All four performances of “The Jungle Book” sell out
By: Taylor Herring
The OGHS Drama Department performed their show, “The Jungle Book”, at the Churchill Theatre for an audience of both adults and children. There wasn’t an empty seat in the house while they performed; in fact, Oak Grove was the only high school to sell out all four of their shows. It wasn’t all smoke and mirrors, though; the students worked for over a year to raise money for the trip.
Last May, the Oak Grove Theatre Department was nominated by the MS Theatre Association to travel to Scotland and perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the largest film festival in the world. Once nominated, the team was chosen as one of the top 35 in the United States. Mrs. Allmon, their director, then held an audition to determine the select group she’d be taking overseas. The 27 lucky students would later face another obstacle: they each had to raise around 6,000 dollars to pay for the trip. When asked how they raised this money, students responded, “We sold a lot of cookie dough,” or, “We spent our Halloween entertaining kids with a fundraising haunted house.” With 27 students and 6 adults planning to attend, funding the trip was no easy task; however, the aspiring thespians persevered. Fifteen months and $200,000 later, the Oak Grove Drama Department was on an 11 hour flight to Scotland.
Upon arrival, the group hit the ground running. They had the opportunity to march in a parade quite similar to Mardi Gras in America. Some of the group climbed Arthur’s Seat, the highest of a group of hills in Edinburgh. It is believed that Arthur’s Seat is distantly associated with a base for military action under the rule of King Arthur. They also got to witness the Military Tattoo, a royal procession that honors one member of the royal family each night.
All tourism aside, our drama department didn’t just travel to Scotland for sightseeing. After selling out their shows, the actors all went outside of the theatre to play with children who were in the audience, sign autographs, and answer endless questions about their “funny accents.”
Obviously, we have a very talented group of actors at Oak Grove. If they can sell out all four shows in another country, imagine how well they would do if the school had an auditorium here. The show they performed appealed to a very large audience because it had singing, dancing, and even crowd participation. Logan Little, who played the lead role of Baloo, said, “It was a true honor to have the opportunity to travel to Scotland and show the world Mississippi’s talent in the art of theatre.”
