The Jungle Book at Springfield Little Theater’s Education Department

From January 17th to the 19th, Springfield Little Theater’s Education Department performed The Jungle Book. There were two casts of roughly ten, each performed twice.  

I absolutely loved it; it reminded me a lot of Fair Grove’s 2019 Spring production, Seussical. I was honestly blown away by how good the vocals were from the high school students in the production. The whole cast did a really good job embodying their characters. The jungle ensemble was very versatile and played several roles. They were monkeys, plants, parts of the snake, random jungle creatures, and a few other roles. Having mostly acted at Fair Grove, I love when theaters do a lot with a little and get creative with what they have. For Kaa, the snake, the ensemble slipped out of the jungle one by one with hula hoops, making it feel like the snake was slowly coming out of the trees; they all did a really good job of moving fluently together.  

The set was smart and consisted of three large books painted like a jungle and a vine draped over the top of all three. It was simple and served the purpose of being able to perform in different locations of the “jungle” without any set changes.