Another Story

After several weeks of rehearsals and about 2/3 of our performances were under our belts, Abby started to improvise. At one point in the play, a police officer is scolding Annie and a group of people who have been living under a bridge. At this time, Annie has caught Sandy and is holding her on a rope. So the police officer scolds the people and Annie talks back and while the officer is disbursing the ruffians he realizes that Annie is the runaway from the orphanage and takes her into custody (Sandy gets loose and lost in the scuffle). That sets the scene. So at one of the afternoon performances (we were doing two or three every weekend), we get to this scene and when the police officer starts scolding the group - Abby starts barking back at him. She had never done this before. She barked right back at him like, "Don't you yell at Annie!!" She almost drowned him out. The actors just played along and the crowd loved it, of course, and we just chuckled and shook our heads, "That's our Abby." She proceeded to do this at ALL of the remaining performances.

Even funnier was that backstage she would sidle up to the man playing the police officer (a really nice guy who liked her a lot) and she would wag her tail at him and ask for pets. I always interpreted that as her saying, "I was only ACTING out there. I really like you!"

That crazy Abby...

The Thespian

So tonight, a story...

Once upon a time (two years ago), I received a phone call about the fact that Beachwood Middle School was performing the play Annie and was looking for a dog to play Sandy. This person (Amy Gutmann of Canine University) thought of Abby and wondered if I would be interested. WOULD I BE INTERESTED? ARE YOU KIDDING? I called the woman in charge of the play about 12.5 seconds after hanging up with Amy and we went down to audition that evening.

So, we enter the auditorium and walk down the aisle toward the front (it was sort of obvious why we were there...) Sam and Mike stayed in the back and rolled their eyes a lot (in support, I think). Abby greeted everyone enthusiastically (surprise, surprise) and everyone loved her and was asking questions about her. After a few minutes they decided to have one of the two Annies sing "Tomorrow" up on stage with Abby, to see how Abby felt about the singing, the music, the costume, the stage, etc. I found this completely amusing since I knew that Abby would absolutely adore being on stage. So up on stage they go, Abby looking adoringly at Annie, Annie singing to the crowd and to Abby. Abby wagging her tail and looking thoughtful, then lying down at Annie's feet and looking up at her and out at the audience. I am not making this up. This is exactly what happened. I was nearly in tears from trying to stifle my laughter so as not to distract her.

When the song was over, they were pretty sold on her to say the least. The actor who was playing Daddy Warbucks said to me, "Has she acted before?" I attempted to keep a straight face as I answered, "No, but she's always been a ham. She has never, ever done this before." He was amazed...

And so, Abby became a paid thespian. Another episode tomorrow...