By Julia Caulfield
Telluride’s Young People’s Theatre presents “The Jungle Book” via Zoom
If you’ve been to a production from the Sheridan Arts Foundation’s Young People’s Theatre, the sound of an overture is familiar.
But unlike most YPT productions, when the actors arrive on stage, it’s not on the stage of the Sheridan Opera House. It’s in a small screen, on Zoom.
This year, YPT is performing the musical The Jungle Book is based on Rudyard Kiplings 1894 book about a young child – named Mowgli – raised by a pack of wolves in the Jungle. Throughout the musical, Mowgli goes travels through the forest, and comes across a number of animal characters including a black panther named Bagheera, a bear called Baloo, and Queen Louie, queen of the orangutans.
YPT was originally scheduled to produce The Jungle Book in May.
“Unfortunately because of COVID, we had to call that off, because that would have not been safe or smart or legal,” says Leah Heidenreich, Artistic Director for the Young People’s Theatre – a non-competitive children’s theatre company in Telluride.
But COVID or no, Heidenreich was adamant that the show must go on.
“I just didn’t want to completely shut it down. You know, there is so much technology nowadays, where you can make anything work,” she says, “and there’s no wrong way to create art, because it’s subjective.”
So she turned to Zoom.
Heidenreich says, “Zoom has just kind of taken over the world since COVID hit, and I was seeing a lot of theatre companies put together these Zoom productions, and I thought ‘you know, I think we can do that too’”.
It may be hard to envision what a Zoom version of a musical looks like, but in this iteration of The Jungle Book, actors (grades 3 through 5), pull it off flawlessly. Actors pop in and out of their screen in costume, with backdrops hanging behind them to create the ambiance of a jungle.
Musical numbers are scaled back when it comes to chorography, but characters sing and dance their way through the story, finding ways to incorporate the technology into the plot line – picture a cast full of actors peering deeply into their computer camera when they spot Mowgli for the first time.
It’s clear The Jungle Book on Zoom isn’t the same as performing on a stage in front of a live audience.
Evan Strogner is 11 years old and plays Baloo, the bear. He’s been performing with YPT for years, but like everyone else, this is the first time performing YPT over Zoom. Strogner says even he was a little concerned about how performing them musical was going to work over zoom.
“’How are we going to do this. Oh no, what are we going to do?’ Strongner remembers thinking, “and then I got in and Leah started explaining and I thought ‘oh, this is actually really cool.’”
And he says performing over Zoom has helped to show just how much is possible…even during a pandemic.
“Even though there is a pandemic where you can’t get closer to people, you can still do things,” Strogner says, “It’s going to be a little different, but it’s not going to be super super different.”
Ruby Chechu agrees. Chechu is 10-years old and plays Queen Louis. She says even with the constraints of an online platform, the cast – with Heidenreich’s guidance – has been able to create a full production that feels like a proper show – complete with entrances, exits, and blocking.
“That’s kind of the best aspect of the show this year because even though we’re not doing it all together in the same place, we still have that aspect of a real show,” Chechu says.
Strongner adds, traditional stage or no, the trill of acting is still there.
“When you’re in that moment,” he says, “and you’re in there moving, you do feel you’re on stage. Which is really cool.”
YPT’s The Jungle Book will take place Tuesday, July 7th through Thursday, July 9th at 6 p.m. on Facebook Live. Search for Young People’s Theatre Presents: The Jungle Book. The performance is free; however, donations are welcome.