THE ECHO

By Grace Otey // Managing Editor • Illustration By Kyla Low

As Peter Pan famously said, “All it takes is faith and trust… and a little bit of pixie dust” for dreams to take flight.

“Finding Neverland” follows JM Barrie a man suppressed by the rigid society he is a part of. Barrie is a famous playwright but finds himself lacking originality and a compelling story, until he stumbles upon his inspiration, a group of mischievous boys.

Director, Dr. Steckbeck, knew she wanted to bring this play to life the first time she watched it. She enjoys the story itself and the balance the show brings.

“I just always really enjoyed the story,” said Steckbeck. “There was like a good balance of like Peter Pan, but also like the realistic aspect of it of writing Peter Pan, but still having all those themes. So, it’s not as much of a juvenile show. It saw heavy themes, but it’s still family friendly. So, they’re still adult relationships and stories to be told, but still under the, the themes of joy and play and imagination.”

As usual auditions were held in May, and the cast list was announced before summer even began. However, this audition cycle brought in some new faces. One of them being Aaron Hidalgo, junior, who hadn’t even planned on auditioning.

“It was literally out of the blue. I didn’t have a ride, and I was out in the hallway,” said Hidalgo. “I was outside the choir room and Zach came out. He was like ‘yo you should audition for this.’ I go in and I get the lead.”

The cast also features a few non-highschoolers, a decision Avon has made before. This time around, the additions are as young as 5. Steckbeck gave insight into how she found these children.

“So, the youngest is Evan Wallace. He’s in kindergarten and his parents are teachers here. Mr. Wallace is his dad, and then his mom is one of our instructional coaches. So, I’d seen him at the daycare stuff, like the child’s play labs that they do, and he was just so smart and so like put, I was like, ooh, I need a little boy for the musical,” said Steckbeck. “They’re all kids that have background experience and very capable of doing these roles.”

There are a few limitations and difficulties with using younger actors, from not knowing if they can handle the crowds to reduced rehearsal time. Steckbeck mitigated this with her casting choice, but the concerns are still there.

“I started their 1st music rehearsal looking at my former student now, choir teacher going, how do elementary schoolers learn music when Evan can barely read, let alone read, sheet music?  So definitely slowing down the pace with them. For now, they only come like an hour, twice a week. Just to get introduced, not get overwhelmed, and not have so much material just like plopped at them,” said Steckbeck. “And I’ve told the other, the youngest 2 families, Bridget has done theater forever. I told Bridget, just like know what the other 2 are supposed to say. So if they all walk out on stage and Evan’s like, whoa, there’s 100s of people here and he is has no idea. I will know that Bridget will get us through the scene.”

The show will be on October 2-4. At 7 p.m. on the second and third with the 3 p.m. matinee on the fourth. The tickets are $13 for students and $18 for adults. There are also opportunities to volunteer at the show for a discounted rate.

“If you’d like to come and you’d want a discounted ticket or even a free ticket, if you contact me, I’ll have you volunteer to help out with programs or concessions or whatever, and that will turn into you a complimentary ticket for you.”