Allison Olivia Choat went caving deep underground in Kentucky to research her previous directing gig. This time she just had to learn about “pants rabbits” and “pillow pigeons.”

Choat directs Moonbox Productions’ staging of John Steinbeck’s play “Of Mice and Men,” based on his 1937 novel, at the Boston Center for the Arts, Friday through Dec. 22. “They say Eskimos have 100 words for snow. Well, I don’t know if that’s true, but Steinbeck had about 100 words for lice,” Choat says.