7.10.2014

July 10, 2014

White Dog and I were cleaning my computer files when we ran across some old photos. These photos were so so old that White Dog was our only pup when they were taken. "Gosh, momma," she said dreamily. "I remember that trip so clearly. It was so much fun."

In 2006 we spent  two nonstop weeks in LA. We stayed in a rented apartment with a yard so we had a place for fairly "normal" downtime and sleep routines.

One of the evenings we went to Barnsdall Art Park in East Hollywood for a Shakespeare in the Park production of Hamlet. It is a lovely Frank Lloyd Wright Mansion with massive green lawns high on a bluff overlooking town. Breaktaking. It is the subject of today's Throwback Thursday memory...

We packed a marvelous picnic dinner and were joined by friends on blankets spread out front stage, center to enjoy the glorious evening, fine foods, and a bit of theater. White Dog lay curled happily and quiet on the blanket as the space filled with other picnickers and theater attendees.

The production began at nightfall. In Act 1 Scene 1 the guards experience the apparition of the dead King of Denmark. As he begins to vanish, Horatio, calls out to him (I quote from the play):
MARCELLUSQuestion it, Horatio.
HORATIO:What art thou that usurp'st this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak!
MARCELLUS: It is offended.
BERNARDO: See, it stalks away!
(at this point the character shouts) 
HORATIO: Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!

White Dog, up until now the perfect theater patron, sits up proudly and...yes...SPEAKS loudly and clearly!

She brought down the house as the audience cracked up. Even the actors had to pace a few seconds to compose themselves before the play could resume.

At intermission, our Little Girl was beseiged by those wanting to meet her and to know if she was a plant. The actor playing Hamlet came up and asked to see her Actor's Equity Card and teased her about the rudeness of upstaging the star.

That was White Dog's moment of Hollywood fame. She settled down once again and quietly enjoyed what turned out to be a marvelous performance. And her fame was recorded in the annals of Shakespearean greatness...or so she would have the White Dog Army believe!



5 comments:

rottrover said...

I love that story, WD!!

Brian's Home Blog said...

Oh that Fame was so deserved though!

Angel Ginger Jasper said...

Oh how lovely and I love that photo too

meowmeowmans said...

Now that was a well-deserved moment of fame for White Dog! :)

I'm originally form L.A., and have been to the Hollyhock House many times -- isn't it a wonderful place?

Unknown said...

What a great story! Hilarious!