Peter and the Starcatcher: An Experience for Young and Old

Have you ever won­dered how Peter became Peter Pan? How Captain Hook lost his hand? How mer­maids, lost boys, and pirates came to live on the island of Neverland? All of these ques­tions and more are answered in Leeds Center for the Arts’ newest play, Peter and the Starcatcher, all while remind­ing us to cel­e­brate the inner child in all of us, the pow­er of find­ing a com­mu­ni­ty, and the courage to stand up for what is right.

A young orphan and his mates are shipped off from Victorian England to a dis­tant island ruled by the evil King Zarboff. They know noth­ing of the mys­te­ri­ous trunk in the captain’s cab­in, which con­tains a pre­cious, oth­er­world­ly car­go. At sea, the boys are dis­cov­ered by a pre­co­cious young girl named Molly, a Starcatcher-in-train­ing who real­izes that the trunk’s pre­cious car­go is starstuff, a celes­tial sub­stance so pow­er­ful that it must nev­er fall into the wrong hands. When the ship is tak­en over by pirates — led by the fear­some Black Stache, a vil­lain deter­mined to claim the trunk and its trea­sure for his own — the jour­ney quick­ly becomes a thrilling adventure.

Peter and the Starcatcher is direct­ed by Esther Neel, a free­lance the­atre artist from Lexington, KY, and has nine­teen cast mem­bers ages six­teen to over six­ty. “It’s so inter­est­ing that our cast includes peo­ple of all ages, but with this script, we are all tak­en back to our child­hood,” says Elena Guerra, a Winchester native play­ing Molly. “ It’s a uni­ver­sal feel­ing of won­der and joy that excludes no one.”

Jacob Ernst, who plays Prentiss, shared, “This sto­ry to me is incred­i­bly impor­tant. To me it’s about grow­ing up, fig­ur­ing out who you are, and find­ing your own fam­i­ly. My first expe­ri­ence came when I was a fresh­man in high school prepar­ing to audi­tion for my first show and I got the chance to play Peter. Now as an adult, I’m get­ting a chance to return to that sto­ry and reflect on what it meant to me then and what it means to me now. I also got the chance to come back to this sto­ry sur­round­ed by my best friends, some of whom I’ve known since I was the age of the char­ac­ters in the show. Being able to tell this sto­ry that’s already so per­son­al about find­ing your peo­ple and your­self along­side my best friends is gen­uine­ly a dream come true.”

When asked why audi­ences should come see this show, David Lin, a young actor play­ing a Pirate said, “Seeing these fan­tas­tic actors and team come togeth­er to make this play unique and fun has been a mas­sive breath of fresh air that not many oth­er pro­duc­tions have repli­cat­ed. There’s some­thing spe­cial here that has made this play go from some­thing I bare­ly paid atten­tion to, to one of my favorite plays at the moment — and one that peo­ple should see.”

One of the most unique things about this show is the amount of incred­i­ble, diverse local tal­ent that is on dis­play. From actors who have been onstage many times at Leeds, to some for whom this is their first time, to pro­fes­sion­al actors who have been in hun­dreds of pro­duc­tions, to young actors who are hold­ing their own! 

“Leeds Center for the Arts has always felt like home for me,” says Guerra. “Growing up in Winchester and now see­ing peo­ple from all over Central Kentucky come to their shows, whether it be in the audi­ence or on the stage tru­ly thrills me.”

Peter and the Starcatcher runs February 24–26 and March 3–5, 2023. Tickets are $22 and $18 and are avail­able at www.leedscenter.org.