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“Oh, Jade has experience, that’s for sure.” Seth’s voice is heavy with implication.
“Don’t be gross, dude,” I say as we maneuver away from the cast list and toward one of the lobby benches. Neither of us sit. We both just linger, gripping the straps of our backpacks.
“I’m just saying . . . Jade has a reputation.”
Seth is the more social of the two of us. It was his social nature that led to us being friends. The fall of my sophomore year and Seth’s freshman year, we were both taking the required Theater Makeup class all theater majors have to take. Maybe we gravitated toward each other because we were the only guys in the class that semester, but Seth likes to say he adopted me. One day he sat down next to me and started talking, and then, all of a sudden, I had a new best friend.
Seth’s social nature is also why I lean on him to understand the social landscape of the theater department. Whereas I like to stay in the tech booth, on the catwalk, and in the light lab, Seth is always among people, hanging in the wings during rehearsals and at parties afterward. But sometimes his observations come with a double standard.
“What does her reputation have to do with her acting?” I ask.
“Her reputation is that she sleeps with her scene partners.” Seth raises his eyebrows.
“So do you.”
“Okay, I have hooked up with some scene partners, but you know I haven’t actually had sex with any of them,” he says, defensive.
“Maybe she hasn’t either.”
“Ian, I’m not being a fucking misogynist. I’m saying Jade has a reputation for being sexually . . . expressive, and you . . . do not.”
It’s a nice way of saying I’m a virgin—something my guy friends in high school teased me mercilessly for, but which Seth has never made me feel bad or weird about. Even now, he’s just trying to make a point. I’m not sure what his point is, but he’s trying.
“I just think the two of you paired up should be interesting. I, for one, can’t wait to see what happens,” he says.
“I’m sure Jade and I will be able to be scene partners without having to deal with our . . . reputations. Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“Yeah, I’m studying with Alexis in a few.”
Alexis is his best friend and the only girl he’s had a crush on since freshman year. She’s the reason he doesn’t actually sleep with his scene partners. Why he keeps up his playboy persona, I’ll never know.
I raise my eyebrows. “Alexis, huh?”
“Shut up,” he says and starts to walk away.
“If you can’t take it, don’t dish it out,” I yell after him as he pushes open the doors to leave the theater.
“Ian?”
I startle and turn to find the technical theater professor, John, poking his head out from the lobby office.
“All set?” he asks, and with a nod, I follow him back into the offices.
The Middle Penn College theater program has three professors: two acting professors, and a technical theater professor. I’m meeting today with Adam Litsey, acting professor and director ofA Midsummer Night’s Dream, and John Chappell, the technical theater professor and technical director of the show, to discuss the lighting design forMidsummer.
“We’re excited to see your lighting design,” John says. He’s exactly the kind of stereotypical technical theater professor you might see in a movie, always wearing a tool belt, a T-shirt, jeans, and work boots. There are safety goggles perpetually perched on top of his head of bright red hair, and there’s always a pencil tucked behind his ear, a Sharpie in his back pocket, and drill bits spilling out of his other pockets.
“I’m excited for the opportunity,” I say.
John gestures for me to have a seat, and I greet Adam, shaking his hand before sitting. My chair is situated on one side of a desk, while Adam and John set up on the other side.
“Ian, lovely to have you here. We’re looking forward to collaborating,” Adam says, pushing his glasses up onto his nose.
Adam Litsey has an unassuming presence. He has a soft voice and his manner is mild, but when he takes the stage, he comes to life. It’s a real-life Transformer-type situation, and it’s utterly magical to watch. It almost makes me wish I took more than just a Beginning Acting class with him. Almost. But I only took that class in the first place because it was required for my degree.
“How are you?” Adam asks, leaning forward on his elbows.
“I’m all right. Just got cast in the student-directed one-acts.” An awkward chuckling noise bursts out of me against my will.
