There's a new T-rex in town: 'Tini' stars in stage show at Royal Sask. Museum

When Zach Hoggarth saw the job posting for an actor to play a dinosaur, he was taken back to when he was a little kid. 

"Don't miss your chance," he said his inner child told him. "This is your chance to be a T-rex." 

Now, Hoggarth is one of the dinosaur actors in the new stage show at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM). 

The show was created to continue educating people about the T-rex and the time period after the Scotty the T-rex exhibit opened earlier this month. The show will have its dress rehearsal on May 29 and be open to booked school shows in June. The first public show will be in July, with performances continuing into the summer. 

When Hoggarth first saw the large costume, it was a little overwhelming, he said. 

"Seeing all controls and stuff like that was a little bit frightening," he said. "But once we get used to it, it's super easy to figure out how to use."

The controls work on a bike handle system. One controls the mouth, one controls the eyes and then there are buttons to make it growl or roar, he said. 

The summer stage play is called Trek to the Cretaceous. It features a human character time travelling back 66 million years and meeting a juvenile T-rex named Tini, who is about seven or eight years old.

The museum ordered the costume based on local drawings, said Sarah Schafer, visitor experience supervisor at the RSM. 

"You'll see that Tini s a little bit fuzzy on top because scientists do believe that T-Rex had feathers," Schafer said. "It's been on paper for so long and just to see it really actually come to life is very exciting," Schafer said. 

For the people behind the T-rex, the fun is just beginning. 

"One of my favourite things is to tell people flat out I'm a dinosaur because you get a lot of really confused looks," Hoggarth said with a laugh. "It's a chance to just act and have fun all summer."