“James and the Giant Peach” isn’t going to be enjoyable for just the audience, but for the actors too, the show’s director says.

To make the children’s book by Roald Dahl into something college students could enjoy, the motion-based production got creative with the set.

“Basically what I wanted was a playground,” says Sarah Zwick-Tapley, lecturer and the show’s director.

“I wanted different levels, lots of color, things for them to climb on and trampolines.”

Zwick-Tapley says this production is captivating because it has something for everyone, whether they are visually-based or audio-based.

“I wanted something that when I saw it I would say, ‘I just want to get up there and play on it,’ because I knew that if the actors were having fun it’s going to be great to watch,” Zwick-Tapley says.

The show’s actors have responded to Zwick-Tapley’s vision, too.

Brendan Dunphy, the play’s lead, says he was interested in the show because he felt it was going to be different than any other play he had come across.

“I knew it would be fun just because I’m a fan of unusual stories,” Dunphy, senior in zoology, says.

As far as the story’s adaptation from book to stage, Zwick-Tapley says she didn’t change many things from the book.

Zwick-Tapley said she wanted to capture the action and the imagination the story evokes.

“I was selfish, I thought about what appeals to me and of course what is fitting to the story,” she says.

“The fact that once you accept, ‘okay a peach can fly through the air,’ you can accept anything.”

The non-traditional nature of the story also spills over into the cast.

The characters themselves are sometimes comprised of more than one actor.

The spider is played by both Laura Williams and William Mort, seniors in performing arts.

“We’ve learned a completely different approach to movement based acting,” Williams says.

“In the beginning it was hard for Will and I to make relationships with the other bugs because we were so into ourselves and worrying about our relationship but Sarah helped us relate to the other bugs.”

Mort and Williams say they hope the audience will enjoy the show as much as they have.

“The other shows that I’ve been in have had the standard traditional approach to it,” Mort says.

“It isn’t as strict as the other shows. This one’s more free-form.”