The Los Gatos High School sophomore and longtime theater buff achieved his wish this November, when he designed and built a multi-paneled stage set in his backyard and used it as the backdrop to act out part of the Peter Pan tale with his friends and neighbors in northeastern Los Gatos' Mozart-Oka neighborhood.

"This nicely decorated 'room' looked better than any other room in our house," his mother, Chita Edlund, says, laughing.

The aspiring actor even rigged up an apparatus that allowed him to "fly" across the set. Not only did Edlund finally get to portray his storybook hero, he also had someone film the production, which he plans to edit and give away on videotapes to his fellow actors.

"I got interested in acting when I was 4 or 5 on a vacation at Club Med," he recalls. "At one of the evening shows, this guy pulled me up onstage and said 'Hey, kid! What do you want to be when you grow up?' And I said, 'I want to be a showman.' "

His debut performance after that was playing the pea (as in The Princess and the Pea) in a production of Once Upon A Mattress by the Performing Arts Company (PAC) at the Addison-Penzak Jewish Community Center of Silicon Valley, located in Los Gatos.

That was at age 5. By 6, he had graduated to portraying the munchkin mayor in The Wizard of Oz with the now-defunct Mountain View Children's Theater. Since then, he's done set design, acting, or both for more than two dozen local plays and musicals.

"I'd been in many shows over the years, but I'd never gotten the lead, because I didn't look the part," reflects Edlund, who says he had a serious weight problem until the eighth grade, when he put himself on a diet and exercise program that got him—and keeps him—at a healthy weight.

Just one year later, as a Los Gatos High School freshman, Edlund enjoyed his first leading role, as Ren McCormack in Footloose, which the school premiered in March 2002—the first time any nonprofessional theater group had performed it. "I was awestruck to get the lead," he says with a humble smile.

Edlund also serves as a set designer for plays at the high school and will soon serve as assistant choreographer for Van Meter School's production of Flapper. He also sings in the Los Gatos High School choral group Jazz Purr and takes voice lessons with Los Gatan Billie Rue Testa.

The most recent feather in Edlund's cap is that his Peter Pan stage set—which breaks down into several panel pieces—is being borrowed by Theatre in the Mountains for its "Stars To Be!" production of Peter Pan this weekend at 23800 Summit Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains. "Stars To Be!" is a partnership between the nonprofit Theatre in the Mountains, Loma Prieta Elementary School and the Loma Prieta Independent Home Study Program.

"It fulfills a gap in the school's arts program, as the school has no funding for theatrical productions," explains Laurel Dentoni, a longtime Theatre in the Mountains producer and costumer. "Consequently, Theatre in the Mountains—a community theater operating under the Loma Prieta Community Foundation—developed this collaborative program."

Since Edlund is much older than Loma Prieta's elementary school students, he will not be performing with "Stars To Be!" He has, however, been serving as the production's flight captain, which lets him teach and choreograph his favorite stage skill.

"Flying is something you love to perfect and make look good onstage," Edlund says. "It's a magical thing. If I could have any superpower, it would definitely be flying!"

While waiting for his wings, Edlund says he has other big plans as well. After graduating from high school, he wants to enroll at Yale University and double major in musical theater and set design. Eventually, he plans to teach theater during the day and take to the stage at night.

"My ultimate goal is Broadway!" he says, smiling.

Peter Pan performances take place Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m., Dec. 7 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 8 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $14 for adults, $12 for students and senior citizens, and $10 for children. For more information, call 408.353.9999 or visit www.theatreinthemountains.org.