The cast of Dingbat's A Winnie-The-Pooh Christmas. Photo by Adrian Van Stee.

On December 4, Dinbat Theatre Project will unveil its latest production, A Winnie-The-Pooh Christmas. A Winnie-The-Pooh Christmas, adapted into a musical directly from A. A. Milne’s 1926 children’s book, features a more modernized take on the story while still featuring all of the classic characters like Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger and Winne-the-Pooh. “We’re building the show around this family that is leaving something behind, particularly a house. It’s about a father reconnecting with his son through playing with the stuffed animals of his childhood and telling him stories that his father, who has now passed on, used to tell him as bedtime stories,” says Luke Manual, producing artistic director and founder of Dingbat Theatre Project.

The decision to produce the musical harkens back to Dingbat’s mission of creating theater for everyone. 2025 marked Dingbat’s first season in the organization’s permanent Gulf Gate venue, and has included an array of productions from the R-rated I’m Gonna Marry You, Tobey Maguire to a reimagining of Romeo and Juliet at a drag bar. Nestled within Dingbat’s 2025 slate is A Winnie-The-Pooh Christmas, a return to the type of familial programming that Manual holds close to their heart. “My passion lies in developing shows for family audiences,” says Manual, who will also direct the production. “A big part of what we do at Dingbat is trying to make theater as inclusive and accessible for everyone, which includes people with children and children themselves. Since our production of Wizard Of Oz, we’ve had kids in our shows when it’s appropriate and I feel like children’s theater deserves the platform that our other mainstage shows get.”

Dingbat’s production will make full use of the organization’s Gulf Gate venue, which includes a 70-seat black box theater and separate lobby/performance space. A Winnie-The-Pooh Christmas will be split between two areas—the first act will take place in the front lobby area, in Christopher Robbin’s bedroom, before Robbin takes all of the stuffed animals and runs to theater, transformed into the Hundred Acre Wood, to start the second act.

A Winnie-The-Pooh Christmas, December 4-19, Dingbat Theatre Project, 7288 S Tamiami Trail, Sarasota

The cast of Dingbat's A Winnie-The-Pooh Christmas. Photo by Adrian Van Stee.

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