FOREVER MPETA
"Once Upon a Time, Past Becomes Prensent"
A new Afro-Caribbean musical inspired by J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, featuring elements of African folktales, myths, and legends, all reworked with an original score. With an updated approach and a new focus on the principal characters, Mpeta will surely delight audiences of all ages with its familiar magical story of eternal youth and friendship.
Fifteen year-old SHELBY SIMMONS dreams of someday becoming a famous author. From their secret corner of Brooklyn's Prospect Park, she and her siblings, WADE and TODD, watch the 4th of July fireworks over the East River and make a wish on a seemingly strange shooting star headed their way. Later that night, Shelby sings of her hope to make it across the river to the wonderful island of Manhattan where dreams of success and fame really come true, though she's doubtful she has any real talent beyond the silly stories she makes up to entertain her brothers and friends. The soft summer breeze, music of the crickets and frogs, lulls Shelby and her brothers to sleep in their "hidden spot" in the park.
Shelby suddenly awakens to the arrival of a strange boy, MPETA (M-pee-ta), and his little sidekick, YAM YAM. The weird boy intrigues her brothers with his wild claims of "flying" and fighting bandits on his island of "Misbegot". Mpeta is impressed when he learns that Shelby is a storyteller. He and his band of orphans on the island yearn to have stories told to them at the end of their day of adventrues. Before long, the three are persuaded to take off with Mpeta and his pesky companion to his mystery island, a place beyond Shelby's wildest dreams...and stories.
On Misbegot, Shelby and her brothers get caught up in the world of Mpeta and his Adventure Pack -- youths of no known parentage, and their struggle to save their little island from predatory bandits. Mpeta, his cohorts, and the other natives on Misbegot have long forgotten their pre-colonial African past where they were abducted from their villages. These young captives had escaped the Middle Passage only to drift to this seemingly invisible and improbable island. Now they crave the sense of meaning and near-recognition they get from Shelby's stories. After daring exploits, confrontations, captivity by the bandits, and ultimate rescue and triumphs, Shelby and her siblings return home to Brooklyn in a surprising finale.
With a greater appreciation of her own world of displaced identity, little-known heritage and culture, Shelby returns home at play's end with a new confidence in the kinds of stories to tell, inspired by the insights from her adventures with Mpeta and his "lost" Pack.
Envisioned as a musical vehicle with
major stage, film and recording stars, as well as rotation "visiting artists",
Forever Mpeta is also projected as a feature film property.
