Previously worked on: "Bring It On," "Tru Calling," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
Character: Van's sister
New spin on: Lucy Van Pelt
On Van's Sister: "She's outspoken, precocious, tyrannical, probably one of the loudest individuals in any given room. But at the same time, she's one of the most down-to-earth, logical characters in the play in all this teen angst and confusion."
On her high school life: "I'm always very vocal about how excruciating middle school and high school were for me growing up. It was kind of tough. People were ostracized for God knows what; the wrong pair of shoes, bad hair day [etc.]. Kids can be so mean. I'm still recovering from high school!"
On siblings: "I was one person at home, but another in school. [Van's sister] is very close to the girl I was I growing up in Boston with three older brothers. I have kind of a feminist mother, but young women really face so much pressure and second-guessing themselves and it's really unfortunate."
Favorite Peanuts special: "I'm a Christmas baby, Dec. 30, so 'A Charlie Brown Christmas.'"
Previously worked on: "Real Women Have Curves," "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," "Lords of Dogtown"
Character: CB's sister
New spin on: Sally Brown
On CB's sister: "She really has a very special relationship with her brother and she kind of has a crush on [the same guy her brother does]. She's very unique and searching for her identity, she's a little younger than CB and his friends."
On her high school life: "I was maybe the anti-CB's sister, I was so turned off by cliques or labels, that I kind of had a non-identity and tried to stay away from any stereotype at all. I was as plain Jane as plain could be."
On siblings: "I have four sisters and one brother and I'm the youngest, so I know what it's like to be a younger sister."
On Peanuts: "I would read them in the newspaper and just love the color and thought it was real literature."
Previously worked on: "Thumbsucker," "The Aviator," "Grounded for Life"
Character: Tricia
New spin on: Peppermint Patty
On Tricia: "She's basically become her worst nightmare; a bitchy, unruly loudmouth girl. And it's all mask and covers for her probably being the most insecure of them all. [One of] those girls in school that you would enter a room and they would just start laughing and make you feel horrible."
On her high school life: "I was really quiet in high school actually. I definitely hung out with the cool kids. I was nominated in the homecoming court, I did that thing, but I was really quiet and really insecure. I did my first film as I was in high school. So I was that girl that everyone was like 'She's so stuck up!' and I just was really afraid to speak. I just kind of stayed in my own world."
Favorite Peanuts special: "A Charlie Brown Christmas"
Previously worked on: Brooklyn Boy, "Mystic River," "The Sopranos"
Character: Marcy
New spin on: Marcie
On Marcy: "She is a perfect example of someone who is in 'the cool group,' her biggest goal in life is to be accepted and popular and the same as everybody else. Her world is consumed by being accepting by the people you're supposed to care about. She's sort of boy-crazy and wants love and I think that's a common thing in high school."
On her high school life: " I relate to Marcy's ideas; I had all these friends, a lot of them were athletes. I never played any sports. I was made fun of for being overweight and I think I had that need to feel like 'I've arrived.' I think there was always a part of me that always felt like I didn't belong or was the dorkiest one there."
Favorite Peanuts special: "A Charlie Brown Christmas"
Previously worked on: The Distance From Here, Swimming in the Shallows, "The O.C.," "24"
Character: Beethoven
New spin on: Schroeder
On Beethoven: "He is ridiculed and picked on. He's very isolated; he plays piano alone—it's kind of his best friend. One of his best friends growing up, CB, comes back [home] and they form a relationship."
On his high school life: "I relate to a lot of kids who obviously were picked on for being different. We think of high school as being really awkward and immature, but there's also a lot of kids walking the hallways who nobody talks to who go on to greater things."
Favorite Peanuts special: "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"
Previously worked on: Romance, Fuddy Meers, Four "Phone Booth," "25th Hour"
Character: Van
New spin on: Linus Van Pelt.
On Van: "Van is the guy in high school who is stoned 95% of the time. But he's not the kind of the person who gets stoned and eats a lot of munchies, he'll get stoned and do yoga and read Buddhist philosophy. Then talk to people about that, whether they want to hear it or not."
On his high school life: "I would traffic among the groups. I was an equal opportunity player. I went to the High School of Performing Arts here [in New York City], so we didn't actually have — the vocabulary of this play is so much about the 'cliques' — and we didn't really have that, which was kind of great. Everyone had respect for each other."
Favorite Peanuts special: "A Charlie Brown Christmas"
Previously worked on: "Lost," "Rules of Attraction," "Life as a House," "Smallville"
Character: Matt
New spin on: Pigpen
On Matt: "He's a complete germophobe [and has] a holster for a big dispenser of antibacterial hand sanitizer. Completely OCD and gets very upset when anyone makes a references to Pigpen and explodes violently."
On his high school life: "I left my sophomore year and finished through correspondence. But it was such a different age; kids have metal detectors, sociologically relevant issues to deal with, like mass media, the Internet, [etc.] But I went to the best school ever, right near this lake outside of New Orleans. I did see that kids were just brutal."
Favorite Peanuts special: "I don't remember a specific one. I can't wait to [have time to] just watch 15 hours of Peanuts."
Previously worked on: The Diary of Anne Frank, Smelling A Rat, "American Pie," "Stolen Summer"
Character: CB
New spin on: Charlie Brown
On CB: "He's just lost his dog, his childhood friend, and his other best friend is in jail and it's his first dose of adulthood. He's just kind of trying to deal with these real emotions and these real problems for the first time."
On his high school life: "I was a pretty big dork in junior high and then I fit in pretty well in high school. I had my clique and I went to a small school and I made my way through."
On Peanuts comparison: "That's obviously the template, but this group of people is any group of people. That dynamic exists with any groups of friends at that stage in their lives."
