The young actors at Pleasant Corners Public School learned lots of valuable lessons from their musical production of The Jungle Book.
“Inclusivity is really important at Pleasant Corners School,” said Rebecca Paiement, musical director and producer for the school production.
The Jungle Book of the PCPS drama group debuted as a two-performance production marking the end of February. The 40-minute musical piece, using a script and some theatrical supplies provided by Dream Maker Productions of Cornwall, is a trimmed-down version of the Disney musical version of Rudyard Kipling’s classic stories of Mowgli, an orphaned human child living with and raised by wolves in the jungles of India and his adventures in both the natural world and later the artificial world of human civilization.
Paiement noted that The Jungle Book musical was a perfect vehicle for this year’s theatrical production by and for students at the school. She and the rest of the teacher volunteers on the project expected great interest among the student body in becoming part of the project.
“We wanted everyone to have a role,” she said, “and we wanted everyone to have a role for the entire show.”
The cast of several dozen students from all grades spent countless hours since preparation began last October on the production learning lines, learning and practising songs and dance moves, both individual and group, and also working on backstage tasks like set decoration, making props, and researching the history of The Jungle Book, both Kipling’s original stories and the musical Disney version. It also dovetailed well with the final stages of production preparation during February, which is Black History Month, as Paiement noted that students also learned about the influence that black music at the time on the people who composed the songs for the Disney movie.
“We were able to look at this (production) from many angles,” said Paiement, “musically, culturally, historically.”
All of which makes for what seems to be a complicated project for students, and that, Paiement noted, is another factor for production of The Jungle Book. She indicated that students should be given and encouraged to accept challenges.
“With guidance and support, then they will rise to the occasion,” she said. “And they successfully brought their 100 per cent.”
The final result, presented to families and friends and people who enjoy live theatre and want to support students on such projects, was a fast moving and lively show, smooth in the scene changes from Council Rock to the Cold Lairs of the abandoned ruins where the monkeys live to the final confrontation in the jungle between Mowgli and Shere Khan the tiger, who seeks to kill the man-cub and make sure there is one less man to hunt and kill him.
Most of all, this production is full of fun as Mowgli learns lessons about who he is and what he needs, the most important being that everyone needs to be a good friend and to have good friends with them as they journey through Life.
With the finish of The Jungle Book, the PCPS Players turn their attention to preparing for the school’s annual Spring Comedy Variety Show.
