Life has been rush, rush, rush and hop, hop, hop lately for Oak Harbor High School junior Kyndra Gilvarry.

“It’s been fun,” she said.

Gilvarry is one of 20 actors in the school’s drama club who have been honing their animal instincts as they prepare for their two-weekend run of “The Great Cross Country Race,” known to some as “The Tortoise and the Hare.”

“It’s been an adventure. We get to do some with our character, but a big part of it is dressing up,” Gilvarry said.

The play follows a group of animals as they assemble for their annual Sports Day. They can’t find anyone to compete with the fleet hare (Gilvarry) in the cross-country race until the slow-moving tortoise (Chris Dietz) agrees to challenge the hare. In the course of the race, the overly-confident yet scatter-brained hare gets diverted by her encounters with members of the human race — while the tortoise plods steadily and relentlessly on to the finish line.

The cast roster reflects an episode of “Animal Kingdom.” In addition to the tortoise and the hare, there’s Mrs. Warren (Brittany St. Julien) the rabbit, Ms. Spiney (Kaytie Henson) the hedgehog, Ms. Brush (Tiffany Mellin) the squirrel, Mrs. Dark (Sarah Alwaer) the rook, Mr. Basket (Keath Worley) the dog, and a few humans that invade the animals’ natural habitat including Kira Homola, Shaina Estadilla, Brian Culbertson, Emma Spear, Jared Plang, Brian Culbertson, Kelly Brown, Dazzle Rowland, Tim Hazelo, Daniel Cadwell and Marielle Teng.

The familiar children’s story has proved to be a learning experience for the cast.

For Gilvarry her character study has been getting used to the over-confidence of Ms. Fleet, the hare.

“She’s a glory hound,” she said. “The Hare’s an egoist and thinks she’s better than everyone, especially the Tortoise.”

For junior Cody Shershon, it has meant studying the behavior and mannerisms of badgers.

“I’ve been trying to become one with my character the badger so I’ve actually been watching badger videos,” he said with a laugh.

This week the students visited local grade schools to introduce some of the characters and to spread word of their family-friendly performances this weekend and next.

Jones said even though it’s a kids’ play there’s something for everyone in the production.

“The comedy is very slapstick,” Jones said.