About “The Dog” and the play, “Heroes”.
I have the great pleasure of playing the character, Philippe in the play Heroes which is currently being performed at the Douglas County Historical Society Museum in Superior, Wisconsin with two other talents, Tim McGrady and Wes Kruse, who also directs the play.
Yours truly not only had the pleasure of creating the content for and narrating the radio announcer parts but because we could not find a statue of a dog anywhere, I took it upon myself to create one. After about 10 hours and $50 later, we had our dog.
I was open to all possibilities of finding or creating a dog somehow and searched every thrift type of store within 20 miles of the Twin Ports, where I live, to find a finished statue, some foam to carve one, or better yet, a large stuffed dog that I could somehow adapt into one.
Well, after going to many stores I finally found some things that I could use in my own town, just a few miles from my home on Tower Avenue. Immediately when entering the Goodwill I saw an ottoman that I thought that I could use as the base. Then I didn’t step more than 10 feet and saw a toy stuffed dog that I thought that I could use. I bought them and immediately went home.
Then the “fun” began.
I fastened the stuffed dog to the lid of the ottoman. Then I covered both with plaster of Paris. When that dried I spray painted it, and it looked great… but! It was too fragile. If we were going to have to lift and move this as the play directed, it would need to be hardened. From my college “stagecraft” training I remembered using epoxy. I purchased a can with the hardener and went to my apartment to coat the entire piece.
If you’ve ever used epoxy, you know that the smell can actually be “fatal”, but that’s if you are in a closed environment, etc. The other three tenants would be at work all day and I thought that the smell would dissipate in an hour or two. I left with my cat to a friend’s house to sleep (I had been up all night) thinking that I would come back and the dog would look great and be as hard as a rock.
Not so.
I got back and the dog to my amazement had moved! (Just like in the play).
Apparently, the smell was so bad that the tenants upstairs called the landlord and it had been moved to the back porch. I looked at my phone which had been on silent so I could sleep; yes, he had been trying to reach me all day. I called him and explained everything. Two tenants on the first floor where I live weren’t home and they had no problems. The third, living upstairs, wasn’t home and I left a “sticky note” with my apologies on their door.
I’m thinking that because of the moisture in the air due to having had a week of rain was causing the epoxy not to harden but I was running out of time. I took the dog to someone’s garage and left it overnight with a fan blowing on it. I was running out of time. I said that I was taking care of the dog and the other actors had their own drama to contend with. Plus I got the assignment of doing the voiceover for the radio announcer only days before opening night. I had a lot to do!
Thursday night, prior to Friday’s opening I retrieved the dog and sprayed a final coat of grey paint on the dog. I wasn’t sure what the result would be since the epoxy had not finished hardening in all places. It was a chance I needed to take.
Because we were actually expecting rain mixed with snow, I placed the spray-painted "statue to be" in my van for the night. The next morning, voila! The dog was fine. I delivered it to the museum 2 hours prior to opening!
I hope that someone will appreciate my writing this. I’m all about sharing my experiences so others can enjoy and maybe even be helped in some way. Everyone who sees the dog loves it and many think that I carved it from foam and painted it. Perhaps that would have been easier, but I didn’t think that I had the time to do that.
Also, because I’m “all about sharing” I won’t be keeping the dog. I want it to go to a good home where someone will appreciate it. Perhaps a veterinarian’s clinic or pet store might be able to use it as a display. I’m doing a Facebook contest to get more likes for my business page and also create some buzz for the play.
Ter Scott is a writer and the Life & Legacy Coach™ terscott.com
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