Dog Day Afternoon: Colorado Shakespeare Festival Holds Auditions for Canine Star

On a bright, almost summerlike afternoon in Boulder, dozens of dogs gathered at the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre with the same goal: to become a Shakespearean star.

The Colorado Shakespeare Festival held open auditions on Saturday, March 28, for two small dogs to share the role of “The Dog” in its upcoming production of Shakespeare in Love. Twenty-three hopeful pups applied for the coveted part, with their humans bringing them to the historic outdoor venue on the University of Colorado Boulder campus to test their stage presence.

“We had 32 dogs sign up, but people always cancel,” says Kurt M. Mehlenbacher, operations manager at CU Presents, who helped keep the auditions on track. “I’ve only done this one other time, and that was in 2022 for Two Gentlemen of Verona, and for that one, we only had about twelve dogs audition. That dog also needed to be a bit bigger in size. This time we’re looking for two smaller dogs.”

The role may be brief, but it is designed to steal the spotlight. In the stage adaptation of Shakespeare in Love, actors perform a scene from The Two Gentlemen of Verona before Queen Elizabeth I. The dog disrupts the performance, drawing laughs from the queen and the audience while frustrating Shakespeare himself.

“The scene in the play is where the dog is kind of misbehaving during a play within the play and completely stealing the show,” Mehlenbacher says. “Of course, in order to be able to misbehave on cue, you have to have a very disciplined dog.”

The auditions unfolded on a day that felt more like July than March. Boulder experienced near-record warmth, with temperatures climbing to around 88 degrees, far above the typical high of about 60 for the date. Under sunny skies and light winds, dogs trotted across the Rippon stage while their humans coaxed them through tricks, barks and enthusiastic greetings.

For many participants, the event was less about landing the role than enjoying the novelty. Leah Csapo of Boulder brought her Cavapoo, Poppy, after a friend urged her to apply.

“I saw it listed in the paper and thought it was cute, but I didn’t really consider it,” Csapo says. “Then my friend sent me the same listing and said, ‘You have to go to this.’ So we thought we’d give it a try.”

During her audition, Poppy showed off a well-timed barking routine.

“Tim wanted to see her do something that would grab attention,” Csapo says, referring to Tim Orr, the producing artistic director of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, who assisted in the evaluation of the dogs. “He held a treat and said the ‘To be or not to be’ speech, and she barked all the way through it. So I guess it went pretty well, but we’ll see.”

Other contestants leaned into personality rather than tricks. Maria Hardman of Lyons brought her 12-year-old dog Carmen, whom she describes as “a grande dame opera diva.” Hadman and her family had been attending “the Shakespeare Festival for years,” so when her mother received an email about the auditions, they all agreed that Carmen was the perfect fit for the role.

“She’s not super trick-heavy,” Hardman says. “I saw some of the other dogs out there who were crazy with their tricks. She’s not like that, but I like to think she brings the cuteness factor.”

Longtime festivalgoer Pat Klass traveled from Denver with her dog Lulu, a nearly 10-year-old companion she says deserved a chance at theatrical glory.

“We’re just doing it because Lulu is so smart,” Klass says. “I wanted her to have kind of a job. She’s a bit light on the tricks, but she can fetch, jump really high to get the ball, twist around and all of that.”

Orr says the role may be small, but the appeal of dogs onstage is timeless.

“Shakespeare was a genius,” Orr says. “He was a playwright, but he was also a brilliant businessman and producer. How do I know this? Because it’s unbelievable how popular it is to have a dog in a play.”

In the show, Shakespeare becomes increasingly frustrated as the audience reacts more to the dog than to his poetry.

“His manager says, ‘Look, people love the dog. That’s what they want,’” Orr says. “And the dog starts to misbehave a little bit and gets all the laughs. The dog receives thunderous applause from everybody, and the manager says, ‘Look, see? See? I told you,’ and Shakespeare is losing his patience with all of this.”

Orr says he is looking for dogs under 20 pounds that enjoy being the center of attention. “I’m looking for a dog that really loves being a dog and is excited to be onstage,” he says. “There was one dog that hopped into my lap and licked my face nearly off, and that was perfect.”

Beyond tricks or charm, temperament matters just as much. The selected dogs will interact with a cast of 19 actors and spend time backstage during rehearsals and performances. Wendy Franz, managing director of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, says that the casting process takes into account the human companions who will accompany the dogs.

“They will be part of the cast,” Franz says. “They’ll come to rehearsals with their dog and be backstage in the green room. So we’re interviewing the people as well.”

The auditions also gave dogs and owners a chance to experience the scale of the Rippon Theatre, which recently completed a major renovation. Festival leaders wanted participants to see whether their pets would feel comfortable in the large outdoor space filled with hundreds of spectators.

“This environment is a whole different experience,” Franz says. “Even for us humans.”

The festival’s 2026 season marks a major homecoming for the Rippon, which first opened in 1939 and has hosted outdoor Shakespeare performances in Boulder for decades. After two years of construction, the venue is ready to welcome audiences again.

“It was weird not having the Rippon for two years,” Franz says. “We all felt a little phantom limb syndrome. Honestly, most of those two years, it was a big mud pit, which was kind of gutting. When it started to take shape again, we would come out and just stand up on the scaffolding and see where it was at. I’m really thrilled that all the people who made it happen ensured that when you sit in the audience, it’s not going to feel that different, which is great because it is already a fabulous experience. But when you go inside to get coffee or go to the bathroom, all of that is going to feel improved. It’s the same space but better.”

The summer season will run from June 7 through August 2, with productions staged at both the Rippon and the indoor Roe Green Theatre. The lineup includes Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Julius Caesar, the stage adaptation of Shakespeare in Love, and the world premiere Friends/ Romans/ Countrymen by David Davalos. Franz says pairing Shakespeare classics with contemporary shows is designed to make the festival welcoming to both longtime fans and newcomers.

“Shakespeare is kind of our niche,” she says. “We all speak Shakespeare, but that language is intimidating to some people, so we have these two plays, Shakespeare and Love and Friends / Romans / Countrymen, and these two are non-Shakespeare titles, but we call them Shakespeare-adjacent. These are designed to invite in the folks that might be intimidated by Shakespeare but want to learn more and want to enjoy the Rippon under the stars. We just felt like it was a way to sort of open our arms and welcome more people in.”

Casting decisions for the canine role are expected in April. Until then, the dozens of hopeful pups who trotted across the Rippon stage will simply have to wait and see which dog earns the chance to misbehave under the stars.

Colorado Shakespeare Festival runs Sunday, June 7, through Sunday, August 2, at the University of Colorado Boulder. Learn more at cupresents.org/shakespeare-festival.