If music be the food of love, bark on
BOULDER, Colo. — Poppy is a first-time actor but felt confident ahead of her Colorado Shakespeare Festival audition. Waiting outside CU Boulder’s Mary Rippon Outdoor Theater, Poppy was patient and eager, friendly toward the other actors. Poppy’s mother, Leah Csapo, saw the casting call in the paper and thought her six-year-old might be a good fit.
“She’s smart, she’s very sweet, and she can do some tricks,” Csapo said. “If she can figure it out, she’ll do anything the director wants her to do.”
The role? “Dog,” in an adaptation of “Shakespeare in Love” for the upcoming summer season of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. As a cavalier-poodle mix, Poppy’s cuteness factor plays to her advantage.
“If she stays focused on the actors onstage, she’ll be fine even though she’s never done this before,” Csapo said. “It would be so fun if she got selected.”
Poppy is one of nearly 40 dogs auditioning for the role of Dog, which is a comedic and scene-stealing role. Dog starts to attract too much attention and drives the character of William Shakespeare crazy, explained Tim Orr, the festival’s artistic director .
“He feels like the dog is ruining his play, but everyone is laughing and loving the dog,” Orr said. “It’s frustrating to Shakespeare that they’re not listening to his words and only paying attention to the dog, so it works in our favor because dogs are scene stealers anyway.”
The lucky pup chosen to play Dog will be busy this summer, with 10 performances as well as rehearsals. The thespian’s owner receives a stipend, as well as complementary tickets to the shows. Orr, who has been the artistic director since 2013, has worked with dogs onstage in the past and learned a very important lesson — the dog is always right.
“The dog will always be acting like a dog and that’s exactly what we need,” Orr said. “Everyone will always be holding their breath for the dog to do something crazy, but in general we want the dog to act natural.”
The audition process is simple. Dog and owner enter center stage, favorite treats on hand. They meet Orr and his assistant, and then answer a series of questions, including, “how would your dog react to seeing a squirrel in the bushes?” “Is your dog comfortable with strangers?” “Can they do any tricks?”
“There will be 1,000 people in the audience every night, so during the audition I’m trying to get a sense of general behavior and temperament,” Orr said.
Another key question: “Is your dog comfortable with men?”
“The dog will be handled by a tall, male actor who is wearing a hat, so it’s important that we check in to make sure that’s going to be okay for the dog,” Orr said.
Over the course of several hours, the Shakespeare hopefuls showed off their very best roll-overs, fetches and jumps. Orr took notes on which dog actors stood out, and said that he would be ready to make an offer in a matter of days.
“We’re seeing a lot of really great candidates already,” Orr said after the first hour of auditions.
This summer’s festival marks the return to the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theater, a nearly 100-year-old facility that underwent extensive renovations over the last two years. The decision to stage “Shakespeare in Love” goes hand-in-hand with another one of the festival’s productions, “Twelfth Night,” which kicks off the festival May 30.
“‘Shakespeare in Love’ is a sort of fan fiction written about Shakespeare, and at the end of that play, Shakespeare writes ‘Twelfth Night,’” Orr said. “So it will be the same cast doing both plays alternating each night.”
The festival is also producing “Julius Caesar” and “Friends/Romans/Countrymen.” While Dog is only featured in “Shakespeare in Love,” Orr said the moment the pup enters the stage will be memorable every single time.
“You have to get used to the show completely stopping for a while so the audience can react to the dog,” Orr said. “It’s absolutely incredible how big of a reaction it gets.”
Orr said the dogs will be selected sometime this month, with an official announcement coming soon. Tickets are on sale now at CUpresents.com.
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