Entrances and Exits

The Producers Sam took the stage, as I'd seen her do many times before. She stepped out from the wings with a commanding presence, daring us to look away. Moving downstage center, she stopped a few feet from the edge, at home under the bright lights. "My name is Sam Lawson," she said in a clear voice. "And I'll be performing the part of Felicia from Hope Rivera's play,Achromantic." Sam had chosen one of the three parts we'd selected for the girls to audition with. None of us was surprised that Felicia was the monologue that Sam had chosen. The playwright, Hope Rivera, is our other best friend. Sam closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. It was part of her traditional preparation for an audition. Her body language shifted as she took on the character. People who didn't know her probably wouldn't have noticed it at all. But to me the transition was clearly evident. Sam's eyes blinked open. She was prepared to begin. "NEXT!" I shouted. "Bryan!" she screeched in response as her carefully constructed character fell apart. I was laughing too hard to fear for my life at the moment. "Sorry. Couldn't resist." But seriously, like I needed Sam to audition for me. Like our teachers, Mr. Randall and Ms. Monroe, weren't already familiar with her talents either. We each wanted her to star in the one-act plays we were directing. The only question was who was going to get her? "Bryan." Mr. Randall gave me a teacherly disappointed look that made me realize the tactical mistake I had just made. If I wanted to get Sam to be in my play, juvenile games like that during an audition were so not the way to make it happen. But in case I didn't get the message on my own, he had to give me the lecture. "I realize you and Sam are friends, but I would expect you to behave in a more professional manner during an audition. I only agreed to allow you to direct because I thought you were mature enough to handle it. Please do not make me regret this decision." Wow. He didn't use a single contraction there. He must've been upset. I suspected that it wasn't a good idea to point out that he'd mainly agreed to allow me to direct because the playwright -- namely Hope -- had told him that she wanted it to happen. Mr. Randall was more afraid of upsetting Hope than anything. Not that Hope is the real problem, mind you. Oh, she can be downright frightening when she's mad. Seriously. You don't want to see her angry. But the real intimidation comes from the power she wields in having a father who is a big-time lawyer to the stars. Hope would never take advantage of our teacher's fear, like so many other students at our school do on regular occasion, but Mr. Randall has worked in Malibu long enough that he knows to avoid the risk by keeping the students happy. And keeping Hope happy meant making me the director. Though I like to believe that part of the reason I got the job was based on merit. "My apologies," I said with my best attempt at a professional demeanor. "Ms. Lawson, you may proceed." Sam squinted in my direction. I could tell she was weighing the risks of being unprofessional herself and laying into me for interrupting her audition. With her talent she could get away with almost anything. But she didn't. She closed those squinting eyes again, took another deep breath, and launched into the monologue I could now recite by heart. And I was usually lousy at memorizing dialogue. My familiarity with the text had nothing to do with having heard it a half dozen times already during the auditions -- though that certainly didn't hurt. Since Hope gave me a copy of her play back on the first day of school, I'd probably read it a hundred times. No lie. I may be prone to exaggeration from time to time, but not in this case. Recent behavior aside, I was taking this whole directing thing very seriously. Not because I was the first student in Orion Academy history to direct a play in the Fall One-Act FestiRuditis, Paul is the author of 'Entrances and Exits' with ISBN 9781416959069 and ISBN 1416959068.