If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;  
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;  
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same…
- Rudyard Kipling, IF

That poem hung in a frame in the upstairs hallway of my childhood home in Montreal. As I experienced the “Triumphs and Disasters” of youth, those words always reminded me to keep things in perspective. Maybe that’s part of what drew me to study architecture – this desire to build things through perspective, never losing sight of the broader picture.

Kipling’s writing has come in and out of favor in the 100+ years since he published his many stories, songs and poems. When Craig and I decided to follow Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea with Jungle Book, we had to wade carefully into the waters of colonialism and cultural appropriation. For example, Kipling tended strongly towards a dominance of humans over nature, and of modern over traditional cultures. But no matter how you interpret his writing, you have to admire his gift for storytelling, his love of animals, and his concern for a right relationship with the natural world.

That was our starting point: to go back to Kipling’s Jungle Book (actually TWO Jungle Books) and to view the stories through a modern lens. In so doing, we can hone in on themes and stories that resonate today, and help us all gain perspective on how to live more respectfully with nature, and with each other. When Baloo the sloth bear teaches Mowgli the “Law of the Jungle” there are very clear echoes of my beloved poem IF, which Kipling wrote 16 years later. 

I hope these stories resonate as deeply with you as they continue to do with me. Let Mowgli and our talented cast and creative team carry you deep into the Jungle, and bring you back into your city, filled with dreams of a better world.

To the wild,
– RICK MILLER, Co-Creator

_____
 

This is the hour of pride and power, Talon and tusk and claw.
Oh, hear the call! Good hunting all that keep the Jungle Law!

I first discovered Rudyard Kipling at age eight through his Just So Stories: how the elephant got his trunk, and so on. His writing brilliantly combined archetypal myths with authentic human emotions and real animal traits. It was exciting to read, and it fired my imagination. We included Kipling's version of how the tiger got its stripes in this adaptation: the play is a labour of love combining poems and stories from The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book, along with our own characters, poetry, and take on humanity's troubled relationship with "the wild". I hope to bring a new vision of The Jungle Book to a generation that has a more advanced view of nature than Kipling's generation did, but less direct contact with it. 

Mowgli begins the play disconnected from humanity and nature; torn between the animal and human worlds. This tug-of-war within Mowgli between his two families, and his search for belonging, are feelings to which every child can relate. This production continues the vision we began with Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea of bringing traditional art and new technologies together, as well as bringing us together with our own audiences in a darkened theatre. It's about connection. We want to connect with you, to experience a unique story in a fresh way, to emerge from our "hour of pride and power" with your own imagination fired, and a little bit of jungle in your spirit. 

– CRAIG FRANCIS, Co-Creator

Shaharah Gaznabbi (They/Them) lives in the realm of the interdisciplinary. They are a Queer-Guyanese ACTRA Actor, Playwright, Puppeteer, Comedian, Deviser, Dramaturg, Drag Artist (you name it!) based in Toronto. They were an Artist-In-Residence at Tarragon Theatre as a recipient of the Ellen Ross Stuart Award where they workshopped their play "Lost Scribe", which they began writing as part of Tarragon Theatre’s Young Playwrights Unit. Shaharah received The Neurodiverse Review's Birds of Paradise Emerging Talent Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2023, where they presented their solo-show "What Can Indian Look Like? Can It Look Caribbean?". They have also most recently received TO Live’s “Best of Fringe”, as well as the Canadian Green Alliance’s “Greenest In The Fringe” at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2025 for their solo puppet filled musical comedy show “My Pet Lizard, Liz: The Shakespearean Existential Crisis that Led to his Ultimate Demise”. Jungle Book means the world to Shaharah, and this cast and team has truly become some of their closest friends. It is the greatest privilege to be letting in the jungle once again!! ROOOAAAAARR!!! Instagram: @huckkingfilarious

Matt Lacas is an Actor/Director hailing from Tiohtià:ke/Montreal and currently calling Tkaronto/Toronto home. Matt is a graduate of both Dawson College's Professional Theatre Program in Montreal and Randolph College for the Performing Arts in Toronto. Matt has had the pleasure of working on stages across Canada, US, Europe and Asia as a performer and director. Past Credits: Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Robin Hood The Musical and Alice in Wonderland The Musical (SBTS), Brimful of Asha, The New Canadian Curling Club (Festival Antigonish), The Hydrofoil Mystery (Theatre Baddeck), Murder For Two (Neptune Theatre), We Will Rock You (BMT), Les Moutons (Corpus, Japan Tour). Matt is ecstatic to be back in the Jungle with this ferocious team! Big thanks to the famjam and Goose for the continual love and support!

Craig Francis is a playwright, director, and visual artist. His plays have toured Canada and the US, including Off-Broadway. A founding member of The 20K Collective, Craig co-created Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Jungle Book, and HANS: My Life In Fairy Tales with Rick Miller; and FRANKENSTEIN: A Living Comic Book with Miller and Paul Van Dyck. He's a producer, dramaturg, and stage manager for Miller's BOOM trilogy and MONEY productions in Canada, the US, France, and Taiwan. Current projects include CYNIC, The Time Machine, and The Turn of the Screw. Craig is an educator, speaker, and emerging artist mentor, including co-authoring Redwood Woman with Andrea Friesen. He has performed improv and sketch comedy with Just For Laughs, CBC, CTV and Showtime. Craig lives in Montréal, has illustrated books, and voiced animated series. Videos he co-created with Kidoons and not-for-profit organizations are installed in museums in six provinces.

Rick Miller (he/him) is a Dora and Gemini award-winning writer / director / actor / musician / educator who has performed in five languages on five continents, and who Entertainment Weekly called “one of the 100 most creative people alive today”. He has created and toured solo shows such as the BOOM Trilogy (BOOM, BOOM X, and BOOM YZ), MacHomer, Bigger Than Jesus and HARDSELL; and family shows with Craig Francis and Kidoons, such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Jungle Book, FRANKENSTEIN: A Living Comic Book, and HANS: My Life in Fairy Tales. With Robert Lepage, he has collaborated on Geometry of Miracles, Zulu Time, Lipsynch, Dragon’s Trilogy, and on the film Possible Worlds. Current projects in development include MONEY, and The Time Machine. Rick hosts an intergenerational podcast called Xing The Gap, and sometimes teaches an interdisciplinary class at the University of Toronto called The Architecture of Creativity. He lives in Toronto with his partner Stephanie Baptist. www.rickmiller.ca

Debashis Sinha has has enjoyed a long relationship with many of Canada’s theatre companies and stages, including projects with The Stratford Festival, Soulpepper Theatre, The Shaw Festival, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Why Not Theatre, The Theatre Centre, YPT, Theatre Passe Muraille, Project Humanity, Volcano Theatre and Necessary Angel, among many others. He has won multiple awards and nominations for his work on theatre stages in Canada, including a 2022 Toronto Dora Award for Outstanding Achievement in Design (Opera category), as well as other Dora awards and nominations over the years. He was a 2024 finalist for the Siminovitch Prize, Canada’s largest prize for excellence in the theatre arts, and was named the Ontario Arts Council’s Louis Applebaum Composer’s Award Laureate in 2023. His live performances and research have taken him from Japan to Yellowknife to Berlin to virtual worlds online.

Levin is thrilled to be reprising his role as Mowgli after playing runs at Asolo Repertory and Pasadena Playhouse. Levin was brought up in Sugar Land, TX and is now working and living out of New York City. Most recently Levin also originated the role of ‘Gobind’ in the new musical Bhangin’ It with the La Jolla Playhouse, ‘Dharun Ravi’ in the new musical Poster Boy with the Public Theater and with Williamstown Theater Festival and also the role of ‘Lottery’ in Monsoon Wedding at Berkeley Repertory Theater. Levin has also played Man 1/Monty in Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder at Florida Studio Theater. Levin has also played ‘Bob’ in the musical The Fabulous Lipitones at the New Theatre, Virginia Repertory Theater, and at The Florida Studio Theater. Film credits include the short film Thoughtless. He is trained at the Steppenwolf Theater School, Boston Conservatory, and Berklee College of Music. He wants to thank his mom, dad and brother for their endless support and love! “For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack!”

Mina James is an actor, improviser, and writer. Select credits include, Puppeteer in 1991 (Theatre Center/RISER Festival), Ensemble in the 2018 Diversity Fellowship Showcase (Second City), Helena in All’s Well That Ends Well (Canadian Stage/Shakespeare in High Park), Kristyna in Paul Dunn’s Outside (Roseneath Theatre), Ensemble in Blood Wedding (Aluna Theatre/Modern Times Stage Company), Ensemble in Antigonick (SummerWorks Festival). Film: Auroras (Dir. Atom Egoyan). Mina trained at the International Actor’s Fellowship at The Globe in London, England in 2013. Mina would like to thank her partner Jake and her doggo, Annie for always supporting her.

Much of Andrew’s recent work as been with Video Cabaret on their productions of “To Good To Be True”, “Confederation parts 1 and 2”, “The Great War”, “Trudeau and Levesque”.  Other recent credits include:” Cliff Cardinal’s CBC Special”, “The Second City Guide to the Symphony”, “Krapp’s Last Tape” with Theatre Passe Muraille, “Stellavision”  With Stella Walker in Keno City, Yukon.

• Fight Director:  Knives in Hens (Coal Mine Theater), Getting Married (Shaw Festival), The House of Martin Guerre (Canadian Musical Theatre Projects), The Penelopiad (The Grand Theatre), The Model Apartment (Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company), A Christmas Story (The Grand Theatre), Frankenstein’s Boy (Eldritch Theatre)
• Intimacy and Fight Director: The Unnatural and Accidental Women (NAC Indigenous Theatre and NAC English Theatre), Sex and The Russian Play (Shaw Festival), Guarded Girls (Tarragon Theatre), Four Chords and a Gun (Starvox Entertainment), The House of Martin Guerre (Canadian Musical Theatre Projects)