Going from president to Pooh

In less than a year, actor Harold Withee has gone from playing a war-mongering President George Bush to a honey-loving Winnie-the-Pooh.

"You have to approach both roles the same way," says Withee, who played Bush in Zeitgeist Stage's "Stuff Happens" last fall, and stars in the Wheelock Family Theatre's production of "Winnie-the-Pooh," opening April 13. "They're both full-bodied characters, and for an actor, they present the same kind of challenges -- they're so well known to audiences you have to be careful not to slip into caricature."

The stage adaptation of "Winnie-the-Pooh" weaves together three of A.A. Milne's stories of Christopher Robin and his friends Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit, Eeyore, and Owl in the Hundred Acre Wood.

"The story is very earnest," says director James P. Byrne , "but that doesn't make it simplistic. These small things happen, but they're very real and important to these characters. It's a character-driven story about friendship, so it's important the actors stay grounded and focused."

For Withee, going from powerful leader to portly toy (in between he played a loving uncle in Centastage's "More Than What" ) was not as big a leap as he thought.

"Playing Bush was one of the hardest things I'd ever done," he says. "I'm a Republican, even though I don't support this administration, so I came at Bush not from hatred, but with respect for what he'd accomplished. In his business dealings, he'd gotten all kinds of people to give him money for these disastrous deals that somehow left him a millionaire. I was fascinated by how he got to where he was and what he had achieved.

"Pooh, on the other hand, is a character I've grown up with. Although the Disney film was animated, it was not about flashing lights and weird colors, it reflected an earlier, innocent time for children. You have to start from an honest place for both characters."

Byrne says creating an innocent atmosphere and a pace that's not as frantic as what kids may be used to has been his challenge.

"I've designed a set that pulls the audience in and helps keep them focused," he says. "Obviously, we're going for a younger audience than the ones that have come for other shows I've directed here." Most recently those include d "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Jack and the Beanstalk."

Wheelock's mission also includes casting children in the company.

"I teach here," says Byrne, who also is the primary director for Ryan Landry's gender-bending Gold Dust Orphans productions, "and it's important to give the kids the practical, on-stage experience."

In addition to the professional actors, who include Withee, Ricardo Engermann (Rabbit) and Mari n a Re (Owl), 10-year-old Minh-Anh Day plays Christopher Robin, and 9 -year-olds Sirena Abalian and Grace Brakeman play Roo and Piglet, respectively. Along with the main players, there are four narrators and many rabbits and other animals populating the Hundred Acre Wood.

"There's a certain amount of 'traffic cop' responsibilities that go with directing large companies, whether it's the Gold Dust Orphans in a musical or the kids at Wheelock," Byrne says. "But I find the approach and the word choices to make things clear to the actors aren't that different."