{"id":2441703,"date":"2019-03-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=301629"},"modified":"2019-03-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T06:00:00","slug":"cast-of-aspen-high-schools-peter-pan-takes-to-the-skies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/cast-of-aspen-high-schools-peter-pan-takes-to-the-skies\/","title":{"rendered":"Cast of Aspen High School\u2019s \u2018Peter Pan\u2019 takes to the skies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery\" readability=\"6.7753086419753\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-301629-73\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times | Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.\" class=\"h-100\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\" readability=\"6\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1.jpg\" alt=\"Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"7\">\n<p><strong>Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.<\/strong><br \/>Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times | Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.\" class=\"h-100\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\" readability=\"6\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"7\">\n<p><strong>Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.<\/strong><br \/>Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-2-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-2.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times | Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.\" class=\"h-100\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\" readability=\"6\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-2.jpg\" alt=\"Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"7\">\n<p><strong>Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.<\/strong><br \/>Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-3-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-3.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times | Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.\" class=\"h-100\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\" readability=\"6\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-3.jpg\" alt=\"Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"7\">\n<p><strong>Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.<\/strong><br \/>Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-4-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-4.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times | Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.\" class=\"h-100\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\" readability=\"6\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-4.jpg\" alt=\"Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"7\">\n<p><strong>Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.<\/strong><br \/>Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-5-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-5.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times | Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.\" class=\"h-100\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\" readability=\"6\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-5.jpg\" alt=\"Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"7\">\n<p><strong>Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.<\/strong><br \/>Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-6-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-6.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times | Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.\" class=\"h-100\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\" readability=\"6\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-6.jpg\" alt=\"Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"7\">\n<p><strong>Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.<\/strong><br \/>Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-7-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-7.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times | Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.\" class=\"h-100\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\" readability=\"6\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/pan-atd-031419-1-7.jpg\" alt=\"Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"7\">\n<p><strong>Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.<\/strong><br \/>Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/entertainment\/cast-of-aspen-high-schools-peter-pan-takes-to-the-skies\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/entertainment\/cast-of-aspen-high-schools-peter-pan-takes-to-the-skies\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">\u201cCan you really fly?\u201d the young John Darling asks the iconic title character in an early scene of the stage musical \u201cPeter Pan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Peter responds, hands confidently planted on hips: \u201cI\u2019ll teach you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">With that, Peter takes off and begins singing \u201cI\u2019m Flying\u201d while soaring over the stage set of the Darlings\u2019 bedroom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">As Aspen High School prepares its spring musical production of \u201cPeter Pan,\u201d which opens tonight, Peter (Morgan Witt) really can fly. And it\u2019s theater flight specialist Ryan Stanger doing the teaching.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Last week, on the tail end of two days of flying rehearsals, Stanger \u2014 flying director with the industry-leading, Las Vegas-based Flying By Foy \u2014 was bounding across the stage of the Aspen District Theatre, guiding the young cast and crew through the finer points of aerial choreography on the \u201cI\u2019m Flying\u201d sequence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Strapped into a harness with a razor-thin wire attached to her back and linked to a pulley system overhead, Witt took to the task with glee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI have to do a corkscrew and I watched my life flash before my eyes,\u201d Witt said between takes, then added with a smirk and a shrug: \u201cBut, hey, that\u2019s the theater.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The day\u2019s flying actors included Witt as Pan, Bridger Thompson as John Darling, Jessica Vesey as Wendy and Mateo Tafferelli behind her as Michael. They\u2019re joined by a cast of more than 60 Aspen High and Aspen Middle School students in a production running through Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Stage-side, hidden behind the curtain, Aspen High senior and fly leader Lilly Easterling was intently working her pulley and eyeballing Witt\u2019s flight path. It\u2019s Easterling\u2019s job to control Witt\u2019s side-to-side movements, while the grown-up volunteer Curtis Fawley muscles his rope to move Pan from stage to ceiling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Stanger\u2019s team at Flying By Foy handled the stage flights for NBC\u2019s \u201cPeter Pan Live!\u201d broadcast in 2014, on Katy Perry\u2019s \u201cCalifornia Dreams\u201d tour and the recent Broadway production of \u201cMary Poppins.\u201d The company is named for founder Peter Foy, who pioneered a new pendulum system that revolutionized Broadway theatrics with the flying effects in the original 1954 production of \u201cPeter Pan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Working with the young cast, Flying By Foy\u2019s Sanger was professional but kid-friendly \u2014 punctuating the rehearsal\u2019s small victories and moments of progress with an enthusiastic cry of \u201cCoolio!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Short and stocky, wearing glasses and a goatee, he doled out quick and clear adjustments after each run through with his young flying cast. After a few stumbles and adjustments on Pan\u2019s stage flight, he boomed: \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re going for right now! Think about anticipating the next move.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">On their second day of flight training, the team was working on a particularly intricate move in \u201cI\u2019m Flying,\u201d in which Peter takes flight, sings while doing some aerial dancing, lands on a bed on one side of the stage, takes off again and then lands atop a fireplace on the far side of the stage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It requires the fly team to place Witt in exactly the right place in the air at just the right part in the song and it requires Witt to stick the landing mid-song on a thin strip above the fireplace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">On their first two run-throughs they overshot the mark and Witt was left dangling. But by the third attempt, miraculously, she landed and didn\u2019t miss a beat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\">atravers@aspentimes.com<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/entertainment\/cast-of-aspen-high-schools-peter-pan-takes-to-the-skies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on March 7.Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times Morgan Witt performing as Peter Pan during a rehearsa on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2441703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 07:45:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2441703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2441703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2441703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2441703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}