CHERRY TWP — Moniteau High School actors are getting their musical off the ground this week as they learn to fly for Friday and Saturday performances of “Peter Pan.”

Flying by Foy, a Las Vegas company, arrived Monday to help it happen.

“We’ve flown more Peter Pans than any company in history,” said James Hansen, booking manager for Flying by Foy. “I would put it in the range of around four to five thousand productions.”

The company also has put thousands of people in flight for special events and stage, movie and television productions around the world. Flying by Foy has helped a long list of stars across the generations from Lucille Ball to Tina Fey to Katy Perry.

Hansen said Peter Foy, the company founder, was working with shows in England in the 1950s. Flying was not common for U.S. theatrical productions. When he came to this country, he created and patented mechanisms to improve theater flying.

One of his inventions was an interrelated pendulum system that took actors to new heights. It allowed Mary Martin as Peter Pan in 1954 to give spectacular performances on Broadway.

“It revolutionized the way people were flown theatrically,” Hansen said.

As new challenges came up, Foy developed solutions including specialized tracks and pulleys and multipoint harnesses such as the ones Moniteau students will use this week.

“We do a lot of rural productions of ‘Peter Pan,’” Hansen said. A “flying director” arrives a few days before the performances.

“(The flying director) performs the installation, typically with the assistance of people who will operate the system,” Hansen said. It takes four to six hours to set up.

In “Peter Pan,” the flying director trains five people to manually operate the system. Peter Pan moves on a track system. Other cast members use pendulum mechanisms.

Flying directors Ryan Stanger and Mary Rossiter, from the company’s Philadelphia office, arrived at Moniteau Monday. They met the cast members for the first time Monday night and introduced them to the systems, fitted their harnesses and lifted them into the air the first time.

“For most of these kids it’s a brand new experience,” Hansen said.

“There’s a lot of work involved on the part of the performer,” Hansen said. “It requires a good bit of physical work to make it look natural within the show.”

“There is a bit of a learning curve,” he said. “The more core strength there is and the more time in the air, the better the flyer.”

There is give and take between the team of operators and the performer.

Hansen said, “There is a feeling that goes through to the operator.”

The actor’s harness is tight and acts as a safety device, he said. Although performers may have discomfort from wearing it, usually they are not afraid.

Madison Kohler as Wendy, Jacob Morgan as John and Dakota Sargent as Michael drifted from side to side over the stage during Monday’s rehearsal. On one particularly quick lift their laughs rang out into the empty auditorium.

Simultaneously, Abbey Schandelmeier as Peter Pan sang and glided smoothly between practice takeoffs and landings.

Schandelmeier, 18, of Concord Township, is a senior at Moniteau. She brings experience to the part after roles in “Oliver,” “Mary Poppins,” “High School Musical” and “ You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown.” That experience includes flying time.

“When we did ‘Tarzan’ with Sing Hosanna! in Butler, they brought in the same company,” she said.

She started strengthening her abdominal muscles in January.

“I knew it would be physically demanding. It is a lot of core strength when you’re attached,” Schandelmeier said.

She said, “Your whole body weight is on the strap under your legs. It’s not comfortable at all.”

The harness surrounds her torso. Straps go between her legs, up to her hips and over her shoulders. She will cope with the extra weight of the harness and its thickness.

“It’s hard to bend your back,” she said. “Where it’s covering, it’s hot especially under stage lights.”

She said the hardest part will be wearing the harness during the entire show but only having a few days to get used to it. She’ll wear it in the air and also when she does cartwheels and has intense fight scenes on the stage.

She said the flying scenes in “Peter Pan” are more complicated than in “Tarzan.”

“I’m up in the air more. I get to move around in the air — more tricks and more stylized flying,” she said. “We almost get to mime.”

“For the kids watching it really does look magical and real,” she said. “I remember going to see that show when I was younger.”

Marissa Menchyk will fly as Jane in the musical, and Levi Fleeger will fly as Captain Hook.

Fleeger, 16, of West Sunbury, is a junior. He said, “I’m super excited. I think it will bring a lot of people to the show and a bigger audience.”

He said, “I’m a little nervous. I have a lot of family members coming. I’m not sure how I’ll look up there.”

He flew for the first time on Monday and said, “It was a lot different from I thought. It was hard to control. I kept spinning around.”

When he wears the harness in the second act, he’ll dress in layers including a T-shirt, shorts, pants, a vest, a coat, boots, a wig and a hat.

“I’m a little worried I might be hot,” Fleeger said.

Hansen said Peter Foy’s innovations and patents were all based on putting Peter Pan in the air. “He took a rather obscure kind of craft and made it available to virtually any producing organization in the country.”

Yet, Flying by Foy doesn’t come for free. John D’Amore, business manager for the school district said the total cost for the flying is $3,422. The Moniteau Thespian Booster Club solicited donations to cover the expense.

Schandelmeier promised the audience tricks and surprises this weekend.

“I’ve always wanted to play this role and it being my senior year, it kind of puts the cherry on top,” Schandelmeier said.

“This is a kind of experience that is terribly unusual. It’s not something that you typically get to do,” Hansen said. “The feeling of being up in the air is astounding.”

“It is a memory that remains with you as something very, very special. It’s not something you forget,” Hansen said.