This little piggy came to AFF
Family friendly, filled with real life triumphs and tumbles, and oh so tasty nibbles. Rachel Teagle showcases her experiences with livestock shows and prized pigs in Queen of Delicious Animals during the Atlanta Fringe Festival. Below, Rachel Teagle opens up about meeting her meals, life lessons, and truly enjoying the art of competition.
For show times, check out the AFF schedule!
Q. Your show, Queen of Delicious Animals, is a part of the Atlanta Fringe Festival. The show is based on your experiences as a child competitor in livestock shows. What can audiences look forward to in this show?
A. This is a story about blind ambition, soaring success, utter failure, and everything in between, sprinkled with some of most delicious bacon known to man. It’s an epic journey, one small child’s quest to be the best in her field, but the journey doesn’t end when the goal is reached. What happens when you get what you want? What do you do next? It’s a universal story but told in a very specific world, where people prize their guinea pigs above all else, and you live and die by those big blue ribbons. Audiences can look forward to lots of embarrassing Rachel stories, learning a lot they didn’t necessarily need to know about animals, and a well constructed Moulin Rouge manure joke.
Q. You hit on this in the show, the idea of success, failure and what it all really means in the end, but how did your past influence your daring show[wo]manship in the present?
A. The biggest lesson I learned was not to be afraid of failure. I was lucky in that I had a lot of success when I was very young, and then had to go on with my life and find something new to work towards. What I learned was that I like competing more than I like winning. I’d rather lose at something challenging that I tried my hardest at than get a meaningless award I didn’t work very hard for. I definitely think that’s emboldened me as a performer and altered my perspective of success and failure. Making theater is immensely difficult, and you never know how things are going to land. People fail every day, but if you don’t keep trying, you’ll never be successful.
Q. Was there ever any guilt about consuming your prize animals?
A. Yes, at first. The first time I had met my food before it arrived on my plate was very emotionally jarring. But in the end, it’s no different than where meat normally comes from. If I was okay eating mystery pork, I should be okay with eating this pork. Plus, I knew that this animal had been happy. He’d been healthy and well taken care of and lived in nice conditions and got plenty of exercise and socialization. I had made sure this animal had a good life for the time I cared for it, and while it is still strange to then turn around and eat them, you know this is the deal going in. And farm-raised happy 4H bacon tastes infinitely better than store bacon. It’s in a whole different league.
Q. What sets your show apart from some of the other AFF productions?
A. I think this is a really easy show to enjoy. It’s a good story told well, and it’s fun. It’s also one of a small handful of Family friendly shows in this year, so it’s one that you can bring anyone to, grandmothers, kids, even vegetarians get a respectful disclaimer before we get into the animal-eating section.
Q. Do you ever miss those little piggies?
A. Sometimes. I don’t miss getting up in the wee hours of the morning to shovel manure, and I don’t miss cloven-hoof bruises across my feet, but chasing after pigs and cows and sheep was a marvelous way to spend my childhood. And makes for a good story.
