NEWS
Community School of Davidson Opens its Art Space with the Sky and Sea for “Peter and the Starcatcher”
There’s nothing like live theatre! It was so good to be back in Art Space, the versatile theatre Melissa Ohlman-Roberge created at Community School of Davidson High School to teach drama to the youth of our community. Covid had kept the place dark for nearly two years.
Last weekend, Melissa produced the vivid story of a Boy who dreamed about flying all the time and his madcap pals and foes who “Sailed the Seas toward the Second Star to the Right and Straight on ‘til Morning” in her latest version of Peter and the Starcatcher. It’s a rollicking show. Melissa designed and directed Rick Elice’s award-winning musical on the same stage four years ago.
Every year Melissa invites youths from other schools to join Community School of Davidson to audition for a production. Peter and the Starcatcher’s current cast included actors from Northwest School of the Arts, Christ the King, and from the select youth program at Central Piedmont Community College. Some of the players were seasoned actors; others were working with Melissa for the first time.
Replete with poetic verses, bedtime stories and fables, Peter and the Starcatcher took the protagonist over starry skies and raging seas aboard royal yachts and pirate ships to the Neverland of his dreams.
Griffin Small was the Boy who met Molly, a starcatcher played by Lacey Stogdill. Her father was Lord Astor, portrayed by Devon Ovall.
Avery Clewell, who has performed numerous roles on various area stages, played Black Stache, along with her sidekick Hannah King as Smee.
Amelia Easter portrayed Prentiss; Olivia Durham was Teddy; and Quentin Small played Slank.
A few thespians played several roles. Mia O’Brien, a soloist, also portrayed Hawking Clam and Bird. Garret MacIntyre did the roles of Alf and Fighting Prawn. Lindsay Clark portrayed both Teacher and Miller. Holt Grier and Anna Staskel joined others in the company as Pirates and Mollusks.
Peter and the Starcatcher’s cast also included Audrey Babbitt as Mrs. Bumbrake, Blake Tapia as Captain Scott, Will Clark as Grempkin, and Aaron Alcamo as Mack.
It was rewarding to recognize familiar stage properties rolled into place by the youthful cast to alter scenes augmented by dozens of props used in castles, battlefield, and at sea. The lighting designed by technical director Brandon Kincaid was terrific. Such starry, starry nights over rolling blue seas!
Welcome back, kids. Obviously, the play was fun.
Connie Fisher
Connie Fisher, neé Consuelo Carmona, is a Davidson resident who grew up in Mexico City where she became a journalist and acquired a taste for the theatre. Her preference for work behind the scenes led to an interest in writing reviews—Yale Rep among her favorite troupes. Connie is the author of Doing it the Right Way, the biography of an Italian hatmaker. Her prose appears with 87 other international writers in The Widows’ Handbook. An active, founding member of Lake Norman Writers, Connie just released her latest book, "The Mongrel, Bi-cultural Adventures of a Latina-Scandinavian Youth," a memoir about her years growing up in Mexico.