Ooh, girl
if I could
ooh, girl
Give you love, girl
Ooh, girl
If I could
Ooh, girl
Give you the world, girl
"Alright, see there?" Lyberti asked. "Already, you're starting to get a little better!"
Shannon was not so sure about that, as she stood almost completely backed up against a wall behind the stage – this was something Lyberti had suggested as part of her exercise to help ensure she maintained a completely straight and upright posture as she attempted to sing, however, she did feel rather awkward having her entire backside pressed up against said wall.
"I don't know… I still sound kind of… tone deaf?" Shannon muttered.
Lyberti shook her head and said, "No, not tone deaf… but, you are still straining a little, because you're still not relaxing…"
"It's… kind of hard to relax when I'm pressed up against a wall…" countered Shannon.
Lyberti nodded, "I get that… but, we need to get you to keep a straight posture so you don't slouch."
Shannon sadly sighed; as much as she wished she could sing, it really was not as easy as it seemed. Lyberti was quick to pick up on Shannon's underlying frustrations, but continued to try and offer her some moral support.
"You'll get the hang of it, Shannon; I know you will," she said in encouragement.
"Sure she will," said Luan as she happened to pass by the two, and reminded her fellow brunette of some of the lessons she had previously given her in other talents: "Remember how you thought you'd never master juggling? Or roller skating? Or riding a unicycle?"
"You can do all of that?!" Lyberti asked in amazement.
"Well… Luan taught me…" Shannon modestly pointed out.
"You're a quick learner, Shannon," added Luan. "You just need confidence in yourself, is all!"
"Yeah, remember that story about the little engine that could?" Lyberti asked. "How the little engine kept saying, 'I think I can! I think I can!'?"
"And when the little engine could, 'I think I can,' became, 'I knew I could! I knew I could!'" Luan added.
"Yeah, be just like the little engine," suggested Lyberti. "Keep telling yourself, 'I think I can! I think I can!'"
"Because we know you can!" Luan said.
Shannon smiled, blushed a little, and said, "I'll try…"
Elsewhere in the auditorium, Ruby had strolled in with Spencer by her side, the both of them looked every bit a proud high school couple, and if there was one thing that Ruby, in particular, looked forward to, it was to show Amy that she and Rex may no longer be the it-couple of the theater club… anything to just dog that catty shrew to get her goat, drive her batty, and cause her to have a cow; it's a wild life. Once she spotted the couple tucked away in a pocket of the stage, engaged in what seemed to be some sort of a word game, she began to lead Spencer over toward their direction.
"What say we mingle a bit before Mrs. B. announces herself again?" Ruby not-so-subtly suggested.
"I'm game," said Spencer, as he followed his girlfriend over to where the Asian boy and ginger-haired girl worked on their chemistry.
"Sup, Amy? Rex? How goes things?" Ruby asked in a nonchalant manner.
"Things are just fine," replied Rex in a cordial and friendly manner.
Amy, however, was immediately suspicious – Ruby had never gone out of her way to say hello to her before, and usually the only words that have ever been exchanged between them have been snark-to-snark combat… and that look on the Indian girl's face did not sit well with her, either.
"What's it to you, Ruby?" Amy asked with a furrowed brow.
"What?" Ruby asked, before she rested her head on Spencer's shoulder. "Spencer and I can't, like, mingle with our fellow thespians?"
'Spencer and I'? Why drag him into anything like this? Unless…
It was then that Amy's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets… were Ruby and Spencer actually going out with each other now? Was Ruby trying to insinuate that she and Spencer would try to steal hers and Rex's thunder as the theater club's it-couple? Whatever the case was, all Rex could do was look on in silent confusion over Amy's sudden stunned silence.
Ruby, meanwhile, locked arms with Spencer and began to walk away with him, while she also remarked, "Well, come on, Spence; I guess Amy's in no mood for, like, mingling today…"
As the two began to wander away, Spencer could not help but let his own confusion and curiosity drive his inquisition: "So, what was that all about?"
"Just havin' a little fun messin' with Amy…" Ruby said in a casual manner.
"Okay… but… why?" Spencer further asked.
Ruby merely shook her head and said, "Trust me, you got a lot to learn about that bitch… but, enough about her; let's go mingle with someone a lot cooler, like Shannon…!"
At that very moment, Shannon happened to have her nose glued to the screen of her mobile device again as she posted a brief review to her virtual friends as to why she was not entirely impressed with the latest Henry Skreever movie because of how much it had deviated away from the original book from which it was adapted, and just as her thumbs had finished typing their way across the little digital keypad, she found herself approached by the Indian girl who had her arm locked with the burly jock.
"Hey, Shannon," greeted Ruby. "I believe you know my boyfriend, Spencer…"
"Yes, nice to see you again, Spencer," said Shannon as she pocketed her phone and acted as though the two of them had not seen each other in a while. "The last time I saw you, we happened to be waiting for a bus…"
"We were?" A confused Spencer asked before it dawned on him what she spoke of. "Oh! Yeah, right, that bus stop exercise from last week."
"I wonder what sort of exercise Mrs. Bernardo will have us do this week." Shannon contemplated aloud.
"Beats me, but I hope we get to do, like, an actual play or something in this club soon," said Ruby, her voice conveyed a hint of impatience over how they had spent all of these weeks doing various exercises, while the club had yet to begin an actual production.
She would probably get her wish sooner than later, for at that moment, an eerie and ominous pipe organ tune that anybody who appreciated classical music would identify as Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, while others would more than likely know it only as That Haunted House Organ Music, echoed throughout the stage, as a trap door had opened, from which a certain voice boomed…
"Fear not, thespians, for it is no phantom that is about to greet you…"
The platform that raised to the opening of the trap door bore no phantom, indeed…
"It is your drama teacher, MRS. BERNAARRRDOOOO!"
Some of the thespians had to give their drama teacher some credit: for her to orchestrate an entirely different entrance each and every week was, to say the least, impressive; and, to say the most, imaginative. Others, still, had their own critiques of this particular quirk of hers…
"Mrs. Bernardo really should've saved this one for Halloween…" remarked Shannon, who was among some of the thespians who actually somewhat enjoyed her grand and dramatic entrances.
"More like she should've just saved it…" remarked Ruby, who was among some of the thespians who had come to find such grand and dramatic entrances rather rote.
"GATHER ROUND, THESPIANS! I HAVE BIIIIIG NEWS TO SHARE WITH YOU!" Mrs. Bernardo projected out into the entire auditorium to garner the various students' attention and ensure they were made aware of this big news. "Our production schedules have been approved for the rest of the semester, which means that we shall soon stage not one, but TWO productions for the faaalll!"
To hear this news had certainly perked the students up; at last, to work on actual school plays were now on the horizon – just what they had been looking forward to when they enrolled into this elective.
"As is standard procedure with high school dramatics, this semester, we shall apply our talents and skills to the works of William Shakespeare!" Mrs. Bernardo continued.
"Yes!" Shannon quietly exclaimed; the Bard of Avon was one of her most favorite playwrights, so it was most exciting to her to be a part of his works in their club.
Mrs. Bernardo then made her way around the stage to pass out script copies to her thespians as well as inform them, "Next week, we will be having auditions for an abridged version of A Midsummer Night's Dream…"
"Sweet!" Spencer likewise exclaimed in a quiet manner, which came as a surprise to both Ruby and Shannon.
"You're into Shakespeare, Spence?" Ruby asked.
"Wow, I never would've taken you for a Shakespeare buff!" Shannon marveled.
"Hey, Shakespeare's written some of the greatest stories ever told," said the cultured jock, much to Ruby's unwavered surprise, and Shannon's continued amazement. "And, A Midsummer Night's Dream happens to be one of my fave Shakespearean comedies."
Ruby looked all the more perplexed to hear this; she remarked, "Wait… since when did Shakespeare do comedies?"
"Shakespeare's written about as many comedies as he has tragedies," explained Spencer.
"Close," added Shannon. "Most literary scholars have numbered his comedies at fourteen, versus his twelve tragedies."
"Okay, I totally had, like, no idea of any of this," confessed Ruby. "When I think of Shakespeare, comedy totally doesn't come to mind, like, at all… I think of stuff, like Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, and stuff where people die…"
A smirk took hold of Spencer's face as he further explained, "In reading class last year, our teacher said when it comes to Shakespeare, if nobody dies, it's a comedy."
Shannon laughed; she and Spencer may not have been in the exact same reading period, but they clearly had the exact same reading teacher, as she remembered hearing that exact same thing from said teacher the year before as well.
"It was in reading class last year I fell in love with my personal fave… Twelfth Night…" said Shannon.
"Or, What You Will," added Spencer, who was clearly knowledgeable of that particular play's alternative title.
"Yeah? What's that one?" Ruby inquired.
Shannon offered a simplified rundown of the play: "Okay, there are these twins, Sebastian and Viola… they get separated during a shipwreck, so Viola disguises herself as a man named Cesario to serve a duke named Orsino, which results in a big, complicated love triangle, because Viola falls in love with Orsino, Orsino is in love with a countess named Olivia, and Olivia falls in love with Viola thinking she's Cesario."
"Shakespeare wrote that?" Ruby asked, unable to believe what Shannon had just described. "That totally sounds more like a rom-com movie or something."
"Well, they did make it into a movie," said Spencer. "We watched in class last year after we read the book."
Mrs. Bernardo continued to make her way around the stage to pass out the scripts to her thespians so that they, in the meantime, could look over the material and familiarize themselves with it to prepare for next week's auditions.
Among the various plot threads that were worked into this abridged version of the play was the complicated romance between a young man named Lysander and a young woman named Hermia, who, despite being madly in love with one another, were otherwise spoken for and promised to other lovers, and decided to run away with each other into a fairy-inhabited forest. Upon looking over this in their scripts, Amy and Rex had made a joint determination to impress the heck out of Mrs. Bernardo with their auditions for these roles, so that they may play the two young lovers on stage; as far as they were concerned, these roles were quite practically tailor-suited for the two of them.
During the theater club meeting the following week, Amy and Rex did, indeed, audition for the roles of Hermia and Lysander, respectively; first up was Amy's audition, as she recited some of the lines from her script to the best of her memory…
"If true lovers have ever been crossed, then it stands to predict our destiny. Let us teach our trial patients, because it's a customary cross, due to love as thoughts, dreams, sighs, wishes, and tears…"
Mrs. Bernardo had a rather neutral look on her face as she studied Amy's audition; aside from the misquoting of some of the lines, she could get a sense that Amy did actually feel the part… perhaps, if she could work on memorizing her lines a little better, she could make for a passable Hermia.
Next up was Rex who auditioned for Lysander, and likewise, recited a few lines from memory…
"If there were a sympathy in choice, war, death, or sickness did lay siege to it, making it momentany as a sound, swift as a shadow, short as any dream, brief as the lightning in the collied night…"
With Rex, Mrs. Bernardo was far more impressed: clearly, he could not only memorize his lines, but deliver them in a manner that felt rather nuanced; in that moment, the drama teacher felt as though he could very well be a strong contender for the part of Lysander.
All the while, Shannon and Ruby awaited back stage, where the bespectacled brunette tried her best to help coach the Indian girl so that her audition for whichever role she was going to try out for would go much smoother.
"Remember how well you did in our bus stop exercise?" Shannon asked.
"Yeah…" Ruby responded.
"What was your thought process?" Shannon asked.
Ruby shrugged, "I don't know… just trying to, like, figure out why you looked so excited…"
"And, you didn't think at all about how you were just playing a part, did you?" Shannon asked.
"I guess not…" said Ruby.
"I think that'll really help you in your acting," suggested Shannon. "Try not to place so much of your mental energy on the knowledge that you're playing the role of a character… instead, try to feel as though you are that character…"
"Wow, you know what? I think I get where you're, like, coming from with this…" said Ruby.
"I mean, you played pretend and make believe as a little kid, didn't you?" Shannon asked.
The look on Ruby's face did sort of twist into a curiously crooked expression as she responded, "Well…"
"It's really not much different than that…" said Shannon.
Just then, the two girls could hear their drama teacher's voice from out in the auditorium shout, "NEXT!"
"Oh, that's me!" Shannon said as she dashed out onto center stage.
"Like, break a leg!" Ruby called out to her.
Shannon took her spot up on the stage, and took a very, very brief moment to dial into character before she began to deliver her audition…
"I swear to thee, by cupid's strongest bow, by his best arrow with the golden head, by the simplicity of Venus' doves, by that which knitteth souls and prospers loves, and by that fire which burned the Carthage queen, when the false Troyon under sail was seen, by all the vows that ever men broke, in number more than ever women spoke, in that same place thou hast appointed me, tomorrow truly will I meet with thee…"
The look upon Mrs. Bernardo's face was akin to that of an explorer who had just unearthed riches; Shannon's had to have been the absolute best audition she had seen all day. Being a big fan of the Bard had certainly worked well in her favor, she not only recited her lines without uttering a single mistake throughout, but she also projected feeling and emotion in her audition that were quite lacking in the others she had seen so far today… and, she could also appreciate that, for something a little more unique, Shannon had also delivered her lines in a British accent as well. Shannon knew William Shakespeare was a British playwright, and by that proxy, his actors and thespians were also British, so she figured that by feigning a British accent, she could bring a little added authenticity to her audition. It was another talent she possessed genuinely well; growing up watching so many different movies and plays with actors, performers, and characters of different nationalities, she would practice imitating various different accents, dialects, inflections, and mannerisms, and in this case, it certainly had paid off. Even Ruby was completely blown away as she watched from backstage – it was as if Shannon had totally transformed into a completely different person, and it became even more apparent to her that this girl was somebody worth studying from when it comes to acting.
Later still, Spencer had decided to audition for the role of a rather mischievous and magical sprite known as Puck; as was the case during the bus stop exercise the week before, Mrs. Bernardo was still very much impressed with how natural he sounded when he delivered his lines – it was as though he was not even acting at all, rather, just being real… there was, however, one little flaw with his audition that clearly was in need of some work…
"Thou speakest aright; I am that merry wanderer of the night, I jest to Oberon and make him smile, when I a fat and bean-fed horse be wild… wait…"
In spite of his own appreciation for Shakespeare's work, Spencer did have difficulties with memorizing his lines exactly word-for-word; he pulled his copy of the script from the back pocket of his shorts to look over the line again, which Mrs. Bernardo knew was a big no-no in show-business.
"Beguile! My bad." He apologized before he cleared his throat and did a quick do-over of that previous line correctly: "When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, neighing like a silly soul… uh… wait…"
Once more, he took another quick glance at his script, while Mrs. Bernardo shook her head in disappointment; Spencer clearly had a lot of talent to offer, but this handicap of his inability to remember lines correctly would be a hurdle he would have to overcome if he wanted to be a serious stage actor.
"Oh, that's not silly soul… its filly foal…"
Finally, that week's drama class had reached its conclusion, and with it came an end to the day's audition process; after having spent the period watching and studying each of the thespians' auditions, Mrs. Bernardo had a number of decisions she would have to make as to who among them would be most likely suited for certain roles in the play, but she felt a certain confidence that these would not be difficult decisions to make whatsoever. Once again, she took to center stage to address her thespians…
"Alright, thespians, you all did rather well in your auditions today; you have come forth so enthusiastically and gave it your best shot – no director could ask for ANYTHING more… but, I am now faced with the rather difficult decision of figuring out who to assign these roles to…"
She lied. Of course she knew who she wanted to cast in these roles, and any other big-shot director would be far more straightforward with those who had auditioned… however, Mrs. Bernardo had to remind herself that these were not some big-shot celebrity actors who set out to grab a certain role by any means necessary – these were just high school drama students who needed to be extended some benefit of the doubt and build up a sense of confidence in their abilities. Besides, she has to use each of them in some capacity in order for them to actually continue to attend and participate in this elective, so it was not as though she could default to the age-old, 'Don't call us, we'll call you' response that she, herself, had been on the receiving end of so many times in her less than stellar acting career.
"I shall expect to have my decisions on everybody's roles and positions in the play by the time we meet for class again next week… and then, afterwards, we will be meeting after school every day for the next few weeks to work on preparing ourselves for our big stage production in front of a LIIIIVE AUDIENCE!"
Among the excitement that such a plan elicited from the thespians in the club, the only one who actually appeared befuddled by this was a certain jock in an orange jersey.
"Wait… after school every day?" Spencer asked.
"YES!" Mrs. Bernardo exclaimed. "The theater world is NOT all glitz and glamor; there is a LOT of work that goes into pulling everything together, and not just for the actors to memorize their lines… there are also the sets we'll have to construct… costumes to sew… props to procure… everything has to be planned meticulously, and these things cannot be rushed!"
Spencer screwed a smile onto his round face to illustrate that he understood the point his drama teacher had made, but on the inside, he could feel an underlying panic brewing; he knew what a conflict this would create with his sports club schedule, considering that after school training sessions would soon begin for those who had signed up for the fall football season, as he had done, since it was one of his favorite sports.
"Well, that's a wrap for this week! See all of you next week when you will find out what your assigned parts will be! Good night, thank you, and God bless!" Mrs. Bernardo bode farewell to her thespians in a fashion that was nearly as flamboyant and dramatic as her weekly entrances, as she bowed her way off the stage and blew kisses out in all directions.
As soon as she had disappeared into the darkened wings of the stage, the crooked smile had likewise disappeared from Spencer's face as the complications of the predicament he now found himself in had further sunk in. The various thespians had begun to gather their backpacks and other belongings when Ruby posed an offer to the jock:
"Shall we walk home together?" She asked.
Spencer's house was actually further away from the school than Ruby's, though he possessed a preference for being outdoors, and would occasionally walk or even run home himself, if only for the sake of staying outside a little while longer. In this case, a walk home with Ruby was sure to be an enjoyable and welcome distraction…
"We shall," he said as he also grabbed his backpack and followed her to exit the auditorium and conclude another week of school.
As the two casually strolled their way down a sidewalk through the suburbs of Royal Woods, shop talk of that week's auditions consumed much of their conversation.
"So, do you think you'll get the role of that Puck guy you auditioned for?" Ruby asked.
"I really don't know…" sighed Spencer. "I really kept screwing up my lines, didn't I?"
"Hey, to be fair, those lines are so hard to, like, memorize," said Ruby. "I couldn't believe how Shannon got through her audition like it was nothing!"
"I'll bet she'll get the part of Hermia," he said. "She nailed it."
"What's up with these characters having, like, such weird names?" She asked.
"Weirder than Rubella?" He asked in reference to Ruby's previous anecdote of her great grandmother's rather unusual name.
"Like, touché…" she muttered.
Before either of them knew it, they had reached the front walkway of a large and rather spacious-looking household that turned out to be the Patel residence.
"Well, home again, home again," said Ruby. She took notice that there were no cars in the driveway or the garage, which made it apparent that neither of her parents were home at that moment. "Looks like my parents are still at work… you wanna, like, come in and hang out for a while?"
A tantalizing offer to be sure, but one that Spencer had to turn down, as he responded, "Sure I'd love to, but I still got a ways to go to get back to my place, and I really don't wanna be late for dinner!"
A rub of his round belly which gurgled rather loudly was enough to elicit a chuckle of amusement from the Indian girl.
"Okay; see ya later, Spence," she said as she trekked up the walkway to her front door.
"See ya, Rubes," he bode in farewell as he watched this fine specimen he dated step into her house.
As Spencer continued his walk alone, he could finally contemplate the predicament he found himself in… perhaps if Mrs. Bernardo decided he failed his audition and would not have a part in the play, that could solve his problem, and he would not have to miss out on upcoming football training. However, he actually did want to be involved with the play in some capacity, but even if he was able to participate, if rehearsals are going to be after school every day, how is he going to explain his absence from practice to his coach? 'Hey, coach! Sorry, I can't make it to practice, but I'm gonna be prancing about on stage in little tights and saying words like 'forsooth' a lot!'? He would be an absolute laughing stock of the whole sports club if that were the case. It would probably be a lot less embarrassing for him if he could concoct some other kind of vague and unspecific excuse for missing out on football practice during the week, like some kind of unforeseen family matter that had arisen unexpectedly. Suddenly, he felt as though a lightbulb had gone off over his head – if this turned out to be the case, he could explain to Coach Rubiner that some sort of a family matter had arisen that would require him to miss out on football practice, and hope that the coach would be none the wiser (and also hope that nobody else from the sports club even found out about him being in the school play otherwise). Perhaps this could work out either way – at this point, it was all just a matter of what Mrs. Bernardo had decided on.
A Midsummer Night's Dream was one of Albertson's contributions to our story, and I will go into deeper detail regarding the thought process of this little plot element in our following chapter, which will really put the drama in drama club.
Otherwise, we both drew on our past experiences for this chapter: he had read A Midsummer Night's Dream and watched a film adaptation in school, meanwhile, I had read Twelfth Night and watched a film adaptation in school, so these experiences provided us with some inspiration to fall back on for the characters.
Finally, as you can see, I helped Shannon look less foolish about her knowledge of Shakespeare and British accents than "Director's Rut" did.