The Fairfield Ledger — Page 3 — Wednesday, March 5, 2014

FMS goes wild with ‘The Jungle Book’By VICKI TILLISLedger lifestyles editor

Fairfield 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 animat-ed 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 try-ing to write a story about a wolf-boy 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 round-ed 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 dis-trict 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.

An exhausted Bagheera (Megan Higgins) takes a break after unsuc-cessfully trying to chase down the monekeys who kidnapped Mowgli.

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).

Teacher Crofts (Hailey Simmons) and Chaplain Willies (Isabella Beltramea) wonder why Rudyard hasn’t turned in his story for the contest.

Mowgli (Ahillan Kumar) learns to shake hands — a human custom — from a village girl (Kaitlyn Post).

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 2006graduate Noel Wotherspoon.

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.”