The Fairfield Ledger — Page 3 — Wednesday, March 5, 2014
FMS goes wild with ‘The Jungle Book’
By VICKI TILLIS
Ledger lifestyles editor
F
airfield Middle School
will present “The Jungle
Book” at 7 p.m. Thursday
and Friday in the school
cafetorium.
I was a little disappointed when
FMS teacher and drama coach Tena
Nelson told me this was not the
musical Disney version, but a
straight play about how Rudyard
Kipling’s experiences at school
with mean bullies and supportive
teachers could have influenced his
writing.
I thought “The Jungle Book”
would not be the same without all
the fun songs from Disney’s animated movie. But, honestly, I didn’t
miss them at all!
The story of the man-cub Mowgli
(played by Ahillan Kumar) is the
same: the wolves find a boy in the
jungle and adopt him into their
pack. Baloo the bear (played by
Laurel Hilger) and Bagheera the
panther (played by Megan Higgins)
teach him about life in the jungle. But a few of the animals, like
Shere Khan the tiger (Aaron Austin)
and his sidekick Tabaqui the jackal
(Devika Pharasi), don’t want
Mowgli around. The monkeys even
try to kidnap the wolf-boy because
they want to make him one of their
own and learn to be more like him
— a human.
But woven into the well-known
tale is Rudyard Kipling’s story.
Rudyard (Brittan Bowman) is trying to write a story about a wolfboy in the jungles of India to enter
in a school contest. He hits a few
snags caused by school bullies
Fielding and Hanley (Alex Vice and
Ronan Malloy), but on the other
hand, the school staff — Teacher
Crofts, Chaplain Willies and
Headmistress Price (Hailey
Simmons, Isabella Beltramea and
Tea Harris) — give him a lot of
encouraging support.
The set is simple. Kipling sits at a
small table, writing through most of
the play, off to the side of the jungle
story. A couple of black wooden
benches and a few black wooden
cubes easily transform from
Mowgli’s wolf family’s den to the
wolf pack’s Council Rock and other
locations in the story.
The costumes are imaginative and
representative of each character:
Mowgli wears traditional Indian
attire; Baloo the bear is of course
dressed in blue; Bagherra is dressed
in panther black and Shere Khan
wears tiger orange.
Fairfield High School alumna
Noel Wotherspoon designed all the
animals’ makeup for the show.
“The Jungle Book” cast is rounded out by: Garrett Ward as Akela,
leader of the wolves; Phoenix
Haessler as Mother Wolf; Chloe
Campbell and Jacob Scotton as
Mowgli’s wolf cub siblings; Katie
McLain as Hathi, an elephant; Cody
Wise as Kaa the snake; Isabel Allen
as Rann, a kite bird; Katrina
Cecchini as an old woman; and
Kaitlyn Post as a young woman.
The monkeys and wolves are
played by Gabby Godwin-Webster,
Mitchel Melvin, Kashia Brombaugh,
Jamie Johannes, Lydia Larsh, Tejah
Kingsbury, Logan Nelson, Hypatia
Wagener and Hope Hawkins.
The crew members are Keefe
Thornton, Jeremiah Funkhouser,
Alaina Symmonds, Jenna
Wickencamp, Cahrina Chang, Ella
Phillips, Kristin Burnstedt, Maddie
Smith, Shanti Williams, Madison
Osborn, Hannah Pohren, Lexi
Kiefer and Mira Pappin.
Alex Vice, who plays one of the
school bullies, also is the assistant
director, and in her welcome to the
audience before the curtain rises,
reminds everyone to silence their
phones and asks them to keep the
aisles clear for the actors.
Tickets will be $2 for adults and
$1 for students. Fairfield school district activity passes will be honored.
VICKI TILLIS/Ledger photos
The man-cub Mowgli (Ahillan Kumar) anxiously sits between his wolf sister (Chloe Campbell) and wolf brother (Jacob Scotton) at Council
Rock while the wolf pack decides his fate in Fairfield Middle School’s production of “The Jungle Book,” a play by Joesph Robinette based on
the Mowgli stories by Rudyard Kipling.
Members of the wolf pack watch the action.
Laurel Hilger, who
plays Baloo the bear,
models her makeup.
The makeup for all the
animal characters in
the show were
designed by Fairfield
High School 2006
graduate Noel
Wotherspoon.
Shere Khan the tiger (Aaron Austin), right, and Tabaqui the jackal
(Devika Pharasi) try to influence the wolf pack.
Rudyard Kipling (Brittan Bowman) is bullied by his classmates
Fielding (Alex Vice), left, and Hanley (Ronan Malloy).
Mowgli (Ahillan Kumar) learns to shake hands — a human custom
— from a village girl (Kaitlyn Post).
Teacher Crofts (Hailey Simmons) and Chaplain Willies (Isabella
Beltramea) wonder why Rudyard hasn’t turned in his story for the
contest.
An exhausted Bagheera (Megan Higgins) takes a break after unsuccessfully trying to chase down the monekeys who kidnapped
Mowgli.
To see these and more color photos
from Fairfield Middle School’s
production of “The Jungle Book,”
visit the website www.ffledger.com
and click on “Buy Photos.”