By Wendi Reardon Price
Staff Writer
wprice@mihomepaper.com
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — Clarkston High School Drama Club is taking a journey into Peter Pan’s past in their spring production “Peter and the Starcatcher” at the CHS Performing Arts Center, April 26 and 27.
“It’s how he came to be who he is and Captain Hook, too,” shared senior Francesca Catalla, about the play written by Rick Elice.
Senior Megan Wilson plays Molly, who is an apprentice starcatcher sent by her father, Lord Aster.
“I am working on becoming a magic starcatcher like my dad is,” she said. “He’s kind of training me. Then, I find interest in Peter along the way and a curiosity about the boys and their way of life.”
Wilson shared Molly is fun to play.
“She’s just a whiny brat sometimes which is fun for me,” she said. “She also acts like a role model to the boys which is an interesting change between the scenes – if I am annoying or trying to be a leader to these kids that I have just met. She can be contradicting but she is a fun character.”
Senior Aubrey Drouin plays Smee, Captain Black Stashe’s first mate.
“I am always trying to come up with plans and ways to capture the kids or make Black Stashe look cool,” she said. “I just go with the flow, try my hardest, but it’s like I am always trying to be there for Black Stashe and I put him before myself.”
Drouin shared Smee is very blunt with everything.
“When Black Stashe messes up I have to correct him like ‘you said it wrong.’ It’s really easy because Black Stashe is phenomenal so it’s easy to bounce things off of him.”
Senior Kyle Nord plays Alf, an experienced seaman on board the ship Neverland.
“He has a very interesting personality that is very different to mine so it’s been neat to explore,” he said about getting into the character. “He’s more romantic than I would consider myself.”
As the stage manager, senior Francesca Catalla has seen the production start from the beginning from sets being created to actors getting into their characters.
“It’s really nice because for this shows it requires a lot of creativity from everybody,” she said. “It didn’t have a set plan so we came up with one ourselves. Then, we used what we already had and built the sets around that so that was really nice.”
She added it is the same with the actors. They improvised a few scenes a few weeks ago and will use it in the performance.
“We went over it, made it neater and now that’s the blocking we have – that’s really nice,” she said.
“Peter and the Starcatcher” performances are Friday, April 26 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, April 27 at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $10 and are general admission. Tickets can be purchased online at https://clarkstonhighschool.csstix.com/ or in person Monday through Friday at Clarkston High School from 10:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
“It’s hilarious,” said Wilson.
“It’s going to be really funny for kids, too,” Drouin said. “Because we are a cast telling a story, our cast are storytellers,” she said. “It’s not just the characters you play. We are narrators and then step out to be the characters. Because there are so many props it is full of imagination and we do so many effects and props you won’t typically might see in a more traditional show.”
“It is unique,” Nord said.

  Clarkston High School Drama Club, Drama Club, spring production