GULF SHORES — Before Peter Pan soared above the streets of London, writer James M. Barrie breathed the character to life after suffering a family tragedy and working to overcome the lingering grief.

It is a story the students at Gulf Shores High School will recreate this weekend as they present "The Lost Boy" by the late Ronald Gabriel Paolillo at South Baldwin Community Theatre.

Paiton Lami-Doyle, Gulf Shores High School theater teacher, said she performed the drama as a senior in high school and at competition. There the story of the lost boy became a part of her resume and her heart.

"It really for me solidified that theater is a community and a family," she said. "It was a really important part of my life."

Now as a director she said she hopes to instill that same sense of community in her students.

"I try to make my classroom as open to everybody as possible," she said.

The drama will take audiences to Barrie's childhood home in Scotland where he returns as a successful author and where his mother still blames him for his brother's death.

As Barrie confronts the tragedy, kindles an unexpected friendship and crafts Peter Pan's story, Lami-Doyle said she hopes audiences will also learn that it is ok to confront trauma and it is also ok to escape it for a while in a place like Neverland.

The show runs Friday and Saturday night at 6 p.m. and will be staged at South Baldwin Community Theatre.

The cast and crew includes: Cade Wittman, Cameron Oliver, Daniel Dumas, Hannah Garner, Robyn Stopp, Connor Ferguson, Izzy Salcedo, Mary Ansell, Lily Jones, Anna Kathryn Russell, Peyton Morris, Aidan Holdsworth, Jakob Flynn, Anna O'Neal: Wendy Darling, Ethan Snow, Hunter Hands, Beckham Smith, Jack Langston, Ulrich Correa Ramos Duarte Da Mota, Izzy Salcedo, Alison Daily,
Isabella Traudt, Ali Hendricks, Marley McCartney and Makayla Collins.