It's no secret that for the past five weeks, I have been working closely with a chicken...or rooster (if we want to get technical). His name is Prospero, and he was once the pet of a ten-year-old before the theatre adopted him in order to use him in our production of "Much Ado About Nothing." He is actually a huge part of the production and will be dearly missed by the entire staff, cast, and crew. Don't worry though! He is in good hands when the production closes on December 10th.
Working with a live animal onstage isn't an easy task, and certainly isn't something you think you would be prepared for. You always read and see things about theatre houses putting on productions with dogs and cats, but you never think about the amount of work it takes in order to make the animal feel comfy and secure. Having an animal in a show is interesting because it's an extra body in the room, an extra cast member, and an extra noise that is harder to keep quiet than a human. In case you haven't guessed, roosters are not the best animal to keep quiet. Evening shows, Prospero was perfect, but matinees, he crowed almost relentlessly, at inopportune times. If you're familiar with "Much Ado", you know that there is a wedding between Hero and Claudio, and of course, the wedding scene was when Prospero decided to crow. In order to help not break the actor concentration onstage, someone would have to sit outside of the theatre with him until he settled down. It was a trip, to say the least.
He was very friendly with his actor counterpart. The actor playing Dogberry was the one who primarily stayed with him and gave Prospero snuggles and lots of apples (his favorite food, by the way). The funniest part of my job was the fact that I had to sometimes help put a harness on the Rooster so he could be walked onstage for a scene. The greatest thing about Prospero was that he enjoyed being held, so anytime I could do my tasks with a rooster on my hip, I would.
I hope at some point I get to work with another live animal onstage. Maybe not another rooster, per say, but it's of course not an outright no. Maybe a dog, or a cat, or some other animal that doesn't "yell" at me when I miss a turn driving him home.
But I definitely wouldn't turn down the opportunity to have one as a pet.