With an unconventionally spelled title and equally different costume and makeup design, Jungalbook by Edward Mast graces the PAC’s stage starting Thursday, Dec. 13. Directed by Mr. Jeremy Ferman and Ms. Kelsey Stokes, Jungalbook combines elements of city and jungle, human and animal in a display of theatre that shows how Mowgli, a young ‘manling’ raised by a pack of wolves, lives and survives in the jungle.
The show runs Thursday, Dec. 13 through Sunday Dec. 16. Showtimes are at 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Special daytime performances for elementary schools are at 9:30 and 12:15 on Friday, Dec 14. Tickets are $ 5 for students and $ 7 for adults.
“It’s going to be fun,” Mr. Ferman said, “I wanted to do [the play] for kids and asked how to get them involved.”
The show uses children made to look like animals. The characters within the show will move as kids would when pretending to be animals, and imitate their growls, roars and facial expressions. At the beginning of the play, the audience witnesses each child’s transformation from a kid on a playground to an animal in a jungle. This proves difficult for some of the actors, including freshman Catie Williams.
“I must overcome the complications of not actually being a wolf,” Williams said, “I think it’s going well.”
Costume design by Ms. Stokes accompanies the movement and setting of the play. Each character’s costume appears as garb inner-city homeless children would wear, while hinting at the animal the children portray. Make-up design appears as glamor-styled make-up that doubles as animal make-up.
“We were trying to pick out specific features that would take the human face and hint at [an] animal,” Stokes said.
The play takes place in a concrete jungle because the script was written by inner-city kids, and compiled by Edward Mast. The writing in the script contains many misspellings, as the title of Jungalbook hints. The children that wrote the script spelled the words as they sounded to them. Although possibly confusing, Mr. Ferman worked with the actors to better understand the story.
“The actors understand the concept, and that will help them portray it to the audience,” Ferman said.
