By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
It’s always good to return to the Hundred Acre Wood and visit with Winnie-the-Pooh and his pals.
Winnie, the bear of very little brain but charm to spare, is always good for a laugh.
This weekend the Horizon Youth Theatre brings the Hundred Acre Wood to the stage of the Grand Rapids Town Hall, 4282 Front St., Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the the Grand Rapids Town Hall, Click for the tickets.
Keith Guion adapted the classic A.A. Milne tales in a way true to their truest form, the book. Each of the stories is framed as a bedtime story.
Directed by Guion with Madi Chase as stage manager, a cast of 20 actors from ages 6 to 12, narrate and play out the tales. No one youngster plays the lead. Rather Pooh’s ears get passed along to a different actor for each tale. Likewise Christopher Robin is played by a different actor each time — he’s the one without a set of costume ears.
Others in the cast are: Livy Emch, Boudi Grills-McCarty, Clarissa Hensley, Harper Kutz, Kadience Martinez, Chloe Mayle, Oliver McClure, Evelyn Pollard, Nica Prishchepova, Ivy Shawver, Bradey Smeltzer, Delilah Smith, Gavin Snyder, Ruby St. Louis, Zoe Torres, Kizzey Wilson, and Aurora Zientek.
The show runs from introducing us to Pooh, through his various predicaments in finding and eating “hunny,” chasing a Woozle, and trying to find a Heffalump.
Poohs own poetic nature expressed in verse and “hums” colors the narrative.
It’s Christopher Robin who leads the final “Expotition” involving the entire population of Hundred Acre Wood, who head out to find the North Pole.
Despite all odds and uncertainty about what exactly constitutes the North Pole, they do indeed find it.
And along the way, I hope the young actors discover the delight of bringing these beloved characters to life.
