junie b. and the Student Directors

Carol Gebert arranged to have New York-based TheatreWorksUSA visit Jay County last spring to perform “Junie B. Jones” for local third graders.

A couple of high schoolers were just as mesmerized by the musical.

“Me and Anna (Heath) were watching it and we were like, ‘Wow. This is so cool. We could do this show,’” said Jay County High School junior Leah Hummel. “And so we went up and asked her, expecting nothing to come of it.”

Instead, Gebert agreed.

There was one catch though.

“I told Anna and Leah, ‘I don’t have time to do this show and two other shows, so you’re directing it,” said Gebert, who directed the JCHS production of “Almost, Maine” that took the stage two weeks ago and is currently working on the regional competition piece “Bang Bang You’re Dead.”

Hummel and Heath were up to the challenge and their production of the musical about the daily life of a first grader will take the stage this weekend at JCHS.

Shows are scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m, Sunday. Tickets are $5 and will be available at the door.

The musical brings to life a first-grade snapshot of Junie B. Jones the title character of a series of 28 children’s books by Barbara Park.

Played by Hummel, she goes through the typical ups — getting a new lunchbox — and downs — not being able to play in a kickball game — of being a young elementary school student. And she deals with her classmates, from her best friend Herbert (Keith Rinker) to her rival May Murkee (Mary Hartman) — also known as Tattletale May.

While Hummel takes on the title role, Heath handles double duty as Junie B.’s mom, “Mother,” and school cafeteria lady Gladys Gutzman.

“My favorite part about ‘Mother,’ the first character I play, is she gets to be really sassy and sarcastic. And that’s pretty fun because my mom’s like that,” she said before throwing in a quiet, “Sorry Mom.”

The rest of the cast includes Elizabeth Stewart as the bus driver, Lauren Pruett as Bobbi Jean Piper, Raven Weaver as Grace, McKenna Vore as Jose, Megan Templeton as Camille, Cerridwen Harris as Chenille, Hannah Littler as Lucille, and Logan Zimmerman as Junie B.’s dad, “Daddy,” and Mr. Scary.

Gebert designed the set, which was built by her technical theatre class, but Hummel and Heath have handled virtually everything else. That’s included instructing their classmates, teaching music, choreographing and designing costumes.

“Definitely being in a leadership role as a junior in high school is kind of terrifying,” said Hummel.

“It’s a lot,” said Heath. “We now know why (JCHS musical director) Mrs. (Susan) Denney is stressed all the time.”

But, it has also been enjoyable, they both said. And now they’re excited to share the “spunky” attitude of Junie B. that drew them to the show.

“We thought it was really fun and cute,” said Heath. “It was a show we could really just have fun with because last year we did Les Miserables and that’s a very serious, dark, somber show. So we wanted to do something cutesy that a lot of kids in the community would enjoy.”