Sabrina and Brian joined the rest of the cast on the stage with their scripts and pencils. Ms. Mason appeared in the orchestra pit behind a small podium, surrounded by stacks of papers, a coffee cup, and a megaphone. She picked up the megaphone and announced, "Blocking scene 5! I need Helena and Demetrius."
Most of the cast dispersed backstage while Sabrina and Robin stood awkwardly awaiting instructions. They looked at each other.
"Have you read over this scene yet?" Sabrina asked him, attempting to be the bigger person before the inevitable downfall of their conversation into insults and scowls.
"Nope," he said, popping the 'p'.
Sabrina felt slightly nervous. This was the first time that she would be blocked into a scene. Robin had done it once before in the first scene, but Ms. Mason had been blocking mostly the tinker's scenes (Bottom, Flute, Quince, etc.), 'Giving the lovers a time to really get in their scripts and develop their characters', she always said.
Ms. Mason joined them on the stage. "Alright, now with this scene, we're going to have Demetrius coming on from stage right, and Helena is quick on his heels…" Ms. Mason continued giving them their blocking. The more Sabrina wrote down her blocking, the redder her face turned. This is going to be so humiliating, she thought.
When Ms. Mason finished, she tromped down the stage steps and stood, again, behind the podium. She picked up her megaphone and said, very loudly, "Aaaaand, lights up."
Robin stalked onto the stage with Sabrina right behind him. He looked angrily back at her and she felt her stomach drop. He was just acting, wasn't he?
Robin spoke with malevolence, "I love thee not, therefore pursue me not." Sabrina stopped in her tracks, more surprised than anything.
Robin looked around and spoke again, "Where is Lysander and fair Hermia? The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me." He turned to Sabrina. "Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood; and here am I, am damned within this wood, because I cannot meet my Hermia." He stepped towards her and flung his arm. "Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more."
Sabrina took a deep breath. She could do this. She just had to say the line. She looked down at her script and read, "You d-draw me, you hard-hearted a-adamant?" She glanced unsurely at Ms. Mason and was rewarded with a strained smile.
"Do I entice you?" Robin spoke again and slowly walked around her in a way that made her shiver. "Do I speak you fair? Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth tell you, I DO NOT, nor I CANNOT love you?"
Sabrina spoke quietly, "And even for that do I love you the more." Her face reddened and she continued hurriedly and abashed. "I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius…" she coughed, "the more you beat me, I will fawn on you: Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, neglect me, lose me; only give me leave, unworthy as I am, to follow you. What worser place can I beg in your love, than to be used as you use your dog?"
Robin smiled mischievously as she spoke, but then changed his expression to that of disgust as he turned back to the audience. "Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit; for I am sick when I do look on thee."
Sabrina swallowed her pride and continued. "And I am sick when I look not on you."
They stayed center stage, delivering their next lines until Robin ran to the left side of the stage with: "I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes, and leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts."
Sabrina slowly walked after him. "The wildest hath not such a heart as you. Run when you will, the story shall be changed: Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase."
"I will not stay thy questions; let… me… go," he said, his voice dripping with malice. "Or, if thou will follow me, do not believe but that I shall do thee mischief in the wood!" He raised his hand as if to hit her.
Due to her blocking, Sabrina closed her eyes and turned away from him. When she turned back, he was gone offstage.
Sabrina stood there for a few seconds catching her breath before delivering her next line. "Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, you do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius! Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex: we cannot fight for love, as men may do; we should be wooed and were not made to woo."
Sabrina looked after him and said, "I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell, to die upon the hand I love so well." And with that, Sabrina half-trotted offstage after him.
"Aaaand blackout!" came Ms. Mason's call.
Robin and Sabrina walked back onstage.
Sabrina's expression was like stone. She felt so strange and awful, humiliated because of her lines, impressed and angered by his supreme acting skills, and unexpectedly sad because of the way his acting had made her feel.
Ms. Mason addressed them once more to give them their notes. "Excellent, Robin! Very good emotion! Sabrina, I could've used a lot more facial expression and voice modification. I need to really feel like you love him. You looked a little scared of him, honey."
Robin snickered just loud enough for Sabrina to hear and she caught him hard in the shoulder with her elbow as Ms. Mason looked down at her papers. He gave a small grunt and she snickered back at him mockingly.
"I think that's it," Ms. Mason said, looking up from the podium. "Do you guys have any questions before I let you go?"
They both shook their heads and headed offstage.
Sabrina immediately headed for the light booth; Brian had asked her to help organize the bulb drawers. If anyone could make her feel better at that moment, it was Brian.
Sabrina nearly ran up the flights of stairs that lead to the light booth, only stopping to drop her script and bag in a seat along the way. When she reached the top, she was greeted by the sight of Brian sitting in a circle of small piles. He was emptying the second drawer of a filing cabinet and placing the bulbs in their respective wattage and type piles.
Brian looked up to see Sabrina standing awkwardly in the doorway, her face flushed.
"That was fast," he commented, smiling. "I didn't expect to get you until I was at least half-way done."
"It was a short scene," she responded, smiling back and still standing in the doorway.
They looked at each other for a second.
"Well don't just stand there, come on in," he invited. "If it's not too much trouble, could you grab that lamp over there?" He pointed to a round, black, dish-resembling object on the counter. Sabrina handed it to him and he threw it in a pile with a bunch of other round, black, dish-resembling objects.
"Okay," he began. "Let's have you start on the 3rd drawer. Now, I need everything with over 1180 Watts to be put on the left and everything under, on the right."
Sabrina and Brian worked together slowly, but efficiently. Eventually they got all of the filing cabinet emptied, sorted, and put away in a more human-friendly order. By the time they finished, Ms. Mason had finished blocking most of the fairy scenes and people were milling around waiting for the rehearsal to be over.
Brian walked Sabrina back down the steps and she grabbed her things. They were smiling and laughing as they exited the auditorium and headed outside. Their mirth was interrupted by a sharp honk from a maroon suburban.
"That's my mom," Brian said, nodding at the car. The wind started to pick up and his hair blew around his face in a way that made Sabrina's chest tighten. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"
Then, Brian leaned in and kissed Sabrina on her cheek.
Sabrina stood there with her mouth half open. Then she gave a small cough, smiled, and replied, "Definitely, tomorrow."
Brian grinned at her, turned on his heels, and walked to the car, looking back at her several times. Sabrina waited until the car drove off and then let a little sigh fall out of her mouth.
She was falling in love.