Phillip the Acting Dog

I'm directing To Kill a Mockingbird at Midvale Main Street Theatre. The show goes up Feb 16th. Come and see it!

These are the talented kids playing Dill (the future Truman Capote), Scout (young Harper Lee) and Jem... (who is someone wonderful too, I'm sure.)  The kids playing Scout and Jem are brother and sister in real life. I have funny stories about these three, but I'll save those for later.

 This is a picture of some of the gentlemen in the cast. The guy playing Atticus is a rhetoric professor at UVU. Bob Ewell is played by Tom Drury, a great old actor and banjo player!

But this entry is about a dog.

One of the guys in the cast, Joe Puente, has a little dog that is 13 years old. The dog's name is Phil. Phil is old, wise, and near deaf. Joe brings him to rehearsal every night. The dog wanders across the stage at will, which I frankly love! The play is about a little southern town and most of the scenes take place outside, so watching a dog walk across the stage at random moments just cracks me up. 

There's a scene where the kids tell Calpurnia about a mad dog coming down the street. Calpurnia goes up to the Boo Radley house and says, "Mad dog! Mad dog's coming!"

And like clockwork, Phil comes trotting onto the stage EVERY TIME she says this line. He enters from the right entrance and everything. It cracks me up! And the kids and Calpurnia all react appropriately running from the dog and screaming "Mad dog!" and so Phil, who is generally perfectly quiet, picks up his head and barks.

It's a riot.

And that is generally how rehearsals go.

There are serious moments, but most of the time, we're just having a wonderful time laughing and working.

If you can make it, I'd love to have you see this show!