The Seattle Times: More than 80 students aged 9 through 18 will take the stage starting Friday, singing, acting and dancing in “Peter Pan: Ready to Rise.” The show is this year’s Teen Summer Musical, a Seattle Parks and Recreations program in partnership with Acts On Stage Theater, a nonprofit focused on teaching theater to youth of color. Each year, the summer musical highlights a different contemporary theme.
2 comments:
I love when modern versions of classic stories are adapted not only to be set in the present but also to focus on the conflicts and context of the time. It allows the creatives space to build off past productions with their own experiences and reshape the story to speak directly to its audience’s experience. I think this is a very important aspect of revamping stories so that it isn’t just a pure remake of the most popular version. Peter pan is also such a well known story that if they just made it without changing the story the audience would have their own memories of the story. I think that by focusing on a present issue in the children’s lives it is extremely important to show them that their lives are in the media around them. By giving space for these children to explore theater in such a large and significant theater.
I really wish I could see this show! I am from Seattle so this article really intrigued me, and I also really enjoy seeing modern adaptations of classic shows in the theater setting. I think it is really important that younger actors and theatre people get the chance to perform on these big stages with interesting newer/modern repertoire, and see how each individual interprets the show and how it makes them feel. I also think having the youth (like middle and high school kids) especially in Seattle where recently there has been a lot of stuff around the shooting at the bite of Seattle with the gun violence being caused younger kids, think it is really important to see them participating in the arts like theater or music or anything else because having a generation of people who are sensitive and kind and creative will help change the future.
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