By paNOW

VIDEO: The Jungle Book gets actors in touch with their primal side

Nov 27, 2013 | 11:59 PM

How do you get ready to play an animal in front of hundreds of people?

Carlton Comprehensive High School students had to ask themselves that when they got on board with The Jungle Book play.

“Me and Nicole [Mathis] are the cats so we watched videos on cats in the beginning. Because our very first rehearsal, he [drama teacher David Zulkoskey] wanted us to kind of get into the movement of it so that was kind of the first thing we did,” said actor Arnelle Gamble.

The play follows the original Jungle Book story, which includes a boy named Mowgli, monkeys, elephants, the loveable bear Baloo, snake and a tiger.

Gamble said the actors got used to the animalistic movements by the time they started their elementary school tour.

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This included getting used to a set that they move and climb on.

On Thursday, the set and cast travelled to Vincent Massey Community School to perform with full scenery and makeup. It’s the fifth of their eight school performances.

Usually, Carlton’s productions revolve around fairy tales, so it was a bit of a change of pace.

“It’s much different than acting as a princess or a prince because you get to be an animal so it’s a lot of fun to get to interact with the kids and the kids love it because we’re cats and monkeys. The kids love the monkey because the monkeys jump around and make fun noises,” said Mathis.

Gamble added that in her years acting, this is among her favourite plays.

An interesting element of this performance is that it uses pantomime-style theatre.

“People become involved in the show so they’ll call out at the angry characters, they’ll cheer on the hero, which is of course Mowgli. The wonderful thing is it gives adults the chance to relax and enjoy the show, to be interactive with it,” said Zulkoskey.

During the Vincent Massey performance, this included pulling a child from the audience to stand in as a temporary ‘monkey king’ and asking questions for the audience to respond to.

The performances have two elements for Mathis.

As an actor, she had to focus on her lines and movements, but she also gets to admire the makeup designs she created.

When she took on makeup design for the play, she researched stripes for the different animals. She then created her own designs.

“I’m definitely proud of my designs because it did take a lot of work for me to do and that everybody can see them, and how I’ve gotten different compliments on them and I just didn’t think it would actually turn out this great,” Mathis said.

Each member of the drama team took on special roles to prepare for each performance, from building the set to putting up lights.

By now, Zulkoskey said they are a well-oiled machine.

“At this point now, I stand back, I get the students to the facility and I watch them build the show, literally in the venues that we go to,” he said.

The actors are heading to the E.A. Rawlinson Centre for the Arts this weekend. Their public shows are at 2 p.m. on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.

claskowski@panow.com

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk