Emily Keizer, Starkey the Pirate in the Summer Youth Theatre’s “Peter Pan,” takes a behind-the scenes look at the production, which was Thursday through Saturday, at the Lawrence Arts Center:

July 16

We had our first work day of production week. The cast of “Peter Pan” is fulfilling various tasks, such as painting props and set pieces, assembling John’s, Michael’s and Wendy’s beds, and decorating costumes and “weapons.” This would be one of the least stressful days of production week. My fellow actors (and technicians, aka techies) had a lot of downtime, in which we played cards, read and laughed it up with the friends we’ve made.

I asked Erin Girard, an assistant director, what was the most stressful part of being a director during production week. Erin said, “Making sure everyone has everything (props).”

July 19

Dress rehearsals are a big part of production week. Today was our first … and we have room for improvement. We were introduced to new props and set pieces, so we had to adapt to them. It was cool, though, to see scenes done with new music and lighting. It was hectic. The good thing about dress rehearsals is directors can see where we need to add things, speed up things or completely cut out things. I personally can say that it is crucial to pay attention about entrance cues. It’s hard to improvise while waiting for an actor to make an entrance, but you have to move on.

July 20

Improvements have been made. The energy was up in rehearsal, well for the most part. Jennifer Glenn, another director, reminded us that acting is reacting, and our reactions need to be huge for the audience to get the feel of the show.

However we did encounter a problem. Two of the prop swords have been misplaced, and the two pirates are without weapons. Jennifer and Erin stressed to us that we need to always put the props back in their “home.” With any luck, we will find them tomorrow.

July 21

The missing swords have been found, thank goodness. I think everyone in the cast knows one careless mistake can really cause problems, stress and tension throughout the cast. I don’t think it will happen again though.

One difficult thing we had to deal with today was reworking the montage scene. Rather than re-blocking the entire part, we were instructed to make reactions bigger, movements sharper and as always: Keep the energy up! We were told the scene looked “much better.”

Again, Jennifer congratulated us on a fantastic rehearsal, but we had three pages of notes. The good thing is that they are really specific, little details that will make the show amazing. We got the speech on how important it is for us to deliver a strong performance being in children’s theater. As Jennifer put it, “I want people to leave the show thinking, ‘Wow, that was a great performance,’ instead of ‘How cute!'”

July 22

Our first showing of “Peter Pan” went fantastic. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a lot of tension backstage. Members of the audience said it didn’t look like anyone was nervous. What happened before the curtain opened, though? Well, we had yet another dress rehearsal. This one was by far the best one we’d ever had. We were nervous because superstition says if you have a good dress rehearsal the show won’t be as good. That nervousness was unnecessary, though.

We worked hard and were very dedicated to the show. And it all paid off.

Emily Keizer is an eighth-grader at South Junior High School.