I was very fortunate to be a part of Peter Pan Live!, which aired last Thursday night on NBC. It’s perhaps the highlight of 2014 for me, which is pretty incredible considering I spent nearly 5 months in Africa this year. But it was the perfect fit on so many levels: I’m a theater nerd who’s spent much of the last decade working in TV, and this sort of “live theater on TV” project is the perfect combination of the two. A friend from college had worked on Sound of Music Live last year, so I reached out to see if there was a position I might be right for. I had no expectations but it ended up coming to fruition! I was hired as the Script PA and began working just a week after returning from South Africa.

Peter Pan Live was shot at Grumman Studios in Bethpage, Long Island. It’s easily accessible from NYC on the LIRR train out of Penn Station (confession: I pronounced LIRR as “lear” for the first week before realizing that wasn’t a thing). The production provided vans at the Hicksville train station to transport us to Grumman.

My first day was Halloween. While the cast and creative team was still at off-site rehearsals in the city, I used the down time to set up the Script Department office and prepare script binders and crew mailboxes.

I got really familiar with the copy machine, as the bulk of my job was to copy and distribute script revisions, daily schedules, and rundowns.

As you can tell from the extensive signage above, everything was on-site — wardrobe, hair & make-up, lighting, carpentry, art department, props, etc. I read that we had about 350 crew and 46 cast members working on Peter Pan Live.

The first week of November — one month before the live broadcast — rehearsals started at Grumman. For a week and a half our actors rehearsed on the newly built sets with theatrical director Rob Ashford, as the TV broadcast director Glenn Weiss planned his camera shots. The cameras (16 in total) joined us three weeks before the broadcast.

There happened to be a large concentration of Emerson College grads working on this project… eleven of us in total!

The show kept us all VERY well-fed. Okay, maybe too well-fed, as there was an extensive buffet and dessert table every day for lunch… not to mention constant stacks available down the hall in Crafty.

For most of the run, production provided hotel rooms for our department as we were often the last ones to leave at night. I usually finished by midnight but the week of the live show I was there until around 2am each night. The nearby hotel made those hours more manageable.

The Marriott Residence Inn even surprised us with treats in our rooms during the week of the show! How incredibly sweet (no pun intended). A special shout out to Anna, our travel coordinator, who planned all of the train, shuttle van, and hotel schedules every day. She’s a rock star.

When it came to taking photos on the set, these signs were plastered everywhere:

And since I really liked my job, I didn’t take any photos around the set until after the live show finished at 11pm EST last Thursday. But here’s a few photos from rehearsal that were shared by one of our esteemed Executive Producers, Neil Meron, who also produces the Oscars and a lot of other major shows with his partner Craig Zadan. Neil is very active on Twitter and I enjoyed following his “sneak peek” updates throughout rehearsals. Here are some of the images he shared:

A few more shots I snapped during rehearsals — this “knock before you Walken” sign in the production office (how appropriate!), a reminder to wear shoe covers in Neverland because the floor was newly painted, our daily neon wristbands showing we had clearance to be on set, and a cake to celebrate the birthday of our director Rob Ashford. (Side note: have you ever sung Happy Birthday with a crowd of Broadway actors? My voice was woefully inadequate and I merely mouthed the words after the first line.)

Two weeks before the live broadcast, a TV monitor was installed in our office so we could follow along with rehearsals (this was key because our script supervisor had to track dialogue changes). I loved watching the show come together, each scene getting tighter and more cohesive with every rehearsal.

As I mentioned, we had 16 cameras. After years of working with three cameras on soaps (four if we were lucky), that number is mind-blowing to me.

All of the actors had trailers just outside the studio. And that’s the video truck below-right, where director Glenn Weiss cut the live show.

Our Executive Producer Neil Meron also shared this photo on Twitter, taken in the truck during one of our dress rehearsals:

The night before Thanksgiving, NBC aired a special hour-long behind-the-scenes special called The Making of Peter Pan Live. I watched it with my family and eagerly showed them what the sets and costumes looked like. I didn’t expect to see myself since I’m always deep in the background, but a good friend with eagle eyes (hi Victoria!) noticed me standing way in the back of this shot below.

Here’s some memorabilia from the show — my credentials, my script binder, and a cozy sweatshirt that I’m wearing as I type this.

Allison Williams — our Peter Pan! — so thoughtfully presented every cast and crew member with a mug that references a line from the show (she changed “contempt” to “love”). That acorn on the back represents what Peter thinks is a kiss.

On show day, our dynamic directing duo Rob and Glenn generously brought in a gourmet waffle truck for the cast and crew. Oh man… we consumed so much sugar on show day.

I took these next photos after the broadcast finished last Thursday and everyone had cleared out — it’s a look behind the scenes where the cast had small “rooms” cordoned off by heavy curtains backstage. Since there’s not enough time for them to go to their trailers during commercial breaks, they were given this quick change / holding area on the set.

Thirty minutes before showtime, everyone gathered on Stage 2 near hair & make-up. Bob Greenblatt, the chairman of NBC, delivered a lovely speech, followed by a few words from our directors Rob and Glenn. What stuck with me the most was Rob’s urging to remember the little kids out there who will experience the magic of live theater for the first time during tonight’s broadcast. I took a moment to look at the people standing in my line of sight, starting with Rob and Glenn — both directors I’ve admired for years (Rob directs theater on Broadway and beyond, while Glenn directs the Tony Awards annually and many more live shows). Then there’s Amanda Green, who penned additional songs and lyrics for our show and whose other work I’ve seen on Broadway (her father Adolph Green — who wrote the original songs for Peter Pan — would’ve turned 100 years old last week). Our writer Irene Mecchi who adapted the script for this broadcast; she also co-wrote The Lion King and other major Disney movies. Our production designer Derek McLane, whose work I’ve admired on stage and screen. And a host of stellar actors including Kelli O’Hara — a long-time favorite — and Tony winner Christian Borle. I felt so incredibly lucky to be in the same room as these people. And I thought back to my childhood, watching the Mary Martin version of Peter Pan on VHS tape. It’s overwhelming to think that someday my future kids might watch this show — our production — and feel a similar affection. I am so grateful to be a part of it.

(I saw the above photo on Facebook and saved it to my iPhone without noting the source… and now I can’t figure out who to credit. But I didn’t take this photo and if I find out who did I will gladly credit them here.)

Sabrina and I returned to our office to watch the show as Adam (production supervisor) headed to the truck. Our head stage manager Lynn counted down to eight o’clock over the PA… “five minutes to air!” … “60 seconds to air!” … and finally “five, four, three, two…” and the show’s opening credit sequence rolled over a long jib shot of the London set.

I was glued to the monitor. My nerves subsided once we reached the first commercial break and I headed over to Twitter to read the first round of comments. Here’s a screenshot I snapped:

And later I spied this gem:

Before I knew it, we’d finished Act 10 and the credits began to roll. It was the fastest three hours of my life.

With the show officially behind us, there’s only one thing left to do: PARTY IN NEVERLAND!

Before the party began, I snapped these photos of our Neverland set. Isn’t it beautiful?

And I’m in love with this miniature London set:

I ran over to the pirate ship on the adjoining stage to snap these shots:

By the time I got back to Neverland, the party had officially begun — a bar was positioned in the Lost Boys’ Hideout and the champagne began flowing!

In addition to a teriyaki chicken dish served in cute containers with chopsticks, they had tender steak over mashed potatoes with crispy onion rings on top. Delicious.

Here’s the Script Department — that’s Adam (production supervisor), Sabrina (script supervisor), and me (script PA). Adam and Sabrina are newlyweds! We all went to Emerson together nearly a decade ago.

You may recognize this adorable dog who played “Nana” in the show — our incredible trainers led by Bill Berloni taught Bowdie (and understudy Lexie) to do all of the actions you saw in the broadcast. And that’s adorable John Allyn who played Michael Darling; I laughed every time he thought lovely thoughts (“candy!”) while rehearsing his flying scenes in the Darling nursery.

Pretty soon Neverland had transformed into a bonafide party. The Lost Boys turned the mermaid lagoon into a dance zone:

… and later posed in London:

But the clear favorite spot for fun photos was the pirate ship. After working on a show about clinging to your childhood, it felt good to jump around and pose for goofy shots. Never grow up, indeed!

Check out all the camera ports hiding in the Darling nursery — at certain moments in the show we shot 360-degrees in this set.

Here’s our script team posing with Allison. I can’t say enough nice things about her — she cared so much about this show and gave 110% each day. She dealt with a lot of pressure in the most graceful way. And she did a fabulous job playing Peter.

Here we are with Taylor Louderman, who played Wendy. She’s a tremendous talent and it’s exciting that this project has given her more exposure. I remember seeing her lead Bring it On: The Musical in LA years ago!

And here’s the lovely Kelli O’Hara, who played Mrs. Darling. She’s also the queen of Broadway and has been nominated for five Tony Awards. I first saw her on stage a decade ago and have admired her ever since.

And last but never least is the hysterical Christian Borle, who played Smee and Mr. Darling. He was fun to watch during rehearsals because he constantly switched things up, trying new funny bits and different ways of delivering his lines. Ironically, the last time I saw him on stage he played Black Stache (the prototype character for Captain Hook) in Peter and the Starcatcher on Broadway.

You know how at the end of a wedding, guests sometimes take home the centerpieces? Well that’s sort of what happened at the wrap party. At the end of the night, people took down flowers from the Rose Forest in Neverland.

One final glimpse of the stage from atop the Lost Boys’ Hideout, a panoramic shot snapped by Adam:

And that wraps up a magical five week stint in Neverland. It’s been a tremendous privilege to work on Peter Pan Live. Thanks to Adam and Sabrina for welcoming me so wholeheartedly, and all the fantastic new people I had the pleasure of working with this past month!

I leave you with this review by Iain, a six-year-old fan who describes Peter Pan Live as “over-the-wall fantastic.” Thanks for reminding us why these live theater broadcasts are so important! (Similarly, this video of a young boy clapping to save Tinkerbell warmed my heart.)