In 1935 The Newtown Congregational Church needed money to send local children to a youth conference.

 

Credit is given to the energetic young minister, Rev. Paul A. Cullens, for the idea to raise funds by putting on a play. Three plays, to be exact. The bill of one-acts at the Edmund Town Hall included Ten Nights in a Barroom, and East Lynne, but the set-piece was Uncle Tom’s Cabin, known for the climatic scene where the heroine flees across ice flows pursued by a pack of 20 bloodhounds.

 

The minister cast his reluctant German shepherd, Bozo, in the role of the bloodhounds. A vagabond at heart, Bozo passively resisted and had to be pulled by a rope across the stage after freeing Liza. So it was hardly surprising when, one the night of one performance, the “pack” was nowhere to be found. A substitute was about to be pressed into service when Bozo appeared, bloodied, with bits of window frame and glass clinging to him. The wayward actor had followed the trail of a scent into a building and was accidentally locked in. As showtime approached, he finally broke through a window and hightailed it to the town hall in time for his entrance.

 

One moment of glory can make an actor immortal. An Associated Press reporter who happened to be in town wrote the story and the minister's thespian dog became nationally famous How far this notoriety inspired the two-legged members of the cast is difficult to judge. The following year, the actors formally established themselves as the Town Players. In 1937, Rev. Cullens made his own stage debut in a production of Susan Glaspell's Trifles, and stole the show as Farmer Hale. According to the Newtown Bee (March 26,1937) "Mr. Cullens lent a bucolic atmosphere to his part of the testimony that fairly reeked of the barnyard.”