Just Like a Dog
posted by Manoel Felciano, cast member of Round and Round the Garden Associate Artist Manoel Felciano plays Norman in A.C.T.’s production of Round and Round the Garden . He writes about his unique inspiration for Alan Ayckbourn’s endearingly lusty librarian. Character inspiration can come from the unlikeliest of sources. As rehearsals began for Round and Round the Garden , I was struck by how much my character, Norman, is compared to a dog in Ayckbourn’s text. He is lovingly described, with his “aimless sort of beard,” as “an Old English sheepdog . . . all woolly and doubled ended.” Norman’s long-suffering wife, Ruth, who knows him best, describes him as follows: “It’s a bit like owning an oversized unmanageable dog, being married to Norman. He’s not very well house-trained, he needs continual exercising—mental and physical—and it’s sensible to lock him up if you have visitors. Otherwise he mauls them. But I’d hate to be rid of him.” Of his philandering ways, Ruth wryly remar...