(Contributed photo)
WATSONVILLE — Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m., middle school students will take the stage for matinee performances of “The Lion King, Jr.” at Mount Madonna School’s Hawks’ Nest Theater, 445 Summit Road in Watsonville.
“For our production, students are taking on the challenge of personalizing their roles and investing deeply into the world of the characters,” said director Sampad Kachuck. “Whether singing, dancing or simply ‘living’ on stage, they’re engaging passionately in developing a character’s perspective in interaction with others. It is by receiving that the characterization expands. At the same time, and of equal import, students are building community through the vehicle of theater, and learning to trust themselves and each other. It’s a true win-win; by full participation, the individual grows and the production benefits.”
“The Lion King, Jr.” is based on the Broadway production directed by Julie Taymor.
Kachuck said the story is about “redemption and discovery,” where Simba the lion must learn what it means to be a leader.
“While he is too young and naïve at the story’s outset to know what it means to be a king, his father Mufasa tries to demonstrate to his son what constitutes a true leader,” Kachuck said. “He shows Simba that being a great king is far more than simply having the power to control others, that it is respecting and understanding the interconnectivity of all living being as essential to the circle of life.”
Sixth-grader Richard Liddicoat, in his first middle school play, reflected on the idea of interconnectivity.
“We are all part of the circle of life,” he said. “When we die, our bodies become the grass and the antelope eat the grass. Where there is life there is death, and when something dies, something else is born.”
Tickets are available for purchase at mmslionking.bpt.me. Adults are $16; 18 and under are $11. All seats are reserved.
