Hook/Mr. Darling: Matt Price

Smee: Jessi Taylor

Mrs. Darling: Kenzie Eckels

John: Lucas Reid

Michael: Haven Hendrik

Liza: Jennifer Johnson

Nana: Amanda Leavell

Jane: Rachel Murray

The Animals of Neverland

Lion: Allison Tester

Kangaroo: Alli Rogers

Ostrich: Dagny McCartney

Crocodile: Robby Shugarman

The Lost Boys

Slightly Soiled: Thain Limb

Tootles: Zac Martinez

Curly: Amber Prince

Nibs: Nate Welty

1st Twin: Morgan Allison

2nd Twin: Dorian Albert

Starkey: Chelsy Smith

Pirates

Cecco: Preston Stalter

Noodler: James Wise

Mullins: Chance Steward

Jukes: Tyler Carlton

Pirate: Madalyn Martin

Pirate: Mikayla Martin

Pirate Chorus: Amanda Leavell, Brandon Sharpe, John Dudash, Sarah Sangster, Ashley Mungiguerra, Jenni Lawson, Shelby Baker

Mermaids: Kenzie Eckels, Alexiz Graves, Milenka Lopez, Rachel Murray, Lizzie Sly

Indians

Braves/featured dancers: Lizzie Sly, Dagny McCartney, Alexis Graves

Indian Dancers: Rachel Murray, Milenka Lopez, Summer Inge, Mindy Nevendorff, Chelsea Rusnak, DeVantri Garza, Tyler Carlton, Chance Steward, Preston Stalter

Indian Chorus: Shelby Baker, Kenzie Eckels, Jenni Lawson, Amanda Leavell, Ashley Mungiguerra, Sarah Sangster, Brandon Sharpe

Chief: Jake Wojno

Crew

Stage management team: Shane Wilson, Amber Prince, Rachel Murray, Tyler Carlton

Assistant stage managers: Hayley Cogley, Carley Rivers

Tinker Bell’s operator: Nicole Luft

Sound operator: Ryan Smith

Light operator: David Tester

Deck manager and special effects: Robby Shugarman

Flymen: Rikky Lopez-Torres, Tyler Carlton, James Wise

Master flymen: Shane Wilson, Preston Stalter

Flight supervisor: Garrett Hutchison-Lester

Backstage assistant: Rachel West

Stage crew members: Hayley Cogley, Karly Rivers, Savannah McGregor, Chris Wheeler, Alex Caston

Costume crew: Brianna Cash

Props crew: Lizzie Bing