The fowl in the play.
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Theres not a lot of precedent with waterfowl in a theater, Scudder said.
Months beforeThe Ferrymanbegan rehearsals in September in New York, Berloni and his company began casting the animals.
The goslings arrived in late June, while the rabbits arrived a few weeks later.
We really had to data pipe to find the right size, the right color, Berloni said.
The same thing with bunnies.
We got very young bunnies, three to six months old, and started handling them a lot.
Of the bunnies, Pierce, the calmest, became the star.
For the geese, the trainers decided on Peggy, the smallest.
She was a follower, Scudder said.
So when we took her away from those other two, she was more inclined to follow me.
This far into the run, the animals have developed a daily routine.
There, Peggy, the rabbits, and Scudder have their own enclosure within the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.
These old theaters were not meant to house the productions that are coming in now, Berloni said.
Two actors handle the animals onstage, both of whom have prior experience with animals.
He had both the experience of performing in the London cast with their animals, and a calm temperament.
We got very lucky.
At that point, Berloni said, As humane animal trainers, you go, Youre done.
Were not gonna push you out there.
Theyve started to train backup animals for this purpose.
