Things Getting Wild at Community Theater
All-Student Production of ‘The Jungle Book’ Includes Roster of 50 Local Kids, Marking Biggest Cast Ever for Any FCCT Play Here
Fayette County Community Theatre has been around since 2016.
But in that time, there’s never been anything like the rehearsals that started last week for the student production of “The Jungle Book” coming up Aug. 13-15.
The upstairs at the Casino Hall Thursday had a bunch of would-be wolves in one corner, a bunch of monkeys working on their mannerism in another area, on the other side of the room several kids were working on drawing set designs, and up on the stage another half-dozen child actors were working on their lines.
“This is not just our biggest student production, it’s our biggest production – period,” said Melissa Weltner, a longtime member of Fayette County Community Theatre (FCCT), and one of a handful of adults that is helping out in this otherwise all-student production. “I am so impressed that there were 50-plus kids that wanted to be involved with this.”
Thursday Weltner was overseeing the rehearsals for a group of eight monkeys in the play, but she’s not running this production. Even the director of this play is a student.
Conner Underwood just weeks ago graduated from La Grange High School, but before he heads off to Texas State University this fall to study Theatrical Production and Design, he’s making his directorial debut with “The Jungle Book.”
“Welcome to the deep end of the pool Conner,” Weltner said.
Underwood has been involved in both community theater and high school one-act play, but this is a whole other level of challenge.
“Being in charge of everything is new to me,” Underwood said. “It’s very different but it’s cool to see all the aspects of this, fun to see this mass group of 50-plus kids grow a connection with each other and work together on stage and create something great.”
Underwood’s dealing with a huge range of maturity levels and abilities. There’s kindergarteners to seniors in this play, and they’re from communities all across Fayette County.
“You get so many ideas, from a young kid’s creativity to the older cast’s more realistic view of things and we’re trying to mix it all together,” Underwood said. “This entire production is from the kids. Our mission is to build community through play. I love that we’re introducing these kids to a new hobby.”
There have been two summer student productions through FCCT before, “The Secret Garden” in 2018 and “Alice in Wonderland” in 2019. “The Jungle Book” was actually supposed to be presented last summer but was cancelled because of the pandemic.
“We’re back and we’re back in such a huge way, and we’re astonished,” Weltner said.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.fayettecountycom munitytheatre.com
The All-Student Cast of “The Jungle Book”
Director: Conner Underwood
Chorus-
Adelina Patterson
Leah Green
Lucy Martin
Judah Martin
Ruby Freedman
Sydney Lann
Presley Landry
Lily Banks
Violet Banks
Hannah Garza
Cast-
Wolf 1 - Elliot Cone
Wolf 2 - Josh Green
Wolf 3 - Mattie Muzny
Wolf 4 - Charlie Shank
Wolf 5 - Caroline Bartek
Wolf 6 - Alice Muzny
Wolf 7 - Grace Green
Wolf 8 - Hadley Ehler
Monkey 1 - Jude Lira
Monkey 2 - Elizabeth Shank
Monkey 3 - Hadleigh Banks
Monkey 4 - Remington Denham
Monkey 5 - Emilie Fowler
Monkey 6 - Carolina Lira
Monkey 7 - Anabella Delarosa
Monkey 8 - Penelope Bartek
Child/Young Mowgli - Penn Wick
Hanley/Tabaqui - Riley Lowe
Raan - Autumn Wolfe
Old Woman - Vanessa Adams
Rudyard Kipling/Mowgli - Deacon Wick
Young Woman - Logan Lann
Crofts/Baloo - Jakob Cone
Mother Wolf - Katy Shank
Kaa - Layelah Martin
Shere Khan - Hayden Splawn
Cub 1 - Holden Mikulin
Cub 2 - Brinley Freedman
Price/Akela - Makenna Madison
Willies/Bagherra - Maddox Wick
Hathi - Emma Koeth.
Crew- Scarlett Landry, Oliver Schmidt, Laila Davis, Eli Martin, Bianca Carillo, Lily Martin, Ben Lann, Caleb Green, Luke Green, Emma Hughey