One Summer, I performed a two person show with Sadira as Dunazade. It was a small scale interactive show at a local street festival. The audience was a wonderful and responsive mix of adults and kids. We started out with the tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Just as Ali Baba heard the hoofbeats of the thieves’ first approach and hid to see what might be arriving, a child in the audience around five years of age called out,
“A Shark!”
“A What?” I asked.
“A Shark!” the child replied.
“Oh, silly,” said Sadira, playing along, “There are no sharks in the desert.”
“No, a Shark!” the child insisted, this time pointing behind me while the children sitting next to him snickered.
Sadira and I turned.
PPG Zoo and Aquarium
www.pittsburghzoo.org
Sure enough, walking past the stage behind us, was a mascot for the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium, promoting the new fresh water shark exhibit.
We had indeed been upstaged by a shark.