FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
The Jungle Book Retold by Sitka Cirque Artistry
By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
I grew up with “The Jungle Book.”
Rather, the Classic Comics depiction, picture-laden and simplified to reach thousands of young minds, encouraging them to next tackle the original works of the authors.
Bella Schmidt and other “wolf cub” cast members in the upcoming Sitka Cirque production of “The Jungle Book” warm up in the studio Wednesday. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
Sitting with pages open, small feet pulled up under pajamas, eyes wide with wonder, my heart alive in an adventure that would soon have me racing out the front door into the wilds of our neighborhood.
Now the adventure begins again, and in the air!
In performances at the Sitka Performing Arts Center April 21 and 22, local troupe Sitka Cirque lifts the timeless tale through a script by Charles Hart, narration by Phil Burdick, animation and projection by Sarah Lawrie, soloist costumes by Sarah Ferrency, and aerial dance under the artistic direction of lead choreographer Frances Donohoe and teachers Katy Pendall and Hart.
This is not the Walt Disney version. This is Rudyard Kipling’s original piece on abandonment and fostering.
“It is a story of man out in the wild of the jungles, ultimately rejected by the pack and sent back to his own kind,” Donohoe said. “A bit of a bittersweet, sad story, but we focus on the connection with nature and the animals, and the joy with that. We end our piece with a finale that is about going back up to the trees.”
In between is magic.
From Mowgli being found and raised in the jungle by wolves, his experiences and why he goes back to the human village and what that journey means, all is captured with multi-artistic media.
Mowgli, the man-child, is the only character not played by an actual person, but in paper cutouts.
“For people who haven’t seen it they look a lot like Thai shadow puppetry,” Donohoe said. “Sarah (Lawrie) puts them on an old-school kind of overhead projector. A live camera feed captures everything she is doing and sends it through a big projector on stage that takes up the whole back screen.”
The Cirque students play the animals in the jungle.
“The story kind of passes back and forth between the real people on stage as animated jungle animals and the paper animation on the screen,” Donohoe said.
New characters are introduced and described through music as well as words. Stilt-walkers and giant puppets animate some characters.
All are intricately costumed and, of course, at any moment one or more may fly into the air on colorful fabrics.
Main characters include Bagheera (Jacike Carlos) the black panther who mentors Mowgli, Baloo (Hart/Zeke Blackwell) the bear who teaches Mowgli the laws of the jungle, Shere Khan (Pendall/Myia Walen) a large tiger with anger issues, and Kaa the snake’s (Maia Capp) hypnotic seduction.
Mama Wolf (Abigayle Stearman/Madelynn Schreckengost) sings a lullaby to the Cirque’s advanced elementary-age students.
“They are adorable,” Donohoe said. “We have them howling on stage and running around pretending to be little wolf cubs.”
The iconic Bandar-log monkeys are advanced adult students in aerial fabric and triple trapeze partnering.
“That’s kind of the new element we have been working a lot on this year,” Donohoe said. “The partnering stuff is hard, a whole other level. It is one person up in the air flipping another person around.”
Maa the Peacock (Emily Kwong) dances with fans, playing with different styles of movement and drawing from her heritage.
Parrots (beginner level teens) take to the winds.
Lotus Flowers (adults/intermediates) swirl and dance like the fire Mowgli learns to tend by watching the enticing movements of a village girl (Gemma Dehil).
Baby Elephants (1st-5th grade) showcase new skills and Dragonflies their advanced aerials.
Cirque also added a few critters Kipling did not target.
“We have an insect piece that is one of my favorites,” Donohoe said. “The insects (advanced 5th, middle and high school students) come creeping out of the audience. They are creepy, crawly, a little bit scary, and start on the ground and work their way up into the fabrics.”
A Frog (Macee Steinson) is seen as well.
“Partly that’s because when we were doing auditions she did so well jumping around like a frog that we put that in there,” Donohoe said.
Preschool age artists show their beginning class skills as tiny fish.
There are 70 performers in each cast, and 90 overall.
Donohoe, Pendell and Hart, in addition to performing, doing back stage chores and setting up, are also full time spotters on stage, double checking and making sure wraps are safe.
“One of the criteria we think about when deciding to put on a production is to have a big cast of very vivid and fun characters,” Donohoe said. “Something that gives a lot of different students something to get their teeth into, and that is something when I think about the Jungle Book I think of lots of amazing, colorful interesting characters.”
The Jungle Book is a journey. The story a sad one that ends on an uplifting note.
“I think it is something that will strike home for a lot of people here, living in Alaska, more out in the jungle and in the wild.” Donohoe said. “As far as getting into character I don’t think our students had a problem doing that.”
My advice is to see a matinee AND an evening performance, to experience the entire jungle flora and fauna, from tiniest threaded tumbler to ageless aerial acrobat, to find YOUR place in the jungle.
On Saturday (April 21) and Sunday (April 22) I get to be Mowgli again.
I get to tuck my feet up out of my brown loafers, open my bifocaled eyes in amazement, let my chest swell with excitement and yearn to run once more through the Tongass jungle.
Performances both days are at 1 and 6 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center. Tickets are available at Cirque Studio and Old Harbor Books. Adults $20, seniors and students $15.
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....