By Nanette Light
entertainment editor
Phil Gibson and Douglas Idlett hold the lifeline to the "Peter Pan" magic at the Sooner Theatre, literally.
As Aubrey Adams, the face of the theatre's "Peter Pan," which opens today, glides across the stage, arms outstretched before landing atop the mantle in the Darling children's bedroom during Act 1, the Gibson-Idlett duo are her flight operators off stage left.
"It's cool to look at the marquee and read, 'Peter Pan' flying off stage,' and I'm like, 'yeah that's us,'" said Gibson, who admitted the duo couldn't nail the mantle landing until about the 20th time. "Usually, when you're looking at a target, you're in front of it, and we're off to the side and at the same level going OK .... And just figuring out how to do that. If nobody gets hurt and we can do the mantle scene, that's great."
The pair, along with the other three flight operators for the Darling children, who coordinate a series of pulleys for the cord holding Adams above ground, as she glides forward, backward and side-to-side, are launching the theatre to new heights with the debut of flying as a special effect.
"You can't have 'Peter Pan' without flying," said Stephanie Royse, marketing director for the theatre.
And Jennifer Baker, executive director of the theatre, is still pinching herself every time she sees Adams soar during her entrance from the left curtain wing, something she's been waiting to see take off for two years.
"I've seen 'Peter Pan' performed many times before without flying," she said, pausing to laugh. "But I figured we might as well. And even though we don't have a huge stage, it's happening. And we have the flying company doing it."
For the flying effect, the theatre outsourced from Flying by Foy, the Las Vegas-based company which has been launching the Peter Pans from Broadway shows to small theaters into the air for nearly 50 years.
In fact, Harold Christensen, the flight master sent from the company to the theatre, who spent last week setting up the equipment and training the cast and crew in the world of flying, has arranged about 200 flying operations, Gibson said.
"We've been talking about doing this for two years," Baker said as she adjusted Adams' Peter Pan costume off stage during a Monday night rehearsal. "It was just a matter of making the call and hoping when you say, 'We're a little community theatre in Norman, Okla., and we want you to fly our Peter' that they don't laugh at you."
Adams, who's a bit of a daredevil, said she wasn't afraid to hang from the air by a cord, and compared to the harness she wears during the entire first act to a bungee jump set up, admitting the flight vest, which digs into her shoulders and pushes them forward, is uncomfortable.
"It's not very comfy, but there's no Quasimoto in 'Peter Pan,'" she said, adding the most difficult part was figuring out her range of motion and degree of freedom in choreography when in flight. "It's the role of a lifetime. I never would have dreamed I'd be flying on an old movie theater stage on Main Street in Norman, Okla."
Baker said the organization's budget, which is drained the most by the flying effect, and small wing space brought skepticism from several theatric professionals, like play director Lisa Fox.
Fox, who has performed in the play herself, admitted she was hesitant to undertake the production because the stage, which originally was built as a movie theatre, was not constructed for a play of this height and lacked the sizable wing space needed for lift off and landing.
And even though when the curtain rises the actors' flying practice will only total two weeks, Fox admits her tension toward the new effect has eased.
"I thought the flying would be my main concern. But right now, it's going so well, its the least of my worries."
