Woodland Productions, Inc. is located in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, home to an emerging national film and television production center, thanks to the Minnesota Film Board.
No idea
springs forth fully formed and complete. The seed that became Woodland grew slowly from the
relationship of creator Wayne Krefting and a certain rabbit named Otis. Before
long, Otis and his eccentric, if not irascible, band took on a distinct
identity. From the energetic mixture of numerous live shows and television
appearances, too many Brer Rabbit stories, and possibly way overactive
imaginations, Wayne and Otis fashioned Woodland,
stories from the Great North Woods that become stories for us all.
Wayne Krefting,
creator of Woodland, is Otis
Rabbit; or, maybe Otis is Wayne. Both are problem solvers and
mediators, if they don't get too distracted by life. Wayne brings a unique
blend of family and community building, history and theological education, and
community service to the art of puppetry. Professionally, he holds two Master's
degrees and spent over 15 years working in human services before turning to
puppetry and television full time.
Since turning a lifelong love of the puppetry art into a vocation, Wayne has
been the president of the Twin Cities Puppeteers (a chartered guild of the
Puppeteers of America, 1991-8) and directed the PoA's 1994 Four Day National
Festival in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has performed for live and pre-recorded broadcast
in award winning children's educational programming, news and public affairs
telecasts, and commercials and industrials, in addition to numerous stage
productions and teaching. Wayne also builds the Woodland characters. 
His community involvement ranges from church education to Boy Scouts leadership to Minneapolis Public Schools volunteer to state and local political involvement.
In Woodland Productions, Inc. Wayne has assembled a cast of talented puppeteers, writers, and producers.
Most notable
among the puppeteers is creative partner in the Woodland enterprise and the embodiment of Stewart
Raccoon himself, Robert Lane. What they share in
stature, Rob and Stewart try to make up for as dare-devils, being about as
balanced as a bad set of tires. And like Stewart, Rob is also as handy with a saw
as he is with a sledge hammer. With a major in building construction technology
and a minor in business advertising and marketing, Rob has built sets, props,
special effects, and puppets over the past 15 years for films, videos,
conventions, and theater.
A masterful manipulator of his creations, he has also performed in award-winning programming. In addition to building and manipulating for commercials and educational projects, Rob also has acted as supervisor for such projects as Special Olympics props, Renaissance Fair stages, and produced for advertising and industrial programming.
Al Michaud comes to Woodland with seven years of broadcast television experience, including two and a half years with the Emmy Award winning PBS series, Newton's Apple. For the past two years, his focus has been the business side of production for corporate and commercial broadcast as a marketing manager.
Together they have created a
unique and colorful world
with its distinctive combination of quality and highly marketable copyrighted
characters and irreverent stories of political and social satire. Targeted at
the 18-25 year old audience, the show has definite tendencies to cross gender
and generational lines.
The community aspect of Woodland
lends itself to the development of depth and visibility in each character,
their animated spirits, and a suspension of belief. They can and will get
themselves into any situation their own rabies infested minds conjure up,
poking a stick in the eye of hypocrisy, fear, and self importance along the
way.
In short, Woodland is a quality series with a desirable target audience and highly marketable characters. Intrigued? Want to be a part of the Woodland community?
For additional information
regarding licensing, production, or marketing, contact
