Performance Review

I recently attended the school’s production of The Jungle Book on May 13^th. This was directed by Mr. Junker and Schuler. I was very impressed by this performance. The cast was full of life and constantly engaging. This was best represented by the very boisterous Baloo, and man-cub Mogli. Throughout the play, the entire stage was constantly being used, making every scene fresh. This was accomplished by continuously changing where your eye was drawn throughout the play. This constant eye movement kept the play from becoming rigid and stale, clearly a very good decision made by the directors and brought to life by the cast and crew.

The actors and actresses clearly put in a lot of effort in order to make this play into what it was. If I hadn’t known better I would have been easily convinced that this was a college or large production show. The use of physical acting was unparalleled by what I have previously seen in school plays. The way that Sher Khan stalked and Baloo romped made for a very engaging performance. Along with this, I was impressed by the adaptability that the costume design displayed in creating Kaa, the snake, reminiscent of The Lion King Live.

If I was given the ability to make one change in this production, I would have redirected some of my focus towards the technical and behind the scenes work. For instance, it would have been a nice touch to have a spotlight follow cast members up or down the stairs. One final change that would have been made was to better amplify the play. It is meant to be a musical performance; audibility should therefore be priority number one. If I had to give this play a rating in stars, I would give it 8 out of 10.