AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ve been given a proposition,” I sang at the top of my lungs, practically shouting the words to the theater. “What will I doooooooooooo with this proposition?”
I must have been a ridiculous sight. I was wearing the wrong wardrobe for this song, and what I had on was covered in smoke marks. My makeup was smudged. The curtain was still drawn, so the set for this scene wasn’t visible. And there was no musical accompaniment. Just my own semi-hoarse voice screaming into the uncomfortable silence of the theater.
But I didn’t care.
I strode around the stage in my track, singing the opening lyrics to the second half of The Proposition, excited and hopeful. But it was a song involving many other people, so I couldn’t do it by myself.
Fortunately, Dorian came striding onto stage right as his part came in. He winked at me, and his voice was high and clear and filled me with happiness:
“My wife is a peach and my dreams are a bust. Try harder and harder, I know that I must!”
The drummer down in the orchestra pit was the first to begin playing, followed by a single, sad clarinet. Then the orchestra conductor shrugged and waved his people back to their places. Within seconds the entire orchestra was playing the song as if nothing was wrong.
Behind us, the curtain opened to reveal the set. Braden came jogging out at the perfect time to sing his lyrics for the song:
“I’ve given her a proposition!” he roared in a deep, masculine voice. “What will she doooooooooo with my proposition?”
He smiled warmly at me. Both because it was part of the stage direction, and because I knew he was telling me something. Reiterating that he forgave me for my screw up, and wanted to try things with me. We smiled together as the music filled the theater.
It was a flood of activity after that. The backup dancers came filing out in their track, swirling and jumping behind us. My voice was a little raspy from the smoke, but it quickly disappeared and I felt strong.
And the audience? Most of them returned to their seats. Not all, but enough that the theater was still mostly full. Enough to make my singing worth it.
When the song ended, the roar of the crowd was louder than at any point in the first half. Stage hands ran out to swap the set for the next scene. The orchestra began the next song. I was so enamored with the applause that Braden had to take my hand to lead me from the stage so Dorian could begin his next solo song.
Director Atkins was waiting for me backstage with the detective. “You sound pretty damn good for a woman who almost choked to death on smoke,” Atkins said.
“What the hell are you doing?” the detective demanded. “I need to interview you and the rest of the cast.”
Atkins rounded on me with his hands planted on his hips. “Yeah, Nadia. What are you doing?”
There was a long pause where I was very, very confused.
“You should be in wardrobe,” Atkins finally said. “You’ve got about six minutes to change and get your makeup reapplied before your next song.”
The detective sputtered. “Her dressing room is a crime scene!”
“Good point. You can use Braden’s,” Atkins said. He gave me a small wink.
While the detective shouted and made a scene, I ran back to Braden’s dressing room to get cleaned up.
The rest of the show went on wonderfully. Since it was almost canceled, it felt like we were playing with house money. My voice was strong and confident, and all of the anxiety from the first half disappeared.
My character, Jane, unexpectedly rekindled her relationship with her husband, Marshall. His musical career was beginning to take off, which brought in an influx of money and less stress and traveling than before. But Jane was still having an affair with Hector, who refused to break off their arrangement even after Jane no longer needed the money. Hector threatened to tell Jane’s husband if she broke off the affair, keeping her torn between the two men she loved.
And as I acted out the scenes on stage, it was similar to how I felt outside of the show. Except it wasn’t two men: it was four.
The show ended tragically. Marshall learned of the affair after coming home early from a show, and nearly murdered both Jane and Hector with his pistol. Instead, he chose to leave Jane and strike out on his own. Jane tries to find comfort in the arms of Hector, but the near-death experience has made him realize that he can’t live a life based on such a tremendous lie. In the end, he leaves Jane too.
After one more final, sorrowful song, Jane drinks poison and kills herself on stage, like a sad, lonely Juliet without her Romeo.
The roar from the crowd was overwhelming. As the theater lights came on I saw the audience break out in an immediate standing ovation, cheering and whistling their approval. I felt lighter than air as the rest of the cast came out, took their bows, and then the curtain finally closed.
The cast devolved into a giddy circus of high-fives, hugging, and tears. All of the stress and the pressure to perform over the past few months had finally been lifted. It felt like giving birth to a child. Except we had to go do it all over again tomorrow.
But we couldn’t wait.
I think just about every person in the cast hugged me and told me how proud they were of me. Several dancers apologized for believing that I had been the one to sabotage the theater just to steal the lead role. It was vindicating to hear them say so.
