The dawn of 2000 marks the beginning of a new era, but at Unicorn Theatre, it also marks the end of one. The two-decade old local theatre company, founded by Carey Crockett and the late Max Robert, faces a difficult decision in this landmark year. After a hardship burdened ’98 and ’99, Crockett contemplates vacating Unicorn’s five-year home, the Hoffman Street Playhouse. The details of those past two years are the stuff of another article, to be told another time. Meanwhile, among those who will be impacted by that decision, is everyone’s favorite bear, Winnie the Pooh.

Pooh’s appeal is unquestionably universal. On the Monterey Peninsula, he has enjoyed the lengthiest, most successful run of any children’s literary character, critically and financially. Unicorn’s original 1996 production “Pooh And Friends” was an instant smash hit with parents and grandparents who wanted their youngsters to see Pooh presented as his creator, A. A. Milne had intended him—away from his commercialized Disney makeover. But this year’s show will be Pooh’s final run at Unicorn Theatre as it changes with the times.

In the first year, Crockett brought in local costume specialist Margaret Voss, to construct costumes true to the drawings of Pooh’s original artist, Ernest Shepard. Another Monterey theatre costume expert, Holly Goodwin also contributed to some of the creations. Crockett also designed his stage set to look like Shepard’s illustrations of Milne’s 100-Acre Wood, where Pooh and his pals made their home.

The script was adapted carefully, varying little from Milne’s own pages, matching dialogue and keeping the characters and stories as true as possible to the originals. Crockett knew that many grown-up kids in the audience wouldn't settle for anything less. The two stories adapted were “Pooh And The Honey Tree” and “Eyeore’s Birthday.”

Crockett then went about the laborious task of rounding up local acting talent to charge with bringing Milne’s world to life for young audiences, keeping in mind that for some it would be their very first time witnessing live theatre. The cast roll call has changed many times since, but the group that was ultimately assembled for that first production, today represents a faction of the Peninsula’s community theatre A-list.

No, it wasn't Hamlet, but to the kids, it might as well have been. An audience of children would be just as discerning of Pooh as a bunch of college theatre majors. The actors would have their work cut out for them!

Rob Foster was bestowed the Pooh costume, and he has been synonymous with it ever since. Peter Eberhardt became the definitive Eyeore, adding a veritable Shakespearean air to the donkey’s gloominess. Diana Crockett made Piglet her own, being a bonified Poohphile undoubtedly helped. Unicorn Artist-In-Residence Robert Colter accepted the challenge of Rabbit, which wasn’t exactly like tackling, say, Prospero, but Colter knew an important role when he saw one, and proceeded accordingly. Cindy Womack dawned the Owl costume, which looks more than any other costume in the show like the garb of a comic book superhero. She has since gone on to direct everything from Shakespeare to Neil Simon. Roo Hornady became the motherly Kanga, and Katy Crockett, Carey’s niece was a perfect Baby Roo. Katy has since developed into a capable young actress, working currently at Ariel Children’s Theatre. Completing the ensemble as the all-important Christopher Robin was Colleen Finegan, well schooled and traveled performer and teacher, known to countless Peninsula drama and dance students.

“Pooh And Friends” was a record breaking show at Unicorn. It played to nothing but sold-out houses. Admittedly, Unicorn’s space is not a huge one, and selling it full would not outwardly seem like a monumental task, but the crowds of parents and kids that attended “Pooh” were unprecedented in Unicorn’s history; shows were being sold out days in advance. Unicorn’s intimate venue overflowed. Benches were brought in to create a new front row. Then pillows were hoarded and placed along the stage’s perimeter to create another front row, to accommodate the tiniest audience members. They were close enough to reach out and touch Poohbear and his friends, and many of them did just that.

One particular performance broke Unicorn’s all-time attendance record for a single show, topping even the best Mainstage attendance mark! The rafters of the Hoffman Playhouse had never rattled with such joy and young laughter.

No one was more astonished than Crockett himself. “We were doing two kids’ shows a day, on top of our adult-oriented Mainstage production,” he later recounted, “and we were actually having to turn folks away at the door!” Those left on the waiting list inevitably reserved early for the following weekend. The show was reviewed in all three of the area’s main local papers; the Monterey Herald, Carmel Pine Cone and Coast Weekly—something very rare for a children’s show at the time. Was it the wide appeal of Milne’s characters? The vast Pooh fan-following on the Peninsula? Or was it an intense love for the material, shared by everyone involved that manifested in the performances? It was possibly all three, mixing into an unsinkable formula for success.

At the conclusion of the show’s five-week run, the actors were understandably all but exhausted. House after house of laughing, screaming, enthralled children can have an invigorating yet draining quality. All the actors knew, however, that they had helped write a unique new chapter in Unicorn Theatre’s history.

The following year, a sequel production was only natural. Carey reasoned it was time to introduce the one Milne character who had been conspicuous by his absence in the first production. Actress Kate Martin, tall, agile, and with a flare of graceful yet comedic stage presence, put on the coveted orange and black stripes to become Milne’s irrepressibly lovable lunatic, Tigger!

Lean and muscular, Martin could bound out of the darkness and hurl herself at Pooh like an orange and black cannonball. “My job was to catch her,” Foster said, “then spin around with Tigger in my arms, then both of us do a comic take at each other. It was a real test because she’d knock the wind out of me with that bounce. Kate is a gazelle—in fantastic shape. Her entrance was like an NFL body hit!”

“Tigger was the perfect addition for the second year,” Crockett said, “when (Martin) made that entrance, you could hear every kid in the theatre gasp in excitement.” The 1997 show, entitled “Pooh And Tigger Too” enjoyed huge audiences. The stories were “Tigger Comes To The Forest;” “Rabbit’s Expedition” in which Rabbit tries to teach Tigger a lesson by getting him lost, but winds up lost himself, and is rescued by Tigger; and once again “Eyeore’s Birthday.”

Kate Martin left the area before the third run was produced in 1998. She was replaced as Tigger by Kimberly Scott, a Bay Area actress and CSUMB graduate. Kim’s Tigger was her own; comical, bubbly and acrobatic, compared with Martin’s equally pleasing frenetic and explosive. “Kim did this great cartwheel backflip that made her easier to catch than Kate. The kids really loved her,” said Foster.

On one particular show, a piece of scenery fell over and it was Kim’s quick thinking that saved the moment. “She was also very skilled at improvisation. It wasn’t in the script, but Pooh and Tigger ‘replanted’ a tree in that show.”

The other significant casting change in the ’98 production was Fred Nielson replacing Robert Colter as Rabbit. Fred’s portrayal emphasized more of Rabbit’s stately, professorial side. Some said there was a hint of Bugs Bunny in there as well, but Nielson, like Colter before him, kept his reverence for the material intact and served the role well.

Many casting turnovers occurred during the show’s latter runs. Axel Axelsson, a young actor hailing from Iceland, briefly subbed for Peter Eberhardt as Eyeore. In 1999 Eyeore was taken over by Sonny Jenkins, who had been Owl in the ’98 show, and added his own brand of comic gloominess to the old donkey. He will play Eyeore for the 2000 finale production.

Diana Crockett handed Piglet down to Max Spiegal, a young local talent known for his seemingly limitless energy on stage.

Tigger changed hands again a third time when Stephanie Whigham, Peninsula actress and PRT stage manager extraordinaire, put her unique spin on the orange and black stripes for the 1999 show. Whigham had also subbed as Piglet, her favorite character, a few times. But she took on Tigger with equal aplomb.

John Van Hise was handed down Owl, and injected so much creative energy into the character, he made Owl a scene stealer in some shows.

Ceiltis Reed took Rabbit over from Fred Nielson, and Kanga was inherited by Susan Macias. Katy Crockett, as all small ones do, grew her way out of the Baby Roo role, and graduated into playing Christopher Robin. Baby Roo was taken over by young but prodigiously stage savvy Chris Boyns.

“That’s part of the wonder of this show,” commented Carey Crockett, “we’ve seen so many people grow up during its run. Kids who seemed totts the first time are coming back to see it every year and some of them are as tall as their parents now!”

The Narrator’s post has been filled by several as well. Originally Crockett envisioned an actor portraying A.A. Milne himself, who would read the stories while the costumed cast provided the visuals. John Gary Pullen was the first ‘Milne’ and in the following year Crockett himself served as narrator. Eventually Diana Crockett took over, then with the 1999 production Jennifer Lister stepped into the narrator’s spot, with Diana alternating.

The one constant in Unicorn’s Pooh series has been the guy in the bear suit, Rob Foster. He has come full circle with Poohbear, from hearing Heffalumps to playing ‘Poohsticks’ on a wooden platform bridge where his Pooh’s ears brushed against the ceiling light gels.

“When Carey first approached me to be Pooh, I was skeptical, but finally everyone sort of talked me into it. Of course, when I put the costume on, it was obvious even to me—I was Pooh.” Foster endeavored to create a Poohbear that wasn’t a rehash of the Disney character. “I wanted my Poohbear to be unlike what people who saw the cartoons were used to, yet a character that was still able to live in Milne’s stories. What resulted was a combination of some of my favorite Poohlike people. There’s a lot of Lou Costello in my Poohbear, and a little Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel, and some might even spot a trace of Curly Howard, or Red Skelton’s ‘mean widdle kid.’ But at the center is me, doing my best impersonation of every mischievous, but good hearted, little boy I’ve ever seen. They keep asking me back, I must be doing something right.”

Even Pooh himself underwent change in those five years. “Margaret (Voss) made the first Poohsuit from a set of huge beige drapes, with a big round head and puffy ears, just like the drawings. It was hot and heavy, but looked great. Eventually it just wore out. Parts of it literally turned into rags. Margaret in the meantime had moved away. Carey was able to contact her and she made an entire new Pooh costume with different material... a different shade of beige. It seemed to be a different shape, too, which didn’t quite fit like the old one. Carey convinced Margaret to come back a second time for alterations, and that’s when we discovered that I had performed the entire first weekend wearing the new costume backwards! Pooh had had a huge rear-end and looked like he was wearing bellbottoms.”

Foster has been involved in the Monterey theatre scene for about six years, appearing in a variety of plays besides children’s fare. “I owe my rebirth into theatre to Carey Crockett. He’s given lots of young actors a chance they might not have gotten elsewhere in the community, and this show’s ongoing success has been a reward to him. He deserves many more.”

But now, the message written in Unicorn’s stars say it’s time to move on. Baring some strange miracle, the Hoffman Playhouse years approach their end. The year 2000 production of “Pooh And Friends” will be the last of its kind, in this venue, with this particular group of talented people. Unicorn’s foray into the 100-Acre Wood will soon be over.

No Hoffman Playhouse, and no Pooh in 2001? We got past the Y2K bug, but this? Can we endure? Perhaps Baby Roo summed it up best with the simple yet eloquent “Oh darn it.” What ever may happen, one may well rest assured that somewhere, deep in the bumbly-tumbly hollow of the 100-Acre Wood, a boy, his bear, and a unicorn, are happily at play, forever.