Tricks From Moose and Mouse’s Genesis Story

Circus Chickendog is deep in the planning process of our Annual Howl-i-Day Extravaganza of The Mutt-Cracker (SWEET!). For the first time ever we have agreed to work with a director, Asaf Ronen, who has asked for some videos of the dogs’ tricks so

we will have a way of working towards our strengths as far as great tricks go, while at the same time achieving a more satisfying story. My thinking has always been that with super cute dogs doing at least a hundred tricks, world class juggling, amazing unicycling, circus balancing acts, an incredible jazz piano rendition of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite,” some clowning that gets the story across, and with all that (and more) crammed into less than an hour we have a riveting show. This has always proven to be the case as people even bring toddlers to the show and they stay riveted for the entire time and tell stories about the dogs for months after the show. So, while I don’t feel I really need any more of a story (The Nutcracker itself is pretty weak narrative-wise anyway), I am not opposed to making the show better.

Asaf worked with us putting on the Mutt-Cracker (SWEET!) last year as the lighting designer and filled in with some stage managing as well as many very insightful comments and suggestions regarding some of the specific elements that we could emphasize to make the show better. Over the past year I went took several classes from The Institution Theater where he is one of the instructors. I just knew he would be a good influence on The Mutt-Cracker (SWEET!) and I was really excited when he agreed to be our director. We have been talking about the direction of this year’s show and he already saved me from going down a Star Trek direction that might have been really fun, but well, there were some plot elements that were just going to be problematic and wow! it feels good to not have THOSE problems on top of managing six out of control dogs!  We have another direction that will really give youngsters a really good reason to grow up and be responsible so they have the best chance at true happiness where they fulfill the obligations that their true calling is singing to them-the siren song that you want work really hard to tack against buffeting winds, stormy gales, bitter cold, and frankly, not listen to people trying to give you an easy way out. Don’t worry, there will still be lots of amazing dog tricks that we are tying into the story and they are going to be even more adorable than ever as Asaf is really on top of getting them some good looking foo foo costumes, which is one of my weaknesses. I spend all my time just trying to get the dogs to listen to me for a second, I hardly have the bandwidth to think about how they look. I always just think, “They look OUT OF CONTROL!”

 

 

Hope to see you down the road so you can judge the results for yourself.