Tinkerbell

There has been a new member to the Milk Bottle Team for The Natural History of Trolls.  Her name is Tinkerbell and she is about a foot high (at best).  Now, we've have had a number of dogs involved in productions past - no jokes at the back there - and Tinkerbell is the latest in a long line.  I particularly remember a King Charles Spaniel in 2004 who stayed with us for three weeks and who didn't want to leave.  Tinkerbell was, for the most part, very well behaved.  She didn't vomit during rehearsals (as one previous rehearsal dog has done, albeit not in a Milk Bottle show) or attack anyone.  She did get bored once or twice and started barking throughout one of my longer speeches (everyone's a critic) but that's good practise for when latecomers arrive to the show.
To add confusion we named one of the sound effects after her.  So, the script is littered with notes to play the 'Tink', which is a little musical box.  Occasionally I would get confused between a call for SFX and the call for walkees.
Last Monday, Tinkerbell joined us for the get in.  She decided to set up shop inside the lighting box, underneath the lighting desk, where every so often she would bark if we got too near and risked treading on her.  It's the kind of complaint many an ASM makes on a day to day basis, even at the National.
Show continues till the 23rd December people and, though Tinkerbell doesn't appear (we did consider a walk on part but it's a legal minefield), the show is rather lovely and bedding in nicely.  Next blog I will start on the post Christmas show GhoStoryteller and stop talking about small furry animals. x