When Jared Moninger ‘23 auditioned for this fall’s performance of “Peter and the Starcatcher”, he had no idea he was going to be City High’s first assistant director in a long time.

“A couple of days leading up, I wasn’t having the best time. I was planning on auditioning for the show, and I also applied to be the assistant director just in case my audition went bad,” Moninger explained. “It was awful. It was the worst audition I’ve ever done.”

The director told him she wanted him to be the assistant director the next day.

“To me, that meant more than anything. That meant more than having a lead role,” Moninger said.

Moninger isn’t the only director with firsts this fall. Lauren Darby, who has directed numerous other productions both at City High and at other schools, is facing her first year as the director of the theater program.

She explains that she directed a play under Troy Peters’ leadership as the head of theater in 2019.

“I was away for the last two years working at other schools in the district, so this is in some ways a return and in other ways a totally new experience.”

Darby describes “Peter and the Starcatcher” as a reimagining of “Peter Pan”.

“We see in this story the interpretation of what might have happened.  So in some ways, it’s a prequel, but in other ways, it is a totally new story. It’s like an origin story of Peter Pan that pokes fun at the original story that many people are familiar with,” Darby said.

There are over a hundred students currently working on the show. Darby describes it as a labor of love from everyone involved, and an experience where the audience can think differently on stories they’ve heard their entire lives.

“The same stories that people have always heard can have new meaning and provide new insights for the people who are watching them.”