“There’s a line in the play that says ‘to have faith is to have wings,’” said Jimonn Cole, one of the stars of the touring production of “Peter and the Starcatcher.” “I’ve actually taken that line as a personal mantra for myself.”
He’ll play the villain (and a host of other characters) on stage when the production comes to the Peabody Opera House this weekend.
“It’s the prequel, so it’s not the story of Peter Pan, but more of how things came to be – like how Hook got his name and why Peter never grew up,” Cole said.
The play premiered on Broadway in 2009 and went on to win an Obie, a Drama Desk and five Tony Awards.
“Most theatre going on right now is very technical,” Cole said. “This is a play with 12 actors on stage who become everything – we become walls, we become the furniture, and we change characters with the switch of a light.”
Over the course of the evening, Cole and company assume more than 100 roles.
Cole, a Julliard-trained stage and television actor, took the part in “Peter and the Starcatcher” because he wanted to get a musical theatre credit.
“I come from a background of primarily Shakespeare, August Wilson stuff, more of the straight plays,” Cole said. “I wanted to break into more musical theatre, and without having it in your background it’s very hard to do.”
He has been well received since stepping into the role of Slank for the national tour and is eager to return to St. Louis. He has been to town before as a featured performer in productions of Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew” and Mark Twain’s “Pudd‘nhead Wilson” and was pleasantly surprised.
“It’s wonderful to come to a city with a receptive audience, and you always want to inspire them,” he said. “You enjoy the experience of turning people around and opening up their imaginations.”
He especially enjoys playing to younger audience members who resemble himself as a child.
“I didn’t see of lot of people that looked like me on stage,” Cole said of his younger years. “So I can’t tell you how much it means to see a young black kid in the audience. I see that thing in their eye, that ‘oh, I can do that.’ It’s rewarding beyond words.”
Cole vividly recalled making the connection himself as a freshman in high school in his native Virginia Beach, Va., when he watched a rehearsal of Athol Fugard’s “The Road to Mecca.”
“One of the actors came down the back stairs. He was in costume and he was in rehearsal, and he had a script in his hand,” Cole said.
“I had always had an appreciation for theatre, but honestly before that moment I had never seen a live actor off of stage. It was like a student athlete walking past an NFL star quarterback. It made me realize that it’s a craft and that it could be me on stage.”
Seeing the actor behind the scenes made him realize his own potential, while witnessing the man perform gave him a new perspective on the power of theatre.
“I have a strong commitment to stagecraft – not celebrity, but honest-to-God stagecraft – and that’s live theatre,” Cole said.
“Causing people to have emotion based on how you breathe or turn your head, and making people gasp by how you smile – that’s something that doesn’t happen through the television screen or on the movie screen. You literally see their imaginations open up.”
The national tour of “Peter and the Starcatcher” comes to St. Louis March 7-9 at the Peabody Opera House. For tickets or more information, visit www.peabodyoperahouse.com or call (314) 499-7600.
