For Ruth Smillie, artistic director of Globe Theatre, the key to Globe’s upcoming production of J.M. Barrie’s classic tale of Peter Pan is that children don’t differentiate between reality and make-believe the way adults to.

Smillie, who is directing the production, recalls that this past summer she overheard a group of boys walking up and down the street, “very engaged in what they were doing,” and overheard them say, “We have to save the president,” with “enormous concern and conviction.”

It’s that kind of immersion in the world of make-believe that Smillie hopes Globe’s Peter Pan will provide to people of all ages.