I remember our chicken well. It wandered in through stage right, futzed around on the lip of the stage, and eventually settled into the one empty chair in the front row stage left. Near panic blew through the backstage area like wildfire:  "There's a live chicken out there! How can we get rid of it?" The feeling of helplessness was agonizing, and he was out there for at least a scene & a half, maybe two. In the end, our resourcefulness failed us. In a comedy, no prob. Somebody could have walked on with a broom or broadsword or something and chased him off. But in Hamlet? What would you do?

 

In fact, a pretty good suggestion was put forth by an audience member after the performance. The wag proposed that John could have taken the bird up at the beginning of the speech and then:  "To be" (H. twists off chicken's head) "or not to be..."

 

Okay, '83ers, what have I inflated, conflated, or competely made up here?

 

Steve

---

From: John Rando <john.rando@verizon.net>
To: Bruce Meyer <Bruce.Meyer@UTSouthwestern.edu>
Cc: Eric Thomas <Eric.Thomas@uth.tmc.edu>; Shakespeare at Winedale 1970-2000 alums <winedale-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Tue, June 15, 2010 8:56:29 AM
Subject: Re: [Winedale-l] Fwd: CampShakespeare '10

1983 - A live chicken made an appearance in Hamlet, Act III, scene i.  She made her exit roughly around the line: "there's the respect that make calamity of so long life," after Hamlet gave her the boot.


On Jun 14, 2010, at 9:48 PM, Bruce Meyer wrote:

> the chicken proudly lives with Juan E. Bango - a mythical and semi-legendary Winedale figure....
> juan.e.bango@gmail.com 
> 
> 
>>>> Mike Godwin <mgodwin@wikimedia.org> 6/14/2010 3:01 PM >>>
> On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 12:23 PM, Bruce Meyer <
> Bruce.Meyer@utsouthwestern.edu> wrote:
> 
>> the chicken appeared with us in 1979 in  AYLI
>> It also appeared in 1980 in CE (as did felt fruit - I remember Robin
>> and the Jaynes sisters sewing madly)
>> It has appeared in the reunion performances in 1990, 1995, 2000, and
>> 2005 ("this dog, my dog...").
>> Rebekah has ensured that the camp program has had a rubber chicken
>> every summer since inception (including this summer) - the chicken has
>> an honored place in our home.
>> 
> 
> 
> Bruce, if you have an email address for the rubber chicken, I'll add it to
> the alumni mailing list.
> 
> 
> --Mike
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Winedale-l mailing list
> Winedale-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/winedale-l


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