Local kids leaf through ‘The Jungle Book’

Monroe Jr./Sr. High School hosts musical that features students from area schools.

Baloo, the bear, played by Mitchell Walsh, teaches Mowgli, Nora Ash, the true meaning of friendship in a scene from the Middletown Performing Arts Academy production of

Staff photo by Linda Weisenborn Baloo, the bear, played by Mitchell Walsh, teaches Mowgli, Nora Ash, the true meaning of friendship in a scene from the Middletown Performing Arts Academy production of "The Jungle Book." The show will be on stage this weekend at the Monroe Jr./Sr. High School.

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By Eric Robinette, Staff Writer 12:54 AM Thursday, June 25, 2009

School has been called “the blackboard jungle,” but this weekend, the Middletown Performing Arts Academy will transform a local school into “The Jungle Book.”

The show runs Friday, June 26, and Saturday, June 27, at the Monroe Local Schools campus at 220 Yankee Road.

Audiences might be most familiar with Rudyard Kipling’s story through the 1967 animated movie, the last overseen by Walt Disney himself. However, the stage show does not simply ape the movie about a young boy, Mowgli, who wants to stay in the jungle where he was raised and does not want to live in the “man village.”

There are some similarities. For instance, the Disney movie and the Academy’s show feature the song “The Bare Necessities.” The Disney movie plays it as a number for the lead character Mowgli, and his best buddy, a bear named Baloo.

The Academy’s version, however, features the entire cast of fourth- through sixth-graders onstage, complete with cartwheels.

Here’s another difference: “There’s no collapsing of the ruins,” said cast member John Payne of Middletown, a member of the jungle chorus.

The most fun thing about doing the show is “we get to make the audience happy. It’s just so joyful and fun,” said Josh Gehrs of Middletown, who plays Bagheera, the panther.

“Since it’s a musical, everybody gets a chance to shine,” said Sierra Mack of Middletown, another member of the jungle chorus.

None of this is to say acting is easy. No fewer than 18 students play trees in the show, said Allison Turner of Trenton.

“It’s exotic. You have to be moving your arms and everything,” said Katie Stugmyer of Middletown.

Whether they’re playing trees or animals, the kids in the show want to give the audience something to remember.

“We want to give them a memory that it was a very good show and wasn’t just little kids standing around saying lines,” said Payne.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.