Junie's B.'s Simple Lessons

Arts Live's latest show, "Junie B. Jones Is Not a Crook," stars one of the spunkiest characters in children's fiction. In 1992, when Junie B. appeared in the first of what would become author Barbara Park's 32-book series, she was a confident, smart kindergartner. Over the next 21 years, pint-sized fans would celebrate a variety of trials and tribulations with Junie B. that included losing her baby teeth ("Toothless Wonder"), acclimating herself to riding the school bus ("Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus") and graduating to first grade ("Junie B., First Grader at Last!").

Director Jules Taylor thinks Junie B.'s relatability and the simple lessons that the books teach are some of the keys to the series' popularity.

"While she's really, really clever, she doesn't hold her focus very well, so she gets herself in a lot of trouble," says Taylor. "In this story, she owns some gloves, and she loses the gloves. She goes to the lost and found and finds something that isn't hers, but she keeps it -- and then realizes that that's not right. It's that simple a message, that stealing something is wrong. Especially around the age of 5 or so, [kids are] really starting to conceptualize those things, those social constructs."

Taylor says this is one of the smallest and youngest casts she's worked with in a while. While Arts Live actors are used to portraying characters who are older than they are, in this particular case, the challenge is playing characters who are younger.

"They have these little mannerisms that I can see them doing that makes them seem older, so it's just pulling back those mannerisms," she says. "The way we talk to each other when we get older is different. Kids this age are still unbelievably innocent and open and honest."

Taylor's young cast is taking advantage of being out of school by presenting their production to the Montessori School on a weekday afternoon.

"These are kids of the age of Junie B., so I'm excited about that," she says. "The thing about theater that's so weird is that you rehearse for months and months, and [then] you perform it for one weekend, and it's over. I'm always excited when we can find one more performance opportunity for [our actors]."

But this show is not just for the younger set, Taylor says: She thinks even parents will enjoy watching Junie B. learn an important lesson in her special, Junie B. fashion. Which wouldn't surprise Barbara Park, who once said in an interview that her books channeled her inner 6-year-old.

"I don't have a problem being 6 years old in my head," she said then. "It's almost embarrassing; if I'm talking to librarians or teachers who know my books, and they say, 'How do you do this?' It's not a stretch."

NAN What's Up on 06/15/2018