Published: April 28, 2008 10:24 am      

Parrot bite doesn't faze TC actress

TRAVERSE CITY -- Polly want an actor?

Suttons Bay leading lady Jill Anton's role in a popular romantic comedy was jeopardized after her pet parrot chomped down on her lip hours before an Old Town Playhouse performance.

Anton made breakfast for her three birds Saturday, the morning after the play "Same Time, Next Year" opened in Traverse City to a sold-out crowd and standing ovation. Her red-and-blue eclectus parrot Eva was perched on her shoulder. Suddenly, the bird forcefully bit down on Anton's lip.

"She latched on pretty good. It happened so fast, I am not exactly sure how I was able to get (it) off," the actress said.

The gash bled "everywhere." Her mouth swelled to a "huge" size. Anton cleaned the wound, applied a butterfly bandage and sucked on popsicles. At first she couldn't even talk. But Eva did. The parrot prattled while Anton treated the injury.

One phrase the bird repeated: "I love you."

Anton had worries other than her repentant parrot. No understudy had rehearsed her part in the play, scheduled for its second night in the studio theater. It has only two speaking parts and a lot of kissing.

With that night's curtain time only about 11 hours away, Anton knew one thing: The show must go on.

"I kind of believe in the power of positive thinking ...," she said. "I have got to be OK."

Never had director and producer Thomas Webb heard a stage story like this.

"It is one of the best ever. Getting sick with a cold or losing your voice, but getting bit by your bird?" he wondered, incredulously. "She's such a good trouper."

The hurt actress showed up at the theater, applied a thick coat of make up and made it through the play with "aplomb." That's how a playhouse press release later described her performance.

Anton's character Doris falls in love with George, portrayed by Rodney Woodring, when the two meet at a cottage resort. The story depicts their love affair from the early 1950s to 1975. This version is set in the Traverse City area, and a handful of local songwriters created music for the play.

The passionate production posed the problem of potentially painful puckers. The co-stars talked about how to prevent further injury during kissing scenes. Woodring agreed to "aim for the right side" and avoid too much contact.

"I said, 'I am not going to move my head, you just go in,'" he instructed for one particularly steamy scene.

The actors practiced for more than two months and performed wonderfully, said Webb. Anton thinks her frequent absence could be why Eva, normally a well-behaved parrot, lashed out.

"She has been a little bit nippy the last couple of months, but nothing like this," Anton said.

Still, the ordeal "could have been a lot worse," and besides a scar, Anton has something else to show for her acting heroics. The play's popularity prompted the addition of an extra date during its run through April 26.

"We got through it, and now Thursday is the next performance, and I should be as good as new," Anton said.