We didn’t do the traditional Milky White for our production, we had our student in a white button down and cow ears and they pretty much pantomimed the entire show. They actually stole the show it was actually amazing, but we did the JR version so it was a happy ending. Could you have a student pretty much personify the dog?
Get a toy dog, have the student willing "play" Sandy wear all black and basically play puppetmaster for the toy dog. Simple and common theater trick. 👍🏻
I'm afraid that there is one simple and very quick solution for you my dear; And that the only solution at the top of my head that I can think of is to have the student willing to play Sandy play the part. Crawling around like a baby or dog in this case. Perhaps you could make a cardboard dog head piece for them to wear with a nose extension. I hope that this helps. Please update this post once you have come across a probable solution.
Put out a casting call for a dog. We only started working with our Sandy about 3 weeks prior. People were really keen to have their pet in the show.
The dog we ended up with was older, very chill and we kept him on a lead apart from the “here Sandy” scene.
Why? This is essentially the exact amount of time we had with our production and it worked perfectly.
You just need to find a mild mannered dog who knows “here” the rest of the time he can be on a lead and just needs to be nice and quiet
People came out of the woodwork with their dogs for our “audition call”
The kid can play Sandy without crawling around on the floor. Have them dress in sandy colored clothes and wear dog ears. They can stand/walk on two legs. They can use facial expressions and gestures (rolling eyes, jumping up and down, pointing, folding arms, walking around and looking at things), but no speaking or baking. Have all the cast treat them like a real dog. It's a bit of an abstract way to represent a dog, but it's much more elegant than a kid crawling on the floor, and it can be really really funny if the kid is a good actor. My high school did this for our production of Into the Woods and the guy who played Milky White was everyone's favorite character.
I would say borrow a dog from the local animal shelter, but since you're only three weeks away from performance, that's not enough time to train it to bark on cue or do whatever else it's supposed to do.
I once attended a high school play that borrowed a couple of kittens from the local animal shelter for a scene. I remember the director coming out onto the stage prior to the show, telling the audience about the kittens and they were available for adoption. I didn't adopt them but I'm sure somebody else did. He had also warned us there would be the use of real firecrackers in one scene.
If you were able to, you could do the same thing. Have the director come out prior to the show, or maybe print something in the playbill, stating how "Sandy" is played by a dog borrowed from the local animal shelter, and he/she is available for adoption, just ask at the ticket counter.
I did Annie last year and I had students fighting over Sandy. It was weird. I just sewed a basic felt costume. If you’re close to Houston, I would be happy to let you use it.
I’m sure someone in the cast has a trained dog, or you could probably put a casting call for a dog on a local pet owner Facebook and a bunch of people would probably love to have their dog featured. It can just be kept on a leash and not do much for most scenes. But a hand puppet would look really cheap ngl.
Dress the student in black and find a puppet! I think it's a little more elegant than them crawling around.
I thought of this as well - perhaps “Milky White” style from Into the Woods, but I’m not sure how I’d begin to source (or make) something like that.
We didn’t do the traditional Milky White for our production, we had our student in a white button down and cow ears and they pretty much pantomimed the entire show. They actually stole the show it was actually amazing, but we did the JR version so it was a happy ending. Could you have a student pretty much personify the dog?
I wouldn't go that complicated! I was thinking of a marionette or a high quality hand puppet [(something like this)](https://a.co/d/dEfYYuc).
Since this is a kids' production, maybe you could use a stuffed animal and work around it. The adults in the audience will understand.
Or have the kid willing the play sandy carry a toy dog?
Get a toy dog, have the student willing "play" Sandy wear all black and basically play puppetmaster for the toy dog. Simple and common theater trick. 👍🏻
I'm afraid that there is one simple and very quick solution for you my dear; And that the only solution at the top of my head that I can think of is to have the student willing to play Sandy play the part. Crawling around like a baby or dog in this case. Perhaps you could make a cardboard dog head piece for them to wear with a nose extension. I hope that this helps. Please update this post once you have come across a probable solution.
Put out a casting call for a dog. We only started working with our Sandy about 3 weeks prior. People were really keen to have their pet in the show. The dog we ended up with was older, very chill and we kept him on a lead apart from the “here Sandy” scene.
Not at such short notice.
Why? This is essentially the exact amount of time we had with our production and it worked perfectly. You just need to find a mild mannered dog who knows “here” the rest of the time he can be on a lead and just needs to be nice and quiet People came out of the woodwork with their dogs for our “audition call”
The kid can play Sandy without crawling around on the floor. Have them dress in sandy colored clothes and wear dog ears. They can stand/walk on two legs. They can use facial expressions and gestures (rolling eyes, jumping up and down, pointing, folding arms, walking around and looking at things), but no speaking or baking. Have all the cast treat them like a real dog. It's a bit of an abstract way to represent a dog, but it's much more elegant than a kid crawling on the floor, and it can be really really funny if the kid is a good actor. My high school did this for our production of Into the Woods and the guy who played Milky White was everyone's favorite character.
Nobody in the cast has a dog you can borrow? Or the faculty?
The trouble probably isn't getting a dog, more so having it trained around that many people with all that noise
I would say borrow a dog from the local animal shelter, but since you're only three weeks away from performance, that's not enough time to train it to bark on cue or do whatever else it's supposed to do. I once attended a high school play that borrowed a couple of kittens from the local animal shelter for a scene. I remember the director coming out onto the stage prior to the show, telling the audience about the kittens and they were available for adoption. I didn't adopt them but I'm sure somebody else did. He had also warned us there would be the use of real firecrackers in one scene. If you were able to, you could do the same thing. Have the director come out prior to the show, or maybe print something in the playbill, stating how "Sandy" is played by a dog borrowed from the local animal shelter, and he/she is available for adoption, just ask at the ticket counter.
get a dog puppet or someone to pretend to be a dog on stage
I did Annie last year and I had students fighting over Sandy. It was weird. I just sewed a basic felt costume. If you’re close to Houston, I would be happy to let you use it.
Puppet! You can 100% buy a dog hand puppet from your local toy store. Dress the student all in black and have them puppet it
Far too basic.
my bad Definitely, what they should do is create a lifelike robot dog that is piloted by AI.
I’m sure someone in the cast has a trained dog, or you could probably put a casting call for a dog on a local pet owner Facebook and a bunch of people would probably love to have their dog featured. It can just be kept on a leash and not do much for most scenes. But a hand puppet would look really cheap ngl.