One hundred years is a long time — in the past century, cars and televisions were invented and world wars were fought. Yet a few things remained the same — such as J.M. Barrie’s famous tale of ‘Peter Pan.’

To keep that tradition alive, an entire family of actors, managers and crew is participating in a touring performance of ‘Peter Pan,’ coming to Des Moines this week in the musical’s 100th anniversary year.

The show features Cathy Rigby, a former Olympic gymnast and two-time Tony Award nominee, who has been portraying the boy who never grew for 16 years.

The entire performance is a family affair. Rigby is the mother of Ryan Mason, Kaitlin McCoy and Theresa McCoy — all of whom have roles in the performance. In addition, Rigby’s husband is a producer of the play and her brother is the assistant props coordinator.

Theresa McCoy plays Jane, Wendy’s daughter, in the story and has been playing the role off and on since she was 12.

“She’s sweet and innocent, which I think lacks these days in children,” McCoy says. “It’s very special to do the scenes with my mom, it helps with the homesickness. I’m very close to my mom so it helps.”

But having a mother to help onstage only goes so far. After so many shows, McCoy says it’s important for her to keep her performance fresh for each` audience.

“It is easy to keep doing it like it’s the first [performance],” McCoy says. “Little things keep it new and we get new inspirations from different things.”

The show is very tiring to get through because there are a lot of things that could potentially go wrong, since flying and sword fighting are involved, McCoy says. During her first performance as Jane, she was unable to get into the flying harness in time and had to walk off the stage.

McCoy says she enjoys being around her family, and sees no disadvantage to spending a lot of time with them. The tour marks Rigby’s retirement from playing the boy who could fly.

“It’s nice to be able to close [the anniversary] with my family,” McCoy says.