Director Rob Ursan on training future stars, and updating Peter Pan - Verb Magazine

by ADAM HAWBOLDT

Disney’s “Peter Pan”

There’s no denying that the story of Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up, is a classic — in all its incarnations. As a novel, it ranks as one of the greatest children’s books of all time, right up there with “The Chronicles of Narnia”, “Treasure Island”, and other books of that ilk. On stage, it’s been a hit ever since it debuted in London in 1904. And on film, well, it’s one of the most beloved movies that Disney has ever produced.

But here’s the thing about the story of Peter Pan: while it is certainly a staple remembered from many people’s childhoods, it’s also wildly racist. That may come as a shock to some, but it’s true. Remember the “Piccaninny Indians” (as Peter and Wendy called them)? Remember how they were monolithic caricatures that were repeatedly described as savages who were hellbent on killing and scalping small white children? Or, better yet, do you remember the Disney version and the song “What makes the Red Man Red?” The one that tells kids that, a long time ago, an Indigenous male blushed red when he kissed a girl and that’s been their genetic racial makeup ever since?

See? Wildly racist.

And that presents a conundrum to anyone wanting to adapt “Peter Pan” for a modern audience. A conundrum that Rob Ursan — artistic, music and production director at the Do It With Class theatre company — knows all too well.

At the tail-end of last year’s theatre season, Ursan and DIWC theatre company founder Andorlie Hillstrom needed to pick productions for this year. These couldn’t be any old productions, though. Because their theatre company performs their shows at the 2,000+ capacity Conexus Arts Centre in Regina, the pair needed something well-known. Something that would put “bums in seats” and pay for the facility.

“We started looking quite late in the season,” says Ursan. “We settled on ‘Peter Pan’ and we announced it — without ever looking at the varying productions that had already been written.”

When Ursan finally got around to looking at these, the inherent racism in the story stood out in sharp relief.

“All of the other productions were based on the original material, and they have very insensitive material about Aboriginals in them,” says Ursan. “Because of that, they’re not producible. You can’t portray people in the ways that are set out in these shows. It’s just not right.”

But the show must go on. And since it had already been announced, Ursan had to find a way around the racism without compromising the story.

On the wall above Ursan’s computer hangs a quote by Leonardo da Vinci. It reads, “Ancora Imparo,” which means, “I am still learning.”

It’s a saying that, in one way or another, has seemed to govern most of Ursan’s life. His education began in Regina, where he grew up studying to be a classical pianist. It continued at Oberlin College in Ohio, where he went to get an undergraduate degree in classical music. While there, Ursan’s focus slowly shifted away from piano to voice. So much so that after he left Ohio, he attended the University of Toronto for a graduate degree in Opera. Then came a post-graduate degree in Opera at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, Scotland.

Once his formal education was over, Ursan returned home to Canada. Here, he performed with several opera companies across the country, before returning to Regina to begin an entirely different kind of education.

“One of the things I always wanted to do was direct,” says Ursan. “When I was in my 20s, because I was back in Canada, I started being asked to direct some shows around the province. I ended up directing a show for Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan, and directing a few musicals in Regina. That’s where I met Andorlie Hillstrom, who founded Do It With Class.”

The two hit it off, and Ursan went to work with Hillstrom’s new theatre company. For the next two decades, the duo went about the business of molding young minds and bringing out the best in young performers from around Saskatchewan. Performers like Paul Nolan (currently starring in Once on Broadway), Tatiana Maslany (star of the hit series “Orphan Black”) and Amy Matysio (who plays Kenny on “Single White Spenny”).

“That’s the thing about Do It With Class,” says Ursan. “It attracts the most remarkable and remarkably talented group of young people. We have kids here between the ages of 10 and 18 or 19, and it’s never like I’m writing down to them. I’m writing material that’s complicated and up to a level that will challenge these incredible young artists. I’m not writing children’s shows. I’m writing shows that could be done in a professional setting with professional singers…. We’re trying to turn these kids into theatrical animals. People who will grace stages around the world, be on screens large and small.”

And in the process of teaching them the skills needed to do that, Ursan has done as much learning as he has teaching.

“Find what you love to do and things will fall in place,” says Ursan. “And the whole falling in place thing means I get to work with these talented people all the time. I learn from them as much as I hope they’re learning from me. It may sound a bit pretentious, but like the da Vinci sign I have above my computer says, ‘I’m still learning.’”

Which is part of the reason why Ursan eventually figured out how to fix the “Peter Pan” problem. The other part has to do with the time he spent in Scotland.

The Picts were a confederation of tribes who lived in Northern Scotland during the Late Iron Age and Early Medieval periods. Called “Picti” (Painted Ones) by the Romans, these people were fierce tattooed-and-painted warriors who took part in one of the most decisive battles in Scottish history — the Battle of Dun Nechtain. Had the Picts lost, Scotland as we know it may never have existed.

They won. But by the end of the first millennium the Picts had mysteriously vanished, swallowed by history or another group of people, existing only as a race of mythical fairies.

The Picts may be gone, but they’re not forgotten. Because when it came to fixing the racist Aboriginal stereotypes in Peter Pan, they gave Ursan the answer he needed: substitute the Aboriginal characters in Peter Pan with Picts, rewrite the script, and Ursan figured things would be good to go.

“I had a couple of months free in the summer, so I decided to write a brand new ‘Peter Pan’,” says Ursan. “I went back to the original, took as much as I could from it, then started making changes. Slight changes to plot and characters. And because it’s a musical, writing a brand new score.”

For the production Ursan wrote 20 new songs and did the complete orchestration. It was a process that was as challenging as it was fruitful.

“For me, sitting down and writing these songs was incredibly exciting,” says Ursan of “Peter Pan”, the seventh full musical he’s written. “It’s different than writing a song that exists on its own. Writing songs for musicals is an incredible puzzle. You’re trying to find a person’s voice in their ‘sung voice.’ Singing is very, very strange. Why do people break into song in musicals? The reasons vary, but for me, I look for things that are bigger than speech. Any emotional points, any comedy or any plot points which are bigger than just talking, and I turn those into songs or musical moments. It’s exciting to find a theatrical moment that can be filled with joyous expression of melody and rhyme.”

And this time, those songs will bring a brand-new experience of “Peter Pan” to the public. One we can all enjoy.