The Hundred Acre Wood
Once again Comes to Life Thanks to the MPO Puppets.

Photos of original cast from lasts years production of Winnie the Pooh the musical

Do Kermit and Miss Piggy make you laugh? Is Broadway’s Avenue Q on your list of must see musicals this year? If so, your whole family probably loved the critically acclaimed, puppet-filled production of Winnie the Pooh, the Musical, presented by Maurer Productions OnStage at Mercer County Community College’s Kelsey Theatre back in June, 2007. Produced by the same creative team that brought You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and It’s a Wonderful Life to the Kelsey, Winnie the Pooh, the Musical brought the timeless characters of A.A. Milne to life in an exciting way. Featuring a team of local actors, the story was performed using muppet-like hand and rod puppets. Presented in the Japanese puppet style of Buraku, both the puppets and the actors operating them were visible on stage resulting in a hybrid performance between the actors and the characters they portrayed/operated. With this traditional technique in play, children and adults alike enjoyed the adventures of Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Rabbit, Kanga, Roo, Owl and Christopher Robin as they sang and danced their way through the Hundred Acre Wood.

And now the MPO Puppets return in an all new A. A. Milne Story, A Winnie-the-Pooh Birthday Tail. All of the beloved characters from the first story return and are joined by Tigger as they try to find Eeyore's tail before his big birthday party.

Photos of original cast from lasts years production of Winnie the Pooh the musical

All the MPO Puppets are hand-made for the production, each designed to look just like the familiar characters illustrated in Milne’s original stories. It took executive producer John Maurer and several assistants hundreds of hours over 6 months to turn piles of foam and fabric into the characters we all know and love. The effort became a journey of discovery for the producer/director. Maurer, a self taught puppeteer, had to litterally teach himself the craft of puppet-making from scratch. After the success of last years production of Winnie the Pooh the Musical, the MPOnStage team searched for a new A. A. Milne story to bring to the stage. They found it in the musical A Winnie-the-Pooh Birthday Tail.