Wednesday, June 4, 2008

The Great COWdecott Tunnel Incident of 2008

Cal Shakes Associate Artist Jessica Richards makes her blog debut with this tale of the news story chronicled here.

Never a dull moment at the Bruns Amphitheater! Early yesterday morning, a visitor took up residence at the bottom of our hill, working hard to clear some overgrowth from the parking lot. We at Cal Shakes always appreciate volunteers. He or she (though I prefer to think she) displaying a definite penchant for the dramatic, spotted a stage with much wider audience exposure, and mooooved on to Highway 24.

With the CA Highway Patrol and Animal Control Officers out in force, there was only one thing to do: drive her back to her pasture above the Bruns. I can’t imagine how they got that cow off the highway with no fatalities (of the bovine variety) but she definitely takes direction well. We in the Bruns lobby had heard that a shuttle was on the way up the hill from BART, so we readied ourselves to welcome a school group from Claremont Middle School in Oakland to this morning’s performance of Pericles.

No shuttle.

We waited.

No shuttle. Emily Morrison, intrepid Artistic Learning Programs and Outreach Manager, was radioing to the bottom to find out what happened to the school kids when our visiting cow appeared at the top of the shuttle road, leading a parade of two highway patrol vehicles, one animal control truck, and a Ford F350 (belonging to her owner perhaps?).

The shuttle was waiting patiently at the bottom of the hill for the cow and company to pass.

She didn’t make it to the stage (highway patrol cars herded her back to the pasture) but this cow had a nice tour of the Bruns, and will hopefully remember the brief time she was a star in the eyes of Cal Shakes staff, Claremont Middle School students, and hundreds, maybe thousands, of unfortunate commuters.

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