Bye Bye Pigeons

Sunday's rehearsal for Present Laughter let go a little early so that Artistic Director Nicholas Martin could head to the South End to catch the final performance of Persephone. It was a great closing performance, congrats to the cast and crew for a wonderful run, and we hope to see all of you back soon.


This great image of Seth Fisher and Melinda Lopez is an illustration from the New Yorker Magazine, which accompanies this article by John Lahr.

Present Laughter star Victor Garber took advantage of the early release and headed off to NYC to catch the opening of Deuce by Terrence McNally, starring Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes. Also present at the opening night festivities were Huntington favorites Nathan Lane (Butley), Andrea Martin (The Rose Tattoo), Debra Monk (Laughing Wild), Dick Latessa (The Cherry Orchard), Mary Louise Wilson (The Rivals) and more. Click this link for photos from the Theatre Mania article. If I were a betting man I might wager that a few of these folks will be at an opening in Boston in the very near future.

Back to Persephone and pigeons:

I found out on Sunday that all of the birds had been named by the end of the run. Here's a note from Cole Genuardi, props run, with the details.

Hi Todd,

The pigeons started out with each being named after an alcoholic beverage: Rum & Coke, Cosmo, Margarita, Vodka Tonic, Cape Codder, Manhattan, Fuzzy Navel, etc. They really were named at random at first. Then as they started to get beat up a little from being dropped, they started to be identifiable and their personalities showed through. In the end there was the following:

Scarface - this one lost its eyes and beak really early on so its face was just a mass of bloody feathers

One-eye Willy - the first one to lose one eye

Bird-brain - he had a hollow head

Special Child - his head exploded off so many times that he just looked really odd by the end of the run. and he had an awkward tilt to his head.

Leaky- this one kept developing holes and leaking sand everywhere.

Yes, we had fun with the pigeons on this show!

-Cole