Students bringing wild animals to life in Bangs Theater department

September 25, 2018 at 3:15 pm brownwoodnewsstaff

Written by Ben Cox – Students in Bangs High School are hard at work bringing monkeys, gorillas, elephants and other animals to life for their upcoming production of Disney’s “Tarzan”.

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Directed by Bangs theatre teacher Bille Harvey, the show is the Broadway adaptation of the classic Disney movie. Featuring a cast of 36 students, not including crew, the lead roles will be a mix of familiar and fresh faces to the Bangs stage. Corbin Freeland will play Tarzan, freshman Sarah Thomason James will be portraying Jane and Briar Lindsey will play Porter, her father.

Director Billie Harvey gives instructions to Sarah Thomason James, while Corbin Freeland waits in the background for his directions.

Taking a cue from the original wardrobe, the animals will be a more avant-garde, stylized approach as opposed to gorilla suits and rubber masks. “The gorillas will be dressed in all black with tribal style make-up, with strips of fabric hanging from them, it’s very cool” says Harvey.

This show presents a unique set of challenges for the cast.“The kids are all working on bringing their characters to life, which is cool because most of them are not playing humans. We have two different ape-walks, which are really fun to watch them practicing!”

The cast has developed several distinct “walks” for their characters, seen here entering the stage as the cast prepares the end of the play

Harvey says her kids are really picking up the shows familiar music, despite its challenging composition. “They love it, the music is really hard but they’re getting it! It’s odd, but it’s odd in the best way possibly. They’re eating it up! They’re a real fun group.”

With five seniors in her troupe this year, Harvey says she has “a ton of underclassmen, so that helps.” She says having so many younger students in the cast is not a problem, however. “The underclassmen are really holding their own with the upperclassmen, it’s great!”

Opening in Mid November, the starting date is dependent on the Dragons playoff schedule. “We open either the 15th or 16th, if we play on Friday we’ll open on the 15th and if not we we’ll open the 16th and run through the weekend.”

The annual Dessert Theater is also back again this year, and is always a big fund raiser for the troupe. Harvey says she “always looks forward to the cherry or pecan pies”.

The Bangs Theatre department says this is a familiar, fun show that will be in your heart, to borrow a line from the music.

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