Winnie the Pooh in the park

Many children and parents gathered at Blue Springs Park Thursday morning to be entertained by the Central Missouri Repertory Theatre’s latest production of “Winnie the Pooh.”

The play was an adaptation taken from the classic children’s book “Winne the Pooh” by A.A. Milne. Director and associate company manager John Wilson said key changes were made to the original script to include more music and incorporate songs and speech from today’s popular culture.

“With children’s shows, it’s beneficial to add popular culture references,” Wilson said. “It’s purely for entertainment and storytelling.”

Another one of the more noticeable changes involved Eeyore, played by Ben Wendt. Throughout the production, Eeyore played carpenter songs from the 1970s, and that’s something Wilson said added to the character’s gloomy personality.

The additions were well received by the audience members. After many of the new songs both children and adults broke out into applause.

Chris O’Dwyer and her son Joshua were among those gathered to watch the production on Thursday. O’Dwyer said she enjoyed Winnie the Pooh’s rendition of Eminem’s rap song, “Loose Yourself,” a song Pooh sang about his love of honey.

“My favorite part was when Pooh was doing his solo singing,” O’Dwyer said. “But it was all very good. I have nothing bad to say about the play at all.”

Adam Henry who played Pooh Bear said before the first day of rehearsal he never rapped before. He said at the first practice Wilson presented him with the new lyrics to the Eminem song and it took off from there.

“It was a whole new experience for me,” Henry said. “When you do that, you get to the next stage of foolishness; after all that’s what you do when you act: you’re crazy.”

Rehearsal and work for the production began on May 29 and a lot of work had to be done to the original script because it was made to be an hour and a half long production.

Wilson said since children were the target audience, they had to find a way to cut down the production time to just 45 minutes but still maintain the essential theatrical elements and entertainment in the show. In the end, he was happy with the way the production played out.

“Outdoor venues are the hardest to do because there are no boundaries for kids and then you deal with heat, bugs, dust and other things,” Wilson said. “But this went particularly well.”

Because of the hot and humid weather of the day, Wilson said the turnout was less than the number of people who usually come to the shows. On an average day, the crowds are about twice the size, but Wilson was happy with the turnout in spite of the weather.

Both Wilson and Wendt enjoyed working with the cast to make the production a fun experience for everyone involved with each aspect of the play.

Wendt, who worked with individual members of the cast in different shows over the last few years of his college career, said this was a very laid-back production and one he very much enjoyed.

“It’s been really fun,” he said. “Everyone is so giving and has pitched in their ideas and done their part to make this our own. Plus, this is the least amount of work we’ve put into a show and it’s nice because that’s made it very relaxed.”

Wilson, a professor in the UCM theater department, has enjoyed working with the cast because he has had previous experience working with them in the classroom and in other productions.

“They are all either current or former theater students,” he said. “My favorite part of the production was when Pooh goes into his loser-self rap. It’s been a lot of fun and it was a very organic rehearsal processes which made it very laid back.”

Blue Springs was the production’s first stop on the 2009 touring children’s show schedule. They have five more production dates running through June 27 including stops in Carrollton, Richmond and Warrensburg.