There are 19 cast members in “Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven” — and one of them wears a diaper.
Meet Mr. Skittles, who clambers up a set of stairs on a leash before breaking baa-ad into the wings in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ new dramedy. Though the Playbill credit reads merely “Goat,” he’s called Mr. Skittles and the pygmy goat is actually a she: Willow.
“They actually wanted a full-size goat and I talked them out of it,” says animal trainer William Berloni. “There’s no way to house-train a goat, so I put a diaper and a little plastic bag on her. I couldn’t imagine a large goat with a garbage bag on its butt!”
Berloni usually finds his cats and dogs from shelters, but rescue pygmy goats are scarce. He bought Willow from Connecticut’s Circle K Farm, which sells animals to petting zoos.
When she’s not performing or chowing down in her cozy, offstage pen, little Willow — who weighs about 30 pounds and measures 20 inches high from head to hoof — bunks at the Greenburgh Nature Center in Scarsdale, New York. Animal handler Rochelle Scudder picks her up and drops her off every day in a dog carrier.
“She’s my first goat ever,” says Willow’s co-star, Wilemina Olivia-Garcia, who has a Chihuahua mix at her home in the Bronx. “I was a little hesitant about performing onstage with her — ‘Is she going to poop? Is the diaper gonna stay on?’ — but it all worked out well. She’s a very sweet little goat, and she definitely likes to eat!”
After the show’s run ends, Willow will remain at the nature center, where, Berloni says, she’s become quite the celebrity at the petting zoo.
“Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven” runs through Jan. 5 at the Atlantic Theater Company.