The sixth year of Missoula Children's Theatre performers coming out of Roberts Creek Elementary School once again wowed a packed audience at the Gibsons Heritage Playhouse last Saturday.
The nearly 60 students involved spent just a few short days rehearsing for their big parts in The Jungle Book after the travelling Missoula Children's Theatre opened up casting calls on Monday.
This marked the sixth time the Missoula Children's Theatre has come to the Creek to mold young students into competent actors and actresses with little more than three days practice time before putting on an hour and a half show for the public.The travelling theatre's mission is to develop life skills in children through participation in the performing arts. They come fully equipped with costumes and pre-designed sets for whatever play they are putting on during that tour.
Roberts Creek students auditioned on Monday for the various parts in The Jungle Book. Emily Hoy landed the lead as Mowgli.She seemed a bit nervous on stage at first, but showed her strength while singing, "Who am I" in a lovely soprano voice.Young Mowgli was played by Elizabeth Lyle who was very cute and animated and the black panther Bagheera was mastered by Maddy Weber.
Leader of the wolf pack Akela, aka Maize Longboat, was a riot singing and dancing to the tune of "Leader of the Pack." The swooning female wolves seemed well suited to their lovesick roles while the littlest wolf, Wolfy played by Simon Gaiga, always had to have the last word to the amusement of the audience.
Another funny fellow was Sam Mountenay who played the antelope Buck. He had those silly one-liners like "the buck stops here," and "I wouldn't want to buck the system" but he would fold over in laughter at his own jokes so earnestly you couldn't help but laugh along.
The littlest actors and actresses cast as the Monkey People were adorable and they didn't seem to have to stretch too far to playfully bounce around the stage.
The villains, Shere Khan, played by Sarah Mitchell and Tabaqui, played by Katy Van't Schip were commanding on stage. Each one nailed all of their lines and proved they were perfectly cast.
One of my favorite characters was actually 10 in one. The snake Kaa was headed by Sophie Garmelewicz and followed by nine other students who echoed everything she said. It was an interesting way to create a snake on stage and it definitely had an impact.
Two other snakes worth noting were Jacob Gjerdalen as Nag and Glare Lyle as Nagaina. Both had tremendous death scenes when mongoose Ricki-Tikki-Tavi, played by Elise Webber defeated them in one of Baloo's stories with a moral for Mowgli.Baloo, the lovable insightful bear charged with helping Mowgli grow up, was played by Siobhan Collins of Missoula Children's Theatre. She and Robyn Barrows brought the play and their talents to the school last week.
The duo thanked the community for all of their support over the years and specific mention was made of all of the 27 sponsors they rely on yearly to make the production a reality.
For more information about Missoula Children's Theatre go to www.mctinc.org.
