Just a warning to all of you-I suspect that the quality of my writing will decrease significantly this chapter, since I'm unaccustomed to writing Dot. I really don't feel that I've got a good handle on her at all, though I recently reread The Picts and The Martyrs. I've got to get used to her, because she is going to be a very important character later one (hint hint, heh). The more I write her, the more I'll be used to her and hopefully, the quality will improve again. Also, spellcheck is broken, so apologies for typos etc! Sorry this chapter is short, but I had to cut it in half or it would have been way too long. Next one will be posted soon.
EDIT: I've now stuck both halves of this chapter together (to be honest, posting them separately was a little odd of me in the first place). Dec 09.
Super trouper
Beams are gonna blind me
But I won't feel blue
If somewhere in the crowd there's you
Dot was extremely nervous about her audition.
It had taken some convincing her parents that acting in a theatre was not scandalous loose living, but now that she had permission to audition, she was completely terrified of actually doing so.
It didn't help, of course, that Roger, having kindly offered to escort her to Keele (purely because Dick was still on his honeymoon, of course) was now politely sat in the theatre's cafeteria, waiting for her to be done. She felt guilty for keeping him waiting. It was only a little part in a relatively obscure musical, but it was in Keele's biggest theatre. It was also an adaptation of one of her favourite books. The idea of ruining any Austen creation by her bad acting, even the minor character Charlotte, filled her with self-contempt.
"Number five, Brands, enter."
And the sheer volume of prospective Charlottes auditioning! Number four had just come out of the audition room looking as if she had faced the proverbial dragon, and not very successfully at that. She was pale, red-eyed, and generally appeared miserable. Dot was number seven. She closed her eyes and tried to be calm. Collected. There were far bigger shows than this, shows in London with thousands (well, maybe not thousands) of chorus girls, shows which cost hundreds of pounds to produce. She'd lived in the capital for three months, sharing Peggy and Susan's little flat and researching for a novel about inner-city life, and during that time she'd seen at least half-a-dozen shows, all showier and more important than this little backwater production. But it was still in a proper theatre, this A Bennet Affair show, and it was still petrifying.
Calm down, Dot. The short song Charlotte Lucas had to sing (in actual fact a duet with Elizabeth Bennet), along with the one important monologue she had, was straightforward. All the auditioning girls had been given three weeks to practice their parts before this, and she had lived and breathed it. Peggy-and, when she wasn't available, Susan or Mrs Blackett or Mrs Walker or, really, anybody-had patiently played the piano music for her to sing to. Titty, before her wedding, had coached her in speech and posture. Day after day had been spent in the Pict House, reciting and performing to an invisible audience. There was really nothing to worry about, nothing to do. She was well-prepared, very well-prepared in fact.
"Next please. Number six, Byrd."
Dot refused to become worried again. She did not open her eyes, instead playing the few lines over and over in her head. It was only a little clip of a solo, and then singing the lower part of the chorus with Elizabeth. Presumably they would have the girl cast as Elizabeth there, or maybe her understudy. The Bennets, along with Darcy, Bingley and the other major characters, had been cast two weeks ago and were already rehearsing. It would be seven any minute now. She was excited, not really nervous anymore. What did she have to lose?
"Number Seven, Callum, please."
---
"Callum?" Dot was greeted by the most austere-looking of a particularly austere group of middle-aged men. There were six in total, seated along a panelled table at the near end of the audition room, which was far larger than she had expected. That was a sudden reminder that she had never done this before. She was beginning to feel nauseous panic build in her again, when she was greeted by an altogether friendlier voice.
"Dorothea Callum?" A bright-eyed, dark-haired young woman walked over and shook her hand warmly. "Miranda Shaw. I've been cast as Elizabeth, lucky me-and don't worry, I can get rid of my accent for the part." Dot laughed despite herself. Miranda had spoken in a rather rough Lake accent, not unlike those of the snake-charmers Roger had introduced her to so long ago. Well, admittedly they were actually charcoal burners, but they had a viper! And snake-charmers were so much more romantic. "That girl- (Miranda waved towards a girl standing a few feet away by the window, similar in build to the former but very different in colouring) "-is my relief. She does the auditions that I don't. My understudy, and she's also playing Kitty. Her name's Anne."
"Miss Callum?" one of those auditioning her interrupted them in a bored voice. "Let's get a move on, shall we? You have already been taught the song, I believe, but you haven't sung it alone, so we'll give you a chance to rehearse with Miss Shaw. You will then act the scene in which Charlotte confesses she is going to marry Mr Collins, before singing Cannot Afford It together." He nodded towards a short, stout woman perched on a stool in front of a cabinet piano. "Mrs Adams will play you in."
After one false start, Dorothea found it surprisingly easy to slip into character during the rehearsal. She had rehearsed the part so faithfully, since receiving the script a month ago, that it seemed almost second nature to be Charlotte Lucas, with her insecurities and heartbreakingly difficult choice. However, she was acutely aware of the beauty of Miranda's voice throughout the song. Somewhat taken aback by the clear and classical sound, as she had expected the girl's accent to reflect in her performance, she realised that Miranda had gone through significant amounts of vocal training. If this was the calibre of voice they were expecting, Dot doubted she had the experience to make the cast. Still, Elizabeth was the star and Charlotte was only a minor character, with more to act than to sing. She focussed on that instead of allowing herself to become worried.
The rehearsal came to an end with the pitifully sad last verse, and Dot swallowed. This was it.
Her audition began with a short, confrontational scene between Elizabeth and Charlotte. Dot did not need to refer to her script for the lines, which seemed to surprise Miranda a little. Very soon she found herself saying the line, "We cannot all afford to be romantic, Lizzy," and heard Mrs Adams playing a minor scale which she did not recognise in the background. Act this song rather than simply singing it, she told herself, and the part could still be yours.
"As a girl I built my castles in the air
But I must now make a woman's choice."
As she continued to sing the first stanza, Dot made a conscious effort not to worry about the notes, only interpreting the words. It was a good audition song. There was so much narrative, and you could easily lose yourself in the part.
"No dreamt-up hero will come to care for me,
And now I must turn my hopes elsewhere."
It was important, she remembered someone saying, to react when the other girl was singing as well acting when you sang yourself. It was Miranda's turn to sing a stanza, and she mentally shook her head. Stop thinking and start acting, she rebuked herself. Miranda-no, Elizabeth-was already halfway through the second stanza. She had been functioning on reflex, herself. Misery and defiance together, that was the way to play it. And it was her turn again.
"My meagre beauty has faded fast
I must give up childish dreams at last
Pretty Lizzy, save your hopes of romance
But Mr Collins is my only chance.
I-"
She was almost surprised to hear Miranda interrupt her, so captivated had she been by the part. Hopefully that was a good thing.
"How can you bear it?" the accusation came. And with that line, they were catapulted into the climax of the song, an argument between the two girls, Lizzy's angry, uncomprehending pleas and Charlotte's tearful defence, their lines overlapping at times and neither character truly listening to the other. Very quickly it was time for the closing little couplet, which she had to begin solo.
"We must go our separate ways," and then Miranda joined in,
"I wish you well, friend of childhood days!"
"Well?" he asked her, gallantly helping his friend on with her coat. "Did you stun them all?" Dot looked pensively at Roger in response to that question. "Never mind. It's your first audition, and anyway, you're too pretty to play Charlotte Lucas."
Dot blushed. "Thankyou." She looked up at him, her face now wearing a smile which added weight to Roger's assessment. "I got a callback!"
"English?"
She laughed. "It means I get to go through to the final auditions. There were twenty-eight Charlottes auditioning today. Five of us were asked to come back. I won't make the final cast, I know that; not experienced enough. But I can't believe I got a callback!"
"I can," Roger replied cheerfully. "Congratulations, Dot." He shook her hand heartily. "Well done! Do you want to get a cup of tea in a cafe, or go straight home? My treat."
"Oh, thank you, but I really want to go home and tell everyone."
"I can understand that," Roger agreed. "We'll get something in the train station. I'm starving."
Dot chuckled. "When aren't you?" Roger shrugged sheepishly. "Come on," she continued. "Next train for the Lake leaves in half an hour-ten minutes to get to the station, and fifteen to eat something."
The cafe in the train station made very impressive milkshakes, Roger decided. He bought them both raspberry milkshakes, along with bottles of lemonade and thick sandwiches for the journey. Dot had laughed good-naturedly at this. "It's only forty minutes," she had pointed out. "We'll hardly die for lack of sustenance." However, she had very gladly accepted the enormous slice of chocolate cake, and was sitting in the cafe, eating it with relish and giving a vivid description of her audition. When he asked her very nicely, she even sung a couple of lines of the audition song, though she giggled halfway through, somewhat marring the effect. He hadn't been flattering her earlier-he really did think she was too pretty to play Charlotte Lucas. She didn't look like someone who had to take her first chance at marriage, because it was likely to be her only chance. Anyway, even if Dot couldn't find someone to marry her, she'd always have him.
He didn't entirely like the idea of being her backup.
"Roger!" Dot was shaking his arm. "Wake up! The train goes in a few minutes." She gulped down the last few mouthfuls of her cake in a most unladylike way, almost looking like Nancy. Roger would never understand why John was so sweet on Nancy.
The railway carriage smelt of tobacco smoke, which reminded Roger that he was old enough to smoke a pipe now, and porbably even had one about his person. He rummaged amongst his pockets and found only an old cast-off of John's. John hardly ever smoked, except in the months directly after Father's death, or that one time Nancy had danced with Squashy Hat at Titty's wedding, when he had smoked three cigars in a row. At least she had evidently hated every minute of it. Dot had danced with someone from Norfolk-the best man, actually, but Roger wasn't up to remembering minor details like that-and clearly enjoyed it. Remembering that, he was about to light his own pipe and draw on it heavily. Catching sight of Dot's face, he sighed and put it away for later. She didn't like pipes, cigars or cigarettes, and always made her villains smokers. That reminded him of something else.
"Dot?" he asked.
"That's me."
"What made you change books for plays? Last time I heard, it was still writing."
"Oh, plays are just spoken books, anyway," came the reply. "I was writing a story about the beginning of Demetrius' relationship with Helena, you know, before Midsummer Night's Dream." No, Roger did not know, but he nodded anyway. "I read some Helena out from the play to get into character, for I was writing from her point of view, and I absolutely loved acting it. With all those artsy bohemian crowds Titty was mixing with at the time, it was easy to get some training."
Roger was vaguely dissatisfied with that response. He had expected a story. Suddenly Dot laughed. "Actually, that's not entirely true. Yes, I did, but the love for acting goes back a lot further than that. I normally tell people that version so that they don't get bored. Do you want to hear the whole thing? It's long and a bit rambling, and you can absolutely say no. I promise not to be remotely offended."
Super trouper
Lights are gonna find me
Shining like the sun
Smiling, having fun
Feeling like a number one
P.S., no, the musical I allude to never existed in real life. Hence the cheesy songs penned by myself-but musicals were very, very cheesy at this point in time.
P.P.S. Despite the nature of the original S&A books, I have to admit there will be very few boats in this story as a whole. It is one of the great ambitions of my life to learn to sail, but, having been raised in an industrial, non-coastal town, it's quite difficult to get hold of someone to teach me. Sorry all!... and if you are willing to provide helpful detail about said boats so that I can write about them, I'd be very grateful.
Rewritten Dec 09. Title from Nina, Pretty Ballerina, by Abba, and lyrics taken from Super Trouper by the same.