When Isiah Anderson Jr. steps onto a stage or walks into a room, you can always count on a few things: an unyielding dedication to Seattle’s youth, a respect for the cultural architects who came before him, and, as host Trae Holiday fondly pointed out, a razor-sharp Midwest crease.

Anderson, the long-standing director of the Teen Summer Musical, recently joined Holiday on The Day With Trae to talk about this year’s highly anticipated production, Peter Pan: Ready to Rise. In a conversation that touched on institutional struggles, radical storytelling updates, and the transformative power of Black theater, Anderson laid out exactly why this 30-plus-year-old program remains an essential pillar of the city.

The Backstage Battle for Black Excellence

For more than three decades, the Teen Summer Musical has served as a sanctuary for young people to express their gifts on world-class stages. Yet, despite its undeniable legacy, Anderson revealed that keeping the program alive requires a continuous backend hustle against bureaucratic misunderstandings within the city.

"It's so incredible that after 30-plus years that we still have to work as hard as we do to make sure this program happens for our kids," he said.

Anderson highlighted that while the city's parks department looks for programs to fulfill specific developmental assets, the Teen Summer Musical is uniquely rigorous. It demands a 9-to-5, Monday-through-Friday work ethic from youth throughout the summer, culminating in a professional-grade product.

To ground the youth in the magnitude of their labor, Anderson instills a strong ethos.

"My motto is in every aspect of life, you're either a student or a teacher, in that order. And so for nine weeks, they're students to the professionals,” he said. “I tell them, as soon as you hit the stage, you're teachers to over 10,000 people who come to see you.”

Jamie Michelle Charles, playing Wendy Darling, performs a song from Peter Pan: Ready To Rise in Colman Commons.

A Remix with a Purpose: Preparing for 2026

The Teen Summer Musical is known for adapting classic tales into historically and culturally relevant narratives for Black and brown communities. Ten years ago, the program staged Peter Pan: My Brother's Keeper, tapping into the cultural zeitgeist of the Obama era to teach young Black boys about accountability and mutual uplift.

This year's adaptation, Peter Pan: Ready to Rise, is designed to be deeply all-inclusive and targeted squarely at the heavy realities of 2026. Anderson and his creative team have fundamentally reconstructed the lore of Neverland to mirror the modern systemic obstacles young Black youth face.

"The premise of this story is that no matter what circumstances or obstacles that you face, you have to prepare yourself to overcome that," he said, carefully unpacking the psychological weight driving this version of Peter Pan.

In a deliberate subversion of the traditional text, Anderson swapped out the stereotyped Native American caricatures typically found in the story. "I purposely made our natives African," he said, transforming Neverland into a collective journey of global Black identity and self-discovery.

Casting from Effort, Not Auditions

When it comes to pulling greatness out of his young cast, Anderson ignored standard industry protocol. Alongside music director Michelle Lang-Raymond and the rest of the leadership crew, Anderson refused to cast roles strictly from an initial audition.

"An audition gives me an idea," he said. "We always tell the kids it's hard work and it doesn't get easier. You just get better at it." Instead, the directors spend the first two weeks of production looking at who demonstrates the internal drive to match the scale of the show.

Filling the Hall

Following the massive success of last year's run at Benaroya Hall, Peter Pan: Ready to Rise is moving to an even larger city facility: McCaw Hall in Seattle Center. With 500 more seats than their previous venue, the pressure is on the Seattle community to pack the house and send a clear message to city leadership about the indispensable value of Black arts programming.

"Get your tickets right now," Anderson said. "Come be ready to fly."

Peter Pan: Ready to Rise runs for just four performances from August 28th through August 30th at McCaw Hall. Tickets can be purchased directly at actsonstage.com

Catch The Day With Trae Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 11 a.m. on all Converge streaming platforms.

Isiah Anderson Jr. Pulls Back the Curtain on Peter Pan: Ready to Rise on The Day With Trae

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