THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 19, 1994 TAG: 9411190056
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
AH, TO BE young.
J.M. Barrie, the author of the play about the boy who never grew up, once invited a youngster to witness a performance from his box.
When the play was over, Barrie asked the youth what he liked best about it.
``What I think I liked best,'' the boy replied, ``was tearing up the program and dropping the bits on people's heads.''
Bruce Hanson, the author of ``The Peter Pan Chronicles,'' concedes that he never grew up himself.
Instead, Peter Pan has grown on him, since that moment in his childhood when he forked at a TV dinner and watched the adventures of the Darling kids in Never Never Land on television.
Hanson is an art teacher at Lake Taylor High School who spent four years researching the nearly 100-year history of Peter Pan for his book. The walls and bookcases of his Virginia Beach condominium are cluttered with Peter Pan playbills, recordings, scripts and books.
He's also the father of Drew, a 10-year-old who is so taken by the story that he's seen about a dozen versions of ``Peter Pan'' himself.
``Adults relate to the play in powerful ways because they realize that children will only be children for a short while,'' Hanson said. Oldsters are reminded of their own youths, too. Hanson recalled a line - delivered in another context - by writer Alexander Woollcott.
``Woollcott wrote about an intolerable nostalgia for a day that's not now and never can be again,'' Hanson said.
``The Peter Pan Chronicles,'' published by Carroll Publishing Group in 1993, covers performances on stage and film from Nina Boucicault, the original Pan, to Robin Williams, who appeared as a grown up and jaded Peter in Steven Spielberg's film ``Hook.''
``With the exception of Hamlet, no other role has been as coveted by so many actors as Peter Pan,'' Hanson said. And nearly all have been women.
About the only thing they had in common was that nearly all of them eventually got caught in the wires that enabled them to fly.
Hanson got caught up in Barrie's masterpiece while watching a performance of ``Peter Pan'' by Mary Martin on television. He was teaching in a middle school in New Jersey at the time. He decided to direct a school production of the play and asked some students to do a video documentary of the play, including a history.
``We discovered that a history was impossible because the information was scattered across dozens of libraries and archives,'' he said. ``That's when I decided to do the book.''
Barrie - the shy Scot who learned to tell tales by listening to stories by the hour on his mother's lap - first used Peter in a story entitled ``The Little White Bird,'' Hanson recalled.
The Barrie family owned a St. Bernard, and a dog of that breed named Nana was included in Barrie's play ``Peter Pan'' when it opened in 1904 to rave reviews.
``It has been performed in England almost every year since,'' Hanson said. And Tinker Bell has never failed to get applause when she asks children if they believe in fairies.
Among the Peter Pan memorabilia in the condominium Hanson shares with his son and a frolicking Eskimo husky are several special objects. Among them are the Peter Pan cap, sword and Pan pipes used by Eva La Galliene, the famous actress who founded the Civic Repertory Theatre in New York.
``She played the role each Christmas at the Fourteenth Street Theater in New York from 1928 to 1932,'' he said. ``The Herald Tribune described her performances as `brilliant.' I don't believe a more tasteful or perfect production has ever been done.''
Hanson, who dedicated his book to son Drew, believes that childhood ends ``when you lose the ability to pretend.''
Perhaps the most interesting observation on Peter Pan came from actress Jean Arthur, who performed the title role. In 1950, she wrote:
``Real maturity comes only when you have learned to hang on to your youth. If you can hang on to your individuality, hold tight to your freedom, and not get squigged out as you grow older, then and only then are you mature.''
She was right. Years have nothing to do with it. by CNB