Theatre students began preparing for “The House at Pooh Corner” before school ended for Spring Break.

The script did not specify how the characters should be portrayed and David Hastings, theatre teacher, struggled with how to present the characters to the audience without the show becoming too comical.

Hastings thought of turning the Black Box into a Playhouse Disney set so that the audience could feel as if they were in the play.

“Why don’t you use puppets?” Amy Hastings, Hastings’ wife, suggested to him. At first, Hastings laughed at the idea, but then decided it would be a good idea.

Auditions for the play were slightly different from auditions for a usual production. Since the play would utilize puppets as characters, rather than actual people, students performed on stage for Hastings “with sock puppets or stuffed animals” so he could assess their “physicalization” abilities, or how well they moved, with the puppets, Hastings said.

Theatre classes read through the script together and came to a consensus on who would play what part. They had to all be in agreement; in a way, the cast picked the cast.

“I think [the casting process] bonded us in a way,” Hastings said.

Dalton Hayse, senior, was chosen for the role of Christopher Robin; Jaimeson Satterfield, senior, played Winnie-the-Pooh; William Phillips, junior, played Eeyore; Chayston Simmons, senior, played Tigger; Elise Bowles, freshman, played Piglet; Catie Walker, senior, played Kanga; Loren Spellman, freshman, played Roo; Emma Sayler, sophomore, played Owl; Peyton Consani, junior, played Rabbit; Joseph Patterson, junior, played Early; and Margot Stewart, freshman, played Late.

Due to the size of the puppets – some being up to 3 feet tall – Aliyah Pullin, Scott Letourneau, Mackenzie O’Connor, freshmen, and Jacob Reiss, senior, had to help the main character actors manipulate the puppets’ limbs.