AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We find a quiet space in the lobby to run through the scene. We’re auditioning for a one-act play calledBride on the Rocksby David Weiner. I play the bride who’s run away from her wedding to hang out at a bar, and Dallas is the bartender.
Our chemistry makes the whole practice feel so natural that we don’t even run through the scene a second time. The audition is one of the best auditions I’ve ever done, and by the time Dallas and I are back in the lobby on the bench again, I’m buzzing from the energy of the whole experience, one leg bouncing wildly while we wait on callbacks.
“You know that feeling when you just know you got the part?” I ask Dallas.
They nod enthusiastically.
“That’s what just happened there, right?”
“Girl. Yes. That show is ours,” they say.
“You just can’t teach chemistry like what we have,” I say, and Dallas snaps their fingers a few times in quick succession, nodding in agreement.
The lobby of the theater hums with nervous energy, each person or pair somewhere on the scale of “confident they nailed it” to “confident they didn’t.” The air is thick with uncertainty and possibility as our fates hang in the balance.
The student directors come up the stairs again, one by one, calling back individuals and new pairs of people. I read three more scripts with people I don’t know very well for shows I have little interest in.
Being paired with Dallas means I can comfortably deep dive into a character for the exact kind of escapism I’m hoping for this semester.
When the student directors come back upstairs in a group and thank us all for our time, promising the cast list in three days, Dallas and I exchange looks that say the same thing: We got this in the bag.
2
IAN
“Because in choice he is so oft beguil’d . . .”Act I, Scene I
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
Seth’s voice comes from behind me as I scan the cast list for the one-acts. It took all of ten seconds for him to start yelling in my ear.
“Wait, hold on. I haven’t even found my name,” I say, and Seth slaps his finger against the page, pointing to my name.
The Mercy Seat
Director: Anastasia Oberhausen
Stage Manager: Madison Bunch
Cast: Ian Davidson & Jade McKinney
“Jade McKinney, of all people,” Seth scoffs, and I wait for him to explain, but he just keeps shaking his head and staring at the list as if it’ll start talking to him.
“Why are you saying it like that, Seth? What’s wrong with Jade?”
“You know who Jade McKinney is, don’t you?”
Middle Penn College does not have a huge theater department. Around a hundred people, give or take, inclusive of all the majors, minors, and random people who like to perform but don’t want a degree in it. I know Jade peripherally. She’s been in several of the tech meetings I’ve been in with the costume crew over the years. After three years, you eventually get to know everyone here, even if it’s just their name. If I search my memory, I can sort of conjure her in my mind, but only a few things stand out.
“She does costumes? Red hair?”
Seth nods and starts to say something, but a group of students approaches, their jittery excitement palpable. Seth and I move out of the way as the students read the cast list. They squeal at the names—presumably their own—grabbing each other’s hands and hugging and celebrating as if the paper announced a much larger role than just a part in a student-directed one-act.
“So what’s the big deal about being cast with Jade? She’s a senior, right? I’d rather be paired with her than a freshman. At least she has acting experience. One of us needs to.”
A girl with bright pink hair reading the cast list turns and gives me a nasty look. I realize she’s probably a freshman and mouth “sorry” to her. She glares at me before walking away, her friends in tow, and flips me off.
I deserved that.
