Rodney DeaVault ’07 chose English as his major while also pursuing a certificate in theater and dance. After four sleep-deprived but happy years of dancing, acting, costume design, stage-managing and directing, plus photography, calligraphy and chairing two social organizations, he points out, “I can honestly say I did everything I set out to do here.”

When DeaVault began planning his senior thesis, he discovered how Princeton’s cross-disciplinary approach to learning would offer him a great opportunity. While writing and producing a full-length adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s original “Peter Pan and Wendy” for his theater and dance thesis project, Deavault’s English thesis started to come together as an analysis of the process. Also leading the production was Nicole Greenbaum ’07, a chemistry major and theater and dance student.

DeaVault's research for the production was extensive, even taking him to England during the summer of 2006. Already participating in an archaeological dig in Bordeaux, France, for an anthropology course, DeaVault used a $500 thesis grant to travel to Barrie’s places of inspiration in Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, London.

“The play is very relevant because Wendy is entering a new stage of life, as are college seniors,” he says. “I centered the show around Wendy’s imagination and view of Neverland. She’s the main character; she changes as she falls in love with Peter Pan and gradually becomes more of a mother figure. The house underground becomes like the nursery, showing that she’s basically recreating her own family with new people.”

Many of DeaVault's friends were also involved in the production — friends he met on his floor in Forbes College. “I was very lucky. My roommate was an electrical engineering major, and his girlfriend was an astrophysics major. We also had a varsity wrestler and a varsity water polo player who were both in the show. Without those friendships, I would have stuck with the theater crowd, but I became friends with the whole water polo and wrestling teams and every senior in the astrophysics department. It’s opened me up in a lot of ways.”