N.A.S.A. Grant Awardee Margot Lasher: "Ghost in the Window"

David Klein & Shiro

Tuesday, July 7 - "This is one of my favorite photos, taken by Irene Facciolo. David Klein (Dog) is saying some line, and Shiro is at the window looking in. It is as if Shiro is feeding David his lines, or at another level, David is getting his understanding of ‘dogness’ from Shiro.

"Dogs are always going in and out of the house. Outside are the deer, the coyotes, the birds, and the living food. Inside are the humans, the pack, and the dead food. Dogs live in two realities, and the window is the boundary.

"When working we use only a small part of the space, the size of the raised platform in FlynnSpace. Charlie and Shiro wander around the rest of the space freely. Now that they’re used to the human sounds and motions, they ignore us and sleep a lot. In the play, David often gets down on the floor, sometimes sitting and sometimes lying down. When he sits Charlie ignores him, but the instant he lies down Charlie goes over to make sure he is okay.

"There is a scene is which Naomi Flanders (the Human) loses sight of David, and she calls loudly ‘Dog, Dog’ (everyone knows the content of this scene, in which your dog wanders off and you are afraid she is lost, stolen, or run over). In this scene Charlie and Shiro, no matter where they are, come running to see why she is calling them, and more importantly, why she is projecting fear.

"In this next photo, Naomi has picked up Shiro’s leash for the dogtrainer scene, and Shiro ties to grab it. This is unusual—Shiro doesn’t normally interrupt the rehearsal. Charlie was not with us that day and I think Shiro was nervous being in the studio without him. When Naomi got his leash, Shiro decided it was time to leave and go home."

David Klein, Naomi Flanders, Shiro