we are producing Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia right now, and the script calls for a live tortoise. since live animals don’t really fall into anyone else’s job description, that means that they’re my problem. i’ve learned a lot about tortoises in the past week.

our guy is a red-footed tortoise. they traditionally hail from south america, although ours came from a petsmart in the suburbs of chicago (and was likely bred in captivity). we have named him morla, after the wise tortoise in the neverending story. so far morla spends most of his off-stage time hiding under a log in the make-shift tortoise habitrail i built in the corner of the production office, but when i take him outside for a walk in the lawn he’s pretty darn cute.