“Peter Pan” Soars Again in New Version at Junior Theatre
Since graduating from St. Ambrose University in Davenport in 2015, Brooke (Schelly) Galvan has made an impressive career in creative writing. Her latest passion project brings her full circle, as the bubbly married mom of two is coming back to the QC from her Texas home to see her new adaptation of “Peter Pan,” performed at Davenport Junior Theatre.
The free production (in the Nighswander Theatre, 2822 Eastern Ave., Davenport) will be presented April 26th through May 4th at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturdays, and 3 p.m. on Sundays. The 60-minute play is a new adaptation of the classic J.M. Barrie story, with the Junior Theatre cast including 24 students ages 10–18, led by director Jessica Sheridan.
When choosing the shows for this season, DJT artistic director Ashley Becher said she wanted to be thoughtful about sharing a message of adventure, and the exciting opportunities it can reveal.
“With all the changes coming for Junior Theatre, I wanted our community to be confident that while saying goodbye will be emotional and difficult, it can also be wonderful and thrilling,” she said rewcently. “I also wanted to make sure that we were honoring our matriarch, Mary Fluhrer Nighswander’s, legacy, by uplifting creative women. Jess felt a strong connection to the Peter Pan story, but we didn’t feel like any of the existing adaptations were a good fit.
In the new “Peter Pan” at Junior Theatre, Bree Sparks (left) Noah Query, Ruby Baldridge, Luke Young, and Ashley Smith play Peter, Wendy, John, Michael and Tinkerbell.
“It seemed like kismet that Brooke Galvan who has a strong connection to Junior Theatre, as both a former student and instructor, also happens to be a playwright! Choosing her for this project seemed like a no-brainer!” Becher said. “And she has really delivered! This script is funny, fresh, but also feels very classic and true to its source material. It’s appropriate for our audiences, and I know they will love it!”
The last time “Peter Pan “ was done for Junior Theatre was 1995, and instead of being performed at the Nighswander Theatre, it was performed at the Adler through a special grant from the Adler Foundation.
Founded in 1951, DJT (the nation’s second-oldest children’s theater) plans to move from its longtime home on the Annie Wittenmyer campus, which was transferred by the city to a private developer for new rental housing.
The Lost Boys pledge their allegiance.
The city has an agreement with the Davenport School District, to lease part of the Davenport Learning
Center at 1002 West Kimberly Road, Davenport, for DJT classes and programs. This lease is valid
through December 2030.
Renovation of the Davenport Learning Center for DJT needs will be completed for fall 2025
programming starting in September. The DJT class programming will be held at the Davenport
Learning Center with showcase performances still happening at the Nighswander Theatre since the theater is not part of the redevelopment plans.
“I cannot tell you how hard it will be to leave Annie Witt,” Jess Sheridan said recently. “Really, I am often at a loss for words for how sad it makes me. This experience directing one last time while we’re on campus has been so fulfilling and humbling and I hope we are able to continue serving kids for decades in the future.”
Sheridan (whose husband Daniel was the longtime former Davenport performing arts supervisor and DJT alum) said she has many great memories of Brooke, who grew up in and taught at DJT.
“I can say the best thing is watching students grow up. Watching her go from a student to coworker to fellow parent, is really cool to be a part of someone’s life in that way!” Jess said.
“I really wanted to do Peter Pan because of the sense of adventure in the story and the way I think it speaks to the season Junior Theatre is in. But most scripts have cultural appropriation, are musicals or aren’t just very good. Ashley and I chatted and thought it would be really cool to reach out!”
Sheridan said this new version is different from any other out there. It is told from the Lost Boys’ perspective and their experience in Neverland.
Wendy and the Lost Boys are captured.
“The play begins with a Recruit the Lost Boys have brought to Neverland to get her to become a Lost Boy, but they have to convince her first,” Sheridan said. “It’s been fun to develop this piece with Brooke; she was super collaborative and did a really great job of keeping the story of Peter Pan accurate but also making it fun for our students.”
From ghostwriting to full credit
Galvan (whose husband Chris is an air traffic controller) lives in San Antonio, Tex., and has two boys – three-year-old Liam and one-year-old Elijah.
A Pleasant Valley High School alum, she graduated from St. Ambrose in 2015 with a degree in theater and communications and has had a ghostwriting business for the past four and a half years. Brooke primarily has written children’s books, musicals and plays, published under different authors’ names, written on contract for each.
“They erase my name, I don’t exist and I hold no claim over the content I created — they just put their name on it,” Galvan said. “A lot of people that hire me, I develop the concepts and write everything start to finish. We’ll go over revisions and we’ll go through the editing process, with what their vision is. I’ll have a client come up to me and say, I’d like to publish a children’s book next month…I just write the children’s story, they love it, they take it and I find it on Amazon.”
Brooke Galvan with her family recently — husband Chris, and boys Liam (3) and Elijah (1).
She works with a lot of different people, from whom she gets ideas but they have no idea how to write. Galvan has also written speeches for clients, and songs for YouTube channels of others. She’s written musicals that have toured in Hong Kong. She’s gone viral on YouTube many times, but none of them are under her name.
“It’s very heartbreaking, but also very rewarding,” Galvan said. She often gets jobs since she’s listed on the website Fiverr, which promotes freelancers.
“Peter Pan” means so much to her, not only because it’s for DJT, but it’s the first time she’s had a full-length work credited to her. Galvan had written short plays for DJT, including one that combined Katy Perry and Abraham Lincoln.
“I felt I needed to release my creativity somehow,” she said of penning a new “Peter Pan,” from the perspective of the Lost Boys. The Lost Boys are characters from J. M. Barrie’s 1904 play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up.
Brooke’s last role at DJT in 2011.
“They are recruiting a new member to the Lost Boys,” Galvan said of her version. “That new member doesn’t know anything about Neverland, has never been there before, doesn’t know anything about Peter Pan. We travel back in time and the Lost Boys tell the story of Peter Pan, from their perspective.”
The new Davenport performing arts supervisor, Zach Meyer, recommended Galvan to Jess Sheridan, who wanted a woman to write “Peter Pan.”
Brooke as a Junior Theatre camp counselor in 2012.
Galvan started writing in October 2024 and had her first draft after Thanksgiving. She said it stays very far away from the Disney version of Peter Pan.
“My focus with this particular script was making sure it was catered to the space they were working in and catered to the cast that she put in place,” she said. “So making sure children who are performing, that their strengths were showcased and the lines that I wrote for them. What we did in the Wendy character, making sure that she didn’t sound like she fell into the accepted role of a woman.”
In the original, Wendy is there to cook and clean, and follow Peter around like a puppy, and Galvan didn’t want that in her version. It’s been exciting in the rehearsal process, that she’s just a phone call away when Sheridan has a question or concern. “It’s been really great,” Galvan said. “I don’t get that with my other clients. I just send them a Word document and if they want something changed, they just change it themselves. This is actually mine, under my name.”
Brooke Schelly in her first DJT role on stage in 2006.
Meyer started his journey at Junior Theatre in the 2007 Mainstage production of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” and was involved in every Mainstage show until he graduated in 2012. During that time Zach was also a member of the Junior Staff, working with lights, sound, props and set. After high school, Zach attended St. Ambrose University majoring in theatre. While going to school, he continued to be involved with DJT working as facilities maintenance. After graduation Zach held the position of the Facility Coordinator at DJT from 2016 until 2021. Zach continued to be involved with Junior Theatre Inc. until 2022 as a designer, Production Manager, and as a director. Most recently, Meyer worked as Technical Director at SAU for the Galvin Fine Arts Center.
Going back home
Galvan took her son Liam to a DJT production a year ago. “It feels like going back to my home, which is wonderful, but I see faces I don’t recognize,” she said. “I’ve been gone so long, that my students now have staff positions at Junior Theatre. Some of my campers friend me on Facebook.”
“Junior Theatre, I was very shy and yeah, I performed on stage, but my onstage persona was very different from my persona in real life,” Galvan recalled. “Junior Theatre just bolstered me with confidence. It was like a switch flipped and by my freshman year of high school, I was a completely different person and I owe that so much to Junior Theatre and the directors who were impactful there, the students I performed with.”
Daniel Sheridan (former Davenport performing arts supervisor) and his wife Jessica are collaborating on “Peter Pan” at Junior Theatre — she directing and he doing lighting design.
“I hope so much the program continues in that direction under Zach’s leadership,” she said. “He has the exact same experience as me, we grew up together and did all the same stuff. He’s one of my oldest friends.”
“The Mainstage program is very special for me,” Galvan said, noting she was given a lot of responsibility as a teenager. “I had to costume 600 children at the age of 14…Not many kids are given that level of responsibility and that’s the beautiful thing about Junior Theatre.”
DJT’s mission is to build self-confidence and offer creative opportunities by producing accessible theatre for kids by kids. Programs are built upon its lasting heritage to become a premier center for the performing arts for youth of all ages and ability levels, enriching their childhood experiences and their knowledge of the performing arts to lead them to a brave, bold tomorrow.
New “Peter Pan”
This version of Peter Pan has all the classic elements you know and love, Peter, Wendy, Captain Hook, and that pesky clock! One character who is a little different is Tigerlily. Brooke has reimagined her as a sort of Mother Earth, friend of nature character. This show is not a musical, so you won’t hear “I Gotta Crow” or “I Won’t Grow Up,” but you will see a twinkling Tinkerbell, a crew of pirate buffoons, and some swashbuckling sword fighting.
Student Luke Young, who plays Peter Pan, said: “It’s an amazing story with fun and exciting stage combat! I’ve enjoyed my time working on this show with my first ever lead role.”
The DJT crew includes assistant stage manager S Klipsch (center) and the light and sound board operators, Mirabella Johnson (left) and Carys Gleason.
Seven students make up the technical crew team, including S Klipsch, who is Assistant Stage Manager. In addition to keeping track of the actors’ blocking, or movements, S will also be calling the light and sound cues to the student board operators in the booth. It’s a very important job, but it’s not all business, according to a show release. “The show is very funny… Every time we do a run through, I laugh.”
While this show won’t be DJT’s last in the Nighswander Theatre, it is the final production with its full-time home on the Annie Wittenmyer campus. It only felt appropriate to pack the professional design and creative team with JT alums, Becher said – including Roger Pavey Jr. (student 2008-2020) as the sound designer. Roger’s first (of nearly 30) JT productions was directed by Jess Sheridan, and he is grateful for this opportunity.
“Getting to design for this has been a wonderful full-circle moment as I am working alongside my first directors and mentors and fellow DJT alums I grew up with,” Pavey said. He is currently a full-time Creative Content Associate at the Tony-Winning and National Medal of Arts recipient Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. There he leads graphic design, creative content, and photography, but he still made it a priority to reinvest his talents back where he credits his creative foundation.
“Returning to the QCs nearly a year after I graduated from Augustana to work at my first creative home has been special. Working on the design team supporting this generation of young, brave artists alongside some of the people who have shaped me has been wonderful,” Pavey said.
Brooke (far right) in 2016 with DJT colleagues Zachary Meyer (left), Daniel Sheridan, Sarah Thole (McCraw), and Sam Jones.
Sheridan is no stranger to the JT stage, having directed nine previous productions, and enriched many
lives, during her time as an instructor. “This has been such a fun directing experience! It was so humbling sitting in tech last night next to two former students, one who is designing props and the other designing sound, for a show that was written by a former student,” she said. “I am so proud of the students, past and current, who are bringing this show to life! There is so much talent on and off stage and it is so fun to be a part of!”
For information on the show and other offerings at Junior Theatre, visit www.davenportjuniortheatre.org. “Peter Pan” is the final of three productions making up Season 73.
Its work is made possible by generous community partners and individual donors. This project is supported by Quad City Arts re-granting program Arts Dollars, supported by the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Hubbell-Waterman Foundation, and the Quad Cities Community Foundation – Isabel Bloom Art Education Endowment.
