Last fall I directed Annie, and we used a three-legged rescue dog for Sandy. We brought the dog in for several rehearsals, and everything seemed fine. However, after opening night, the student who played the police officer who confronts Annie about Sandy had to be dismissed from the show for reasons i will not go into in this thread. Being short on males to begin with, I stepped in to play the officer,on the second and third nights, not thinking about the fact that I had never rehearsed with the dog. Apparently, my voice, being louder and more stern than the student's voice, frightened the dog so much that she wouldn't run across the stage to Annie! The actress called for Sandy about three times and finally had to move towards her a little to get her to come back. The final night was a little better, but I don't think the dog ever did like me very much!
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Kenneth Robinson
Drama Club Sponsor
Selma, IN
Original Message:
Sent: 08-06-2016 17:57
From: Jeana Whitaker
Subject: Looking for Stories about Acting with Animals (also directing, producing, stage managing, wrangling)
I directed The Wizard of Oz a few years back. It is my favorite show and I wanted it to be perfect so I spent two years planning it. I even adopted a dog, a Cairn Terrier and named him Toto. I took him to the stage often and trained him for a year. However, I forgot how important it was to have him around people (It was just me and my son at home). On the first day I had him at rehearsals he growled at the Wicked Witch and nipped her on the behind. Well, that was the end of that as I didn't want him around small children if I couldn't predict how he would behave around them. I loved him like crazy, but he just wasn't meant to be an actor I guess. :)
So we had auditions for a Toto. Several cast members brought in their small dogs and I had our Dorothy work with each one to see who she felt most comfortable with. We ended up settling on the cutest little terrier and belonged to one of the ensemble members (She used to joke that her dog had a bigger role than she did). The dog was great. We didn't have to use a leash and he would sit in Dorothy's basket whenever she put him down for a dance number and such. At one point, Toto had to escape from the castle and run across stage, where his owner was waiting with a treat. He did it every rehearsal and every performance flawlessly, until closing night. On closing night he ran half-way across the stage and then sat down and looked directly at the audience. I guess he was enjoying the spotlight for as long as he could. A flying monkey was supposed to be chasing him and the monkey ran on stage and the dog wouldn't move, but Toto was supposed to escape the monkey. Monkey ended up scooping up Toto and then pretending that he jumped out of his arms when reaching the other side of the stage. The audience loved it and it's one of my favorite theatrical moments. : )
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Jeana Whitaker
Theatre Director
Mesa AZ
Original Message:
Sent: 08-05-2016 13:28
From: Gretchen Stewart
Subject: Looking for Stories about Acting with Animals (also directing, producing, stage managing, wrangling)
I've used dogs in two shows. The first was very early in my carreer. We had a golden retriever puppy in "Cheaper By The Dozen". We took the time to let Katie meet everyone. We sat around in a circle and just let her wander the room at will. As a result, she was very cooperative and social with everyone. We did keep her on leash, but she had this amazing ability to slip out of her collar. It made for some very funny moments and gave my junior high actors some very good practice at staying in character while problem solving on the fly. My favorite moment was when she ducked out of her collar during curtain call, jumped up on the couch, grabbed one of the throw pillows, turned and faced the audience with her big ol' tail wagging. She was so proud of herself!
More recently, I directed "Legally Blonde" with my high school kids. I was very fortunate to have a staff member who has a malamute therapy dog who was our "Rufus". We worked regularly with them along with our very tiny "Paulette" as well as "Dewey". We definitely had concerns that "Rufus" could overpower "Paulette" since he outweighed her by 30 ponds or more. "Rufus" got audible "ahhhs!" everytime he came out of the trailer. Our "Bruiser" was a chihuahua who also came with a trainer. The trainer actually wanted to go into training animals for the stage. We never could get him to bark on command though, so we did use a sound track for the bark.
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Gretchen Stewart
Teacher/ Director
Inglemoor High School
Kenmore WA
Original Message:
Sent: 08-03-2016 10:52
From: Michael Bigelow Dixon
Subject: Looking for Stories about Acting with Animals (also directing, producing, stage managing, wrangling)
I'm researching the ins and outs, pros and cons, joys and nightmares relating to acting with animals in theater productions. If you would like to share any experiences you've had or know of, please contact me directly at <maskemail>
mdixon@...</maskemail><<maskemail>
mdixon@...</maskemail>>. All stories, thoughts and opinions are welcome. Thanks, Michael Dixon, Associate Professor, Transylvania University.