Ruff day at work: Actors of Stratford Festival's Annie meet their furry castmates

CBC

17-02-2025

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Tails were wagging and it was treats galore as the cast of Stratford Festival's upcoming production of Annie met the newest members of their crew.
The cast playing the orphans, consisting of girls aged 9-14, said it was an exciting day getting to meet the dogs playing Annie's companion in the show, Sandy.
Harper Rae Asch is the 11-year old who will be playing the title character Annie.
"Earlier this summer, I performed Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz and we had a little dog for Toto which was really exciting," she said.
"But over here, we have four dogs which is way more and they're bigger dogs but they're so cuddly and so furry and they're just so fun and chill."
Clue, Cappuccino, Domino and Uno are the four dogs that were part of the meet and greet.
They will play Sandy, a dog mistaken for Sandy and their respective understudies. It's still unknown which pooch will play which role. That will all depend on their ability on stage and how comfortable they are with the girls.
Donna Feore is the production's director and choreographer and was present for the dog's auditions.
"I basically went on stage and saw if the dog could sit with me and there's a long song that Sandy has to sit with Annie. So we tried that out and we also just watched the dogs move in the space," Feore said.
Stratford's casting director Ari Weinberger says the most important characteristic for casting the dogs was their colour.
"We need a dog that's sandy because otherwise it would make no sense as to why the dog has its name and why they sing a whole song about it," Weinberger said.
He said another necessity was their ability to remain calm on stage.
"We applauded a lot during their audition process. We had them on stage, getting them to sit and then we'd cause a ruckus in the audience to see if they would get distracted," Weinberger added.
When they came across Kathy Zubick's dogs, they knew they had found the perfect furry friends for the job.
Zubick is an animal trainer with Furry People Productions. She said being the dogs' trainer is easy because they're also her family's personal pets.
"They live in our house, they sleep on our couches. They basically just have fun, what day-to-day pet dogs have," she said.
But, when the creative canines aren't acting in theatre productions, they keep busy training in flyball, dock diving and frisbee.
The animals are also familiar with the camera because they act in various commercials and TV shows, as well as perform with the Super Dogs.
Dog distractions
While the dogs are no strangers to the limelight, Zubick says unpredictability always poses a challenge when working with live animals.
"There's a lot of variables and they may see a distraction that we don't see or a noise, smell, things like that, that could throw them off a little bit," she said.
"If they know what they need to do then they can usually work through some distractions."
She adds that if a mistake is made, the audience is usually understanding and will laugh it off so the dogs can give it another try.
"I do stride for them to be correct but also have some fun and some lenience within there," Zubick said.
Previews for Stratford Festival's Annie begin April 19 which members of the public are welcome to purchase tickets for. The official opening night will happen at the end of May.