Peter Pan- Week 7: Meeting the Lost Boys!

Our Chameleon group was back in full swing this morning after a lovely half term of rest and a Halloween's worth of sweets. Now that everyone had returned it was time to hit the ground running preparing for the show and getting some scenes finished off. The most exciting part of today, however, was the long awaited arrival of the Lost Boys. 

We kicked off by playing a round of the group's favourite catching game; which they now demand every week. We had a change of room this week; which meant less space for the group to zip around in. We may have adapted the rules of the game to suit the space but everyone was still up for it and we all had a good time (even Ben joined in).

After we had finished the game we recapped what we had done last week; talking back the adventure through the forest that everyone had been on. This week we focused on transforming that into a scene. With John in the lead, the group marched through the forest and had to overcome three different obstacles of their choosing; one was low branches and thistles, one was a river and one was hanging vines over a large canyon.

The chameleons had to work together to figure out how best to get past each obstacle and produced some lovely work. We talked about physical theatre and how we could show the actions without telling the audience what we are doing; which the group responded well too and really embraced the physical aspect to performing the scene.

Meanwhile, Peter, Wendy, Tinkerbell and Hook worked on some different scenes. We revisited the first encounter between Peter and Wendy and the first real meeting between Peter and Hook at Skull Rock (more on that in the coming weeks). It was great watching the group explore their characters as they brought them to life in the scenes.

Once the group came together again we worked on the first scene where the Darlings meet Peter and Peter catches his shadow. We played a game of catch between Peter and his shadow which then worked into the scene, as Peter dashes around the bedroom trying to catch it. Eventually Wendy wakes up and sets in motion the rest of the story. It was nice spending time working on this first meeting and seeing the friendship form between the characters.

Then we had cake to celebrate a birthday and moved onto the second half of the session. We had some costumes for this half as this week we've been busy acquiring lots of fun things for the show. Suited up, we met the Lost Boys. In our version there are three; Fox (the leader), Cub (the hot headed one) and Rabbit (the sleepy one). The relationship between the boys and the Darling children doesn't get off to a great start as they capture Wendy as soon as she sets foot in their den!

Tinkerbell tricks the boys into thinking Wendy is their enemy; which Peter is very cross about when he finds out. We got to see Pan's angry side as he banishes Tinkerbell for her actions. The Lost Boys apologise and then decide to head off on an adventure while Peter and Wendy visit Mermaid Lagoon.

Finally we practiced the mermaid sequence with Wendy this time (as opposed to the chair, which stood in last session). It was great watching the three mermaids interact with Wendy as she explores the lagoon and the girls all worked extremely hard to create some beautiful stage images during their dance. This scene is apparently everyone's new favourite.

So ends another week! The performance will be upon us soon and we've very excited to show everyone what we've been working on. The chameleons have all worked very hard this term and produced some lovely work! Next week we will possibly be looking at flying and at the rivalry between Peter and Hook. More fun and games ahead! See you there!