The Understudyby David W. Landrum |
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| part 3 |
When she got to the theater, the place was in an uproar.
“What happened?” she asked Selene.
“The ghost is back. I knew it be like this. She went after Kyle and Linda.”
Sossity hurried to Adrienne’s office. Linda was sitting behind Adrienne’s desk, sobbing. Kyle sat in a corner, stunned.
Adrienne stood, hands on her hips, in the center of the room. “I don’t know what you two saw, but it wasn’t anything real. It was something you dreamed up.”
“Adrienne, I know what I saw,” Linda sobbed. “Kyle saw it too.”
“There has to be a logical explanation.”
Linda dissolved in tears. Adrienne looked at Sossity.
“What do you think about this, Sossity?”
She glanced at the two actors. “I think Adrienne’s right. I’m not saying nothing happened and I’m not saying you didn’t see anything. But it was some kind of trick of light, something... who knows what? That’s all it was. This place plays tricks on your eyes. The same thing has happened to me a couple of times. I’m sure it really scared you both, but you need to get over it. It was some kind of hallucination.”
This had a salutary effect. The other cast members liked Sossity. An outsider to the theater crowd, the other actors thought of her as someone who gave unbiased and normative judgments in controversies and often asked her to mediate when conflicts arose. Linda and Kyle both looked up at her. Her opinion rallied them. Adrienne built on what Sossity had said, her tone conciliatory and sympathetic.
Kyle and Lisa left admitting they were not sure what had happened but admitting perhaps they had fallen into temporary hysteria or reacted to some kind of illusion brought about by lighting. They talked a little more and then left to work on their parts.
Adrienne turned to face Sossity. “Thank you,” she said.
“Glad I could help.”
“I’ve got enough problems around here without people being scared of ghosts,” she muttered.
Sossity left Adrienne’s office, found Selene, and invited her to lunch. As they were sitting together at Sanchez Bistro she asked about the scenes Adrienne had cut from the play.
“Don’t bring that up,” Selene said. “That gets me angry. Those scenes are essential to the play. All she thinks about is cutting costs.”
“Would you like to put them back in?”
“Do you even have to ask?”
“How much are you willing to risk to get them back in?”
“I’d risk a lot. I’ve even thought about defying her outright and putting them in on the night I get to direct.”
City Theater traditionally allowed an understudy to stand in as director for one night. Selene’s night was three performances before the closing night.
“But,” she went on, “it would cost money. And, of course, I don’t have a budget.”
“Maybe we can do it and it won’t cost anything. I ran into an old friend the other day. She played one of the parts. When I mentioned we were doing the play, she said she’d do the part for free. She’s a great actress too. And you could do the other part. Didn’t you say you played that part one time?”
Selene had played the part. “But there’s Adrienne,” she said. “If I do those parts, I’ll get on the bad side of her. She might retaliate. I want to keep my job.”
“It’s your night to direct, isn’t it? Does Adrienne control things so much that you have to even do it her way when it’s supposed to be your call?”
Sossity hoped her appeal to this woman’s professional pride would work.
Selene pondered. “Like I said, I’ll think about it.”
“I have to let my friend know soon.”
“I don’t know. It seems too easy and too pat. But you’re right. It’s my show that night, and I can do what I want. Adrienne’s not even going to be here.”
“She isn’t?”
“She has a date. She’s met someone. Poor guy. Look, tell your friend she can have the part if she’s willing to do it for free. Is she good?”
“She’s one of the finest actresses who ever lived,” Sossity said. “And she’ll work for free.”
“I do at least want to see her act.”
“I’ll arrange it,” Sossity said.
* * *
That night Sossity trudged through dirty snow and stole into the back door of City. Elaine waited on stage. Sossity glared at her.
“What the hell did you think you were doing this morning, Elaine?” she demanded.
Elaine looked down. “I got out of control.”
“Out of control? You scared Kyle and Lisa half to death! I was afraid Adrienne was going to reinstall the stage light just to calm people down.”
“Those people — Kyle and Lisa — they must have heard my story. He started pretending to be Paul and started choking Lisa. She began making jokes about being murdered and how he would be executed... I got so enraged I went after them.”
“I can understand how that would get you angry,” Sossity began.
“No you can’t,” Elaine interjected. “Nobody strangled you to death.”
“Elaine, do you want out of this place or not?”
“Of course I want out,” she snapped.
“Then you’d better get a grip on things and reign yourself in, goddammit. You’re acting like everyone else here: you can’t see an inch beyond your own petty desires and you throw a temper tantrum when somebody does something you don’t like. I swear I’ve never bumped up against a bigger group of self-centered morons in my whole life, and you’re just like the rest of them, one more self-struck prima donna. I guess the acting crowd is the same in every era.”
She wondered if Elaine would take on her ghoulish appearance. But she only looked down again.
“You’re right, Sossity. I should have thought about the consequences of what I did.”
“Well, I think I smoothed that one over. But if it happens again, Adrienne might put the stage light back in and you might end up here forever. You don’t want that and neither do I.”
She shook her head. She looked near tears.
Sossity went on. “You need to keep your promise to me. The reason I want to make sure you don’t get yourself blocked out of this theater is because I got you a part.”
Elaine looked up, her eyes astonished. She spread her hands. “How?”
“Don’t ask how. Here’s the script.” She handed it to her. “It’s only for one night. You’ll be playing a roadie. I highlighted all your lines in yellow.”
“What’s a roadie?”
“A roadie is someone who travels with a professional musician, sets up her electrical equipment, and works as a general assistant. Roadies have the reputation of being quirky... funny, immoral, cynical, sarcastic. You’ll start to get the character. This is a comic part. You’re not on stage long, but you’ve got some of the best lines in the play and you’ll get a lot of laughs and a lot of recognition.”
Elaine looked down at her script, her face uncertain.
“I’ll get everything ready for you, including your costume. Can you do it?”
“I’ll be a little pale,” she said. “I don’t get completely solid until midnight, but I think I could use make-up to look fairly normal. And my voice will be weak, but I’ll work on projecting. Yes, Sossity, I can do it.”
“The play premieres in three weeks. Selene wants you to audition. I made up a story about how you work a night shift and she agreed to watch you act at eleven tomorrow night. Be ready to do a monologue. I told her you’d played this part already, so she’ll probably want you to do some of the play. Learn as much of it as you can.” She paused and then added, “You have your work cut out for you.”
Elaine looked at her, face soft. “Sossity, thank you so much. That’s all I can say. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
“I’m just glad things fell into place. The first thing is your audition. I’ll be here at ten. I have a place for you to put on make-up and I’ll have an outfit for you to wear. Your dress is beautiful but it’s not exactly in style today.”
“Yes, I’ve noticed how the women here dress.”
“I’ll be by at ten.”
Elaine nodded, smiled affectionately, and then disappeared.
* * *
Sossity was apprehensive about the audition but circumstances fell out to Elaine’s advantage. Selene had worked late that night and had her three daughters — she had four children, three girls and a boy — with her. Her girls, who ranged in ages from six to twelve, were bored and sleepy and wanted to go home.
Sossity brought a black sweatshirt and a pair of slacks for Elaine. She had put her ghostly hair in a ponytail and touched her face up with cosmetics and introduced her as Kate Ford.
Selene shook hands with her and chatted, apologized for being in a hurry, and then said she needed to act. “Why don’t you do a monologue for me?”
“I can do some Shakespeare. Would that be okay?”
“Sure.” She sat down with her beautiful little girls.
Elaine went on stage. She turned her back and then turned to face Selene. She looked completely different: she was in character. She recited Portia’s speech from The Merchant of Venice. Sossity remembered learning it in her high school Shakespeare class.
The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown...
Sossity glanced at Selene. She and her girls were listening intently, held by the power of the speech and by Elaine’s acting.
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.
Selene pursed her lips. Her girls were staring at Elaine. Sossity got the idea that they thought she was pretty.
“Very good,” Selene said. “That’s an old chestnut of a speech, but you put some real life and expression in it.” She took a script out of her bag. “I’d like to do some of the dialogue you’ll be doing for this part. I’ll read and you can do the responses. Do you have a script?”
“I know the lines,” Elaine answered.
Selene read Sossity’s part. Elaine responded. Sossity was amazed. Elaine had memorized all her lines. She spoke them with a fluency and expression.
As the scene progressed, Selene’s children began running around the theater, hiding and playing tag. She was so impressed with Elaine’s acting that she let them romp around, finally stopping them when they got too loud.
“All right, girls, enough. Go back to my office. You can have some candy out of the candy jar.”
They scurried off. Selene made a gesture. “Sorry.”
“They’re just acting like children. Your girls are adorable, Mrs. Perez.”
Selene smiled broadly. “Thank you. Miss Ford, that was exemplary. You have the part. This was some of the best acting I’ve ever seen. A little old-school, maybe, but we need more of that today.”
Elaine smiled. Sossity breathed a sigh of relief. Selene said she had to leave and went back toward her office. Sossity went up on stage.
“You memorized the whole part?”
“I thought I’d better. It’s not that long. And after you reprimanded me for being so out of control, I thought I’d better show you I can exercise discipline when I need to.”
“I was a little hard on you.”
“No. I needed to hear what you said. You were exactly right. And I’ll try to do better.”
“Let’s not get head over heels in remorse. I’ve got to go. Keep working on the script and we’ll pull this off.”
Elaine nodded and disappeared. Sossity turned and saw two of Selene’s daughters standing on the edge of the stage looking at them.
* * *
Copyright © 2011 by David W. Landrum
