BY: Brittany Vallely
The famous Winnie the Pooh characters are being brought to life at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival (ASF) in Montgomery, and one of AUM ‘s very own professors put it together.
Neil David Seibel, AUM’s performance professor, has had connections with faculty at ASF for quite some time. After having a discussion about the direction of ASF with the artistic director, Seibel was presented with the opportunity to direct one of the children’s shows.
“We just had a great conversation about theatre, what we want to do with it, how we see ourselves in it, how we see ourselves in Montgomery, and then from that, he said, ‘If you’re interested,’ and I said, of course, I’m interested,” said Seibel.
Originally, Seibel was supposed to direct Cat in the Hat, but it changed to Winnie the Pooh at the last minute.
“I was really excited about that because I love Cat in the Hat, but I’m thrilled to death with Winnie the Pooh because when I was a little kid I was carrying around a Kanga and a Roo,” said Seibel.
Seibel has been a theatre professor at AUM for eleven years, and when asked about his experience directing at ASF verses AUM, he explained that there were some similarities and differences.
“I was also training them. I was teaching them workshops while also directing, so that was a similarity,” said Seibel.
Seibel directed the fellowship company, which is a non-union company. Non-union means the cast members are not part of the Actor’s Equity Association (AEA) that classifies actors as professionals who must get paid.
“The difference was the schedule,” said Seibel.
Rehearsals started near the end of October, and before the show opened at ASF, it went on a tour.
“They had 9 days off before they opened the show on tour, then they toured in January and February,” said Seibel. “In February, we came back and did a really tiny brush up rehearsal, then they had another week and a half off before we actually opened in front of a live audience. So that was really different dealing with repertory.”
Even though the cast is a non-union company, Seibel says they still put in a lot of work into their craft.
“They are some of the hardest working actors because they are repping four to six plays minimum, and the other actors (AEA) are repping out two,” said Seibel. “So they are really handling quite a load, and I love the design team out there.”
The show focuses on how Kanga and Roo came into Pooh’s story, and goes back in time to show how the community of the Hundred Acre Woods started to grow. Unfortunately, the springy tail tiger named Tigger is missing from this show- he has not joined the neighborhood yet.
Even though these characters are more than 100 years old, they are still important, because the show represents friendship and community. Seibel believes it’s about the idea of friends who are very different from one another.
“If you think about it, it’s a pig and a bear that are best friends… and have their lovely little community, but taking it out of context, we would be surprised by that kind of pairing,” said Seibel.
The show is educational and has the power to teach children universal lessons such as how to deal with strong emotions, how to say sorry, and how do to take care of people when you hurt them.
“It is for children, but I really tried to create it in a way adults would enjoy it as well. The pacing of it is almost cartoonish, but it is also really sweet,” said Seibel.
Not only is the show cartoonish, but it is also a musical. If you are a theatergoer, then you know musicals come with many challenges.
“Time was the hardest challenge because they were also in rehearsals with As You Like it at the same time… Learning to edit to clarify the storyline was another wonderful thing on this project… because the challenge with small children is keeping them engaged,” said Seibel.
After engaging with the production, Seibel says he hopes audiences will feel the joys of storytelling from being able to reconnect to these long-lost characters.
The show is currently being performed on ASF’s mainstage and will run until May 5. To find more information about show times or about the show, check the ASF website for details.