Curtain Up (10 page)

“Wait a minute,” said Eddie, looking up from the sides. “This scene is for a boy and a girl.”

I shrugged. “So?”

“So . . . my partner is Sam. He's a boy.”

Sam laughed. “Thank you, Captain Obvious, for pointing that out.”

But I saw the problem now. One of these boys was going to have to play a girl, and something told me Eddie wasn't going to be open to it.

“We've got the same problem,” said Gracie, pointing to her partner, Jane. “Should we switch with Eddie and Sam?”

“We could,” I said, knowing in my heart it would be the simplest way to go. “But then again, this is all about acting.”

“Right,” said Austin. “Did you know that in Shakespeare's time, all the female roles were played by men or boys?”

“Why?” asked Mackenzie.

“Because it was against the law for women to be onstage.”

“That's ridiculous,” said Madeline. “Hadn't they ever heard of equal rights?”

Austin laughed. “Actually, no.”

“So, if it was good enough for Mr. Shakespeare,” I said, “it should be good enough for us!” I looked from Eddie to Sam, then back to Eddie. “How about one of you plays the opposite gender, just for the audition?”

“What?” cried Eddie. “You're kidding, right? I don't want to play a girl!”

“And I don't want to play a boy,” added Jane.

“What's the big deal?” said Gracie. “Like Anya said, it's acting. It might be fun to try playing a boy.”

“I bet I could be hilarious as a girl,” said Sam, warming to the idea. He batted his eyelashes and patted his hair. “Oh no,” he trilled in a falsetto voice. “I think I broke a nail.”

“That's insulting!” said Madeline, planting her hands on her hips. “Not all girls are like that.”

“Hey, dude!” Gracie said with a rasp, deepening her voice to a hoarse croak. “Check out my muscles! I'm such a tough guy! Anybody got some beef jerky?”

“Not all boys are like
that
,” said Teddy. “I hate beef jerky. Although”—he grinned and flexed his biceps—“I do kind of
have the muscle thing going on.”

“Who wants to go to the mall?” sang Sam in his high voice.

“Cut that out!” snapped Jane.

As the bickering continued, I felt myself losing control of the situation.

“Do something,” said Susan. “Before we have a theatrical mutiny on our hands.”

She was right. I was the director. It was my job to fix this, but how? The girls were insulted, the boys were getting snarky . . . and none of it had anything to do with acting.

“Everybody, just relax!” I shouted over the escalating quarrel.

I gave them a minute to simmer down. When I had their attention again, I said calmly, “I agree that not all girls are into manicures and not all boys are muscle heads. But this actually brings up an important point about acting technique. Ya see, if Sam decides that his
character
is the kind of girl who cries over chipped nail polish, then that's a valid acting choice. And if Gracie's boy character is a gym rat who likes to gnaw on artificial beef snacks, then that's okay too. Granted, these may not be the most original choices, but it is exactly how an actor brings life to a character. It's called backstory.”

This backstory stuff was something I'd overheard some
of the professional actors discussing once during my
Annie
experience. It was a cool feeling to be able to put to good use something I'd learned by actually taking part in a production.

As I let the information sink in, Austin turned and threw me a wink. “I think you just gave them an acting lesson,” he said. “Very directorial of you.”

“Thanks,” I said, realizing he was right. I felt a glimmer of pride.

And suddenly I wasn't so mad about the Sophia thing anymore.

We gave the actors forty-five minutes to rehearse, then got down to business with the acting auditions. Austin and Elle were the first scene partners to read. Sitting in the last row of folding chairs, I felt a flutter of disbelief as I watched them take the stage.
This was happening!

It was hard not to giggle, thinking of Austin as Peter Pan, because I just couldn't picture him in green tights! But Elle was charming as Wendy. My only real concern was that she kept forgetting to “cheat out” to the audience. I made a note on my legal pad to remind her to angle herself slightly when speaking to another actor so she'd always be facing effectively downstage, or toward the audience, and not turning her profile to them.

After Elle's audition, I (with Susan's help) continued to audition the scene partners on the stage, while Austin took
the monologues outside to read on the lawn.

Not surprisingly, Sam's audition was hilarious. His acting choice was to take his Wendy totally over the top, making her more of a caricature than a character, which worked beautifully. I laughed so hard, I almost cried. Eddie was terrific too, keeping up with Sam's energy and never so much as cracking a smile, no matter how wacky Sam got.

Gracie, on the other hand, went a different way entirely with her gender-bending experiment. Despite the silly “boy impersonation” she'd done earlier, for the actual audition she chose to play it with perfect authenticity, digging deep and “becoming” Peter Pan. Susan and I were blown away; Gracie had actually “acted herself” into a boy.

“We've got some real talent here, don't we?” Susan whispered.

“Yes.” I nodded, feeling that familiar swirl of excitement in my belly. “We really do!”

Mia and Travis had just finished their scene when Austin and the others returned from outside.

I gave Austin a questioning look to which he responded with a grin and a nod. I took this to mean that he was pleased with what he'd seen during the monologues.

It was time to move on to the dance auditions. Austin dug the sheet music from
How to Succeed
out of my backpack
and sat down at the piano.

He played the first few bars and winced. “This baby is way out of tune,” he said. “It'll do for now, but we're going to have to get it taken care of before the show.”

I told Susan to make a note of that, then I wrangled everyone onto the floor, away from the chairs. “Everybody ready to dance?”

Elle wanted to know if we were going to be doing the fox trot or maybe the tango, both of which she'd taught herself by binge-watching
Dancing with the Stars
episodes on YouTube.

“Sorry, Elle,” I said. “No fox trots.”

Mackenzie was a little worried about dancing in sneakers as opposed to her actual jazz shoes (or toe shoes or tap shoes or whatever she usually wore for this sort of thing), but thankfully, she didn't make a big deal about it.

Spencer, Eddie, and Gracie just flat out refused to dance at all.

“You can't refuse,” I said reasonably. “It's part of the audition process. It's mandatory.”

“But I stink at dancing,” said Spencer.

“So do I,” said Gracie. “I'm what you might call . . . clumsy.” As if to prove it, she accidently backed into the wobbly old table and nearly knocked over my laptop. Fortunately, baseball star Sam was there to catch it before it hit the floor.

“I feel goofy when I dance,” Eddie admitted. “It feels like everyone will be looking at me.”

“Everyone
will
be looking at you,” said Susan. “That's kind of the whole point.”

“Look, guys,” I said, sighing. “I totally understand. It's exactly how I feel about soccer. But can you at least give it a try? You three can stand in back so you have someone in front of you to follow.” I gave them my most hopeful smile. “Hey, you might even like it!”

Spencer, Gracie, and Eddie exchanged looks.

“Fine,” said Gracie. “We'll give it a shot. But if I break anything, it's your fault.”

We lined everyone up, and Susan and I walked the cast through the combination:

Heel, heel, heel, twist, twist . . . and turn, heel, heel, heel . . . twist, twist, arms!

After several walk-throughs, we added the music. Austin played slowly at first, then picked up the tempo as the kids improved. Mackenzie, of course, had no trouble at all. She didn't just dance, she practically
floated
, which dazzled me and made me jealous at the same time. I let the boys go alone while the girls watched, then switched it up and let the boys watch the girls dance.

“Excellent!” cried Susan. “Gracie, you're doing great.”

When the girls were done, I had them all move onto the stage to perform together again, counting them in with an enthusiastic, “Five, six, seven, eight.”

Turn . . . heel, heel, heel . . .

I couldn't believe it—they were fabulous! Heads were high, shoulders were back, feet were moving in time with the music. This time they didn't just dance. . . . They performed! I couldn't believe the energy . . . the charisma, the syncopation. Sure, there was a misstep here and there, and a couple of them were a bit stiff, but overall I was blown away.

“Look at 'em go,” Susan whispered, her eyes wide, her face beaming.

I made all kinds of notes on my legal pad:
Jane has great facial expressions; Teddy should be positioned toward the back because he's so much taller than the others; Elle has to remember not to stick out her tongue during the box step.

Even Eddie, Gracie, and Spencer (despite their reluctance) were giving it their all. I was glad I had encouraged them to step outside of their comfort zones.

Make that step-
ball-change
outside of their comfort zones.

When Austin finished the song, Susan and I burst into applause. My dancers were huffing and puffing but smiling. Honestly, I had chills.

“You were fabulous!” I gushed. “Really great. I'm so
impressed by how much you learned so quickly.”

“Even me?” Eddie said with a gasp.

“Even you!” I said, laughing, then nodded at Spencer and Gracie. “You guys too!”

I told them to take a few minutes to rest while I made a few more notes. I wrote on my legal pad that in addition to Mackenzie, Travis could probably handle a featured part in the ensemble number.

“What's next?” asked Teddy.

“Singing auditions,” Susan announced, hurrying over to the table to grab the music we'd arranged there. There were five songs from which the singers could choose:

“Consider Yourself” from
Oliver!

“Maybe” from
Annie

“The Kite” from
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

“Happiness” also from
Charlie Brown

“Good Morning Baltimore” from
Hairspray

“I suggest you choose a song you're familiar with,” I said. “If you don't know any of these songs, Austin will be happy to work with you.”

Mia's hand shot up. “What about a vocal warm-up?”

“Oh. Right.” I felt a little silly for not thinking of that myself. I knew it was important for singers to exercise their vocal chords, but since I'd never taken any formal voice
lessons myself, I wasn't sure how the exercises were done. “Would you mind leading the cast in the warm-up, Mia?”

Mia said she wouldn't mind at all, which freed me up to consult with my tech crew. I found Deon and Maxie emerging from their exploration of the backstage area.

“How's it going with you two?” I asked.

“Pretty well,” said Deon, pointing to the ceiling above the stage. “There's no spotlight, but there are a couple of overhead canister lights with dimmers. That means we can go from total darkness to full brightness.”

“No footlights, though,” I grumbled, eyeing the stage. Too bad. I'd always liked the idea of footlights. They just felt so theater-y.

“Well . . .” Deon shrugged. “Maybe I can staple-gun a strand of white holiday lights to the front edge of the stage.”

“Perfect!” I said, picturing it. “What about microphones and stuff?”

“Well, there are plenty of outlets where we can plug in the sound equipment.”

“Wow!” I said. “So you have sound equipment?”

Deon frowned. “No. Don't you?”

“I was hoping we could use the PA system that's already here,” I explained.

“We could,” D reported. “But it's pretty ancient. I'd
probably have to fiddle with it a bit. I did find a couple of wireless handheld microphones, and there's one that hangs from the ceiling.”

“That's called an area mic,” I said, remembering the term from my
Annie
experience. “It'll amplify voices a little bit, but only if you're standing right beneath it.”

I had a sudden unpleasant vision of all my performers huddled together in the middle of the stage, elbowing one another out of the way in a desperate attempt to have their individual voices heard. Not a pretty picture.

Flummoxed, I turned to Austin, who was at the piano, trying to help Madeline choose the song that best suited her vocal range. “Austin, what are your thoughts on the sound situation?”