Without actually naming the show I work on - though let's just say it's got a lot of dancing and three very important words: "Live Nativity Onstage". Yup, 3 camels, 5 sheep, and a donkey. There's a reason it's the last scene of the show....
Well, you never know quite what animals will decide to do....for several years it appeared that at least once a run a sheep would get loose. One of the funniest moments I've ever had was back when we only had walkie-talkies (not wireless headsets yet), you heard broadcasted in the quiet section of the show, "A sheep got loose and is headed toward [shopping complex across the street]....repeat...a sheep is on the LAM!" And sometimes the animal handlers would give out awards...one year I got "Honorary Animal Handler" for all my help... and another I got the "Best Sheep Wrestler" award for tackling a different runaway sheep.
But most of the time, the camels are adorable. Inquisitive and herd animals, which can be serious problems onstage especially when cast and crew have forgotten how to act around the animals, but mostly adorable.
Totally different - I've done 3 different productions of A CHRISTMAS CAROL and am sure I'll do more eventually. When I was 8 years old and IN it, my parents bought me the annotated version and I had cast members autograph it near either their section of the book or near one of the many illustrations. It's great now to have 3 different cast-worths of names signed...and since most productions include slightly different scenes, it's fun to re-read and remember which productions did which sections onstage.
Erin