How We Faked Flying
The truth is: flying actors onstage sounds magical - but the logistics are brutal. We quickly realized that our biggest enemy was height. Our theatre had no fly system and very little vertical space, which meant there was no room to safely hang or hide the actors above the stage like in traditional productions.
Nothing works without a ton of smoke and what we called the “smoke wall.” All of it carefully designed to hide our flying mechanisms.
Behind the scenes, we called them “cranes.” There were three of them, each one designed with a custom counterweight - balanced for each one of the four actors that needed to take flight.
Here’s a view from backstage - the moment the kids fly off to Neverland.
If everything works as it should, the audience won’t see the crane. They’ll just see the actors off the ground.
These stunning shots were captured by the brilliant Ale Pinto:
The following is a POV from Ale Pinto operating the crane for Adri Cortez - our very own Wendy. 🧚
Each crane requires two people to operate: one to control the lateral and forward movement, the other to manage lift. Both need to be in sync for safety and timing purposes.
That “clank” you hear just before Wendy takes off? That’s the crew releasing the safety lock - which is why she drops slightly before she flies:
And then… there are the moments when we get a little too excited - and it doesn’t work. 😔
This photo made the rounds in our team chats. It also lived rent-free in Luis Callejas’ head for a while. Flying’s fun - until everyone sees how you’re doing the magic:
Here’s Wendy (Adri Cortez) flying for the first time in rehearsals:
Here’s Peter and Hook battling it out in the final fight. More than nine people were operating the flying system during this scene - all hiding because the audience is seating all around them:
And here’s how we rehearsed it. The hard part isn’t flying the cranes - it’s making sure they don’t crash into each other, that actors take off and land safely, and that everything returns to its starting position. All of it in the dark.
This is what it feels like:
Why didn’t we use wires? 😊 Only Peter Pan did for his not-so-complicated entrances.
This is me, enjoying the rush of blood to the head:
When everything clicks, the audience gives back laughter, energy, and if you’re lucky, a tear or two.
And honestly - that’s all we need.
None of this would’ve been possible without our incredible engineering and creative teams. We built flight from scratch and turned constraints into creativity.
More stories soon.
