Thursday, Jul. 16, 2009

“Bambi” tells the story of loss, friendship, love and growing up

When Jennifer Adams was a theater student at Columbus State University, she became kind of a camp counselor at the Springer Opera House’s Theater Academy. Later, she became an instructor. Now a graduate student at the University of Central Florida, Adams is studying theater for young people.

This summer she also is directing “Bambi: A Life in the Woods,” the first production of the Springer Children’s Theater season.

Adams is excited because this is her first directing job at the Springer.

She’s treating the cast as if they were in “a professional summer stock situation.” They took academy classes and then had two weeks of rehearsals for about six hours a day.

Both this play and the Disney animated movie were taken from the book, “Bambi: A Life in the Woods” by Felix Salten.

“The movie and the play are very similar,” Adams said. “It’s about a deer growing up and becoming the ‘Prince of the Forest.’ The story will be very recognizable.”

The play will be a good one for children kindergarten age and older, she said. But she promised adults would be pleased, too.

For half of the cast of “Bambi: A Life in the Woods,” it’s the end of an era. For these college-bound students, this marks their last summer at the Springer Opera House’s Theater Academy.

The group (Nicole Broach, 18, University of Alabama; Betsy Flournoy, Ashley Jay and Alex Willis, all 18 and going to Columbus State University; Victoria Leggett, 18, Valdosta State University; Scott Valentine, 18, Georgia Southern University and Stephanie Reeves, 18, Southern Union) has spent every summer together for the past few years, with some of them knowing each other the entire 13 years of the academy’s existence.

Flournoy is playing Bambi. Last seen in “Big Friendly Giant,” she was atop stilts as a scary, child-eating giant.

“‘BFG’ was an outrageous, over-the-top show,” she said. “This has a more earth quality to it. It’s not as outrageous. At ‘BFG,’ when people left the show, they were lighthearted. I think after they leave ‘Bambi,’ they will have learned a lesson. There’s more wisdom.”

Adams said those actors who are going to college in the fall can identify with Bambi.

“It’s about growing up,” Adams said.

Broach and Dylan Stephan, 17, a rising senior at Northside High School, are playing Bambi’s parents. They are basing their performances on their own parents.

“I feel that my father teaches me by guiding me, instead of telling me (what to do),” Stephan said. “Yes, he’s wise, in some sense of the word.”

“That’s all I have to pull from,” Broach said. “It’s the only experience I have,” listening to her mother. “I have to give her more credit than I realized.”

At the beginning of the play, young Bambi doesn’t know anything, and her mother tells her what things are and what to avoid.

One of Flournoy’s favorite scenes is when Bambi and her best friends, cousins Gobo (Reeves) and Faline (Leggett), who are the children of her Aunt Ena (Melissa Cone, 17, a rising senior at Columbus High School), see their fathers for the first time.

Flournoy is famous at the academy for her clumsiness. She’s broken numerous bones, though she’s quick to say never at the theater. Bambi is also clumsy, and falls into a thorn bush at one point in the play.

Willis, who plays Bambi’s mentor, Hare, said the other thing the deer parents warn their children about is “He.” He represents man, who brings danger to the forest with guns and fire.

“There are a lot of lessons in this play,” Valentine said. “Some are out there for the kids, and others are for adults to think about.”

Other lessons include time helps heal things; finding your own way; friendship and finding love.

When one of the characters dies, the woodland friends find out that life doesn’t just stop.

“It’s good that everyone is accepting that life goes on,” Adams said. “It’s a good lesson.”

“It’s riddled with morals,” said Jay.

“But it doesn’t feel preachy,” said Jasmin Anderson, 17, rising senior, Columbus High.

Others in the play are Mary Lou Garcia, 16, home-schooled and Cameron McCarty, 17, rising senior, Hardaway High School.