Peter Panto

A Note from Bill

My third foray into the joyful, irreverent world of Panto with People’s Light was Peter Panto, a musical reimagining of Peter Pan.

One of my favorite memories of the process is the sign we hung above the rehearsal room door, a reminder to celebrate “Whatever’s stupider.” It became a guiding ethos of our Panto-making, and a surprisingly effective way to open hearts and minds.

Each time I return to this form, I am reminded that Panto is about so much more than spectacle and silliness. At its heart, it is an invitation to imagine a better world, and to celebrate the possibility that we might actually create it, through the disarming power of laughter and musical theatre.

Working with Jennifer Childs and Alex Bechtel, we approached this familiar story as a chance to ask what happens when we give ourselves permission to imagine beyond the world we know. Neverland is not simply a place to escape to; it is a space where rules can be questioned, identities can expand, and the impossible becomes possible. In a world that asks us to conform, there is something quietly radical about insisting on the power of what if?

Panto gives us a unique theatrical language for these questions: irreverent, communal, delightfully unpredictable. It asks audiences to participate rather than observe, to embrace the ridiculous alongside the profound, and to discover that joy itself can be an act of resistance.

At the center of Peter Panto is a trans Peter, which allowed us to explore the possibility of belonging, the freedom to be who we are, to find our people, and to imagine communities in which everyone has a place. Through two simple words, “Yes, and…,” we have the tools to welcome each person’s humanity without feeling threatened by it. That feels especially important in a world where difference is too often met with suspicion rather than curiosity.

I am grateful to the extraordinary artists at People’s Light who brought this world to life through collective imagination, surprise, and risk.

Perhaps the real magic of Neverland is not that we can escape the world, but that we can return to it with a renewed sense of possibility.

What if…?