Hey! This has been quite a long time finishing, but i thought i'd just post it anyway. Enjoy if you read it. I know it gets a bit unrealistic towards the end!

Then we both laughed at each other.

Sunday

The dress rehearsal was supposed to begin at 3 so we arrived for make-up and tech at 1.30. It did not begin until 4.30. As usual we had fun and didn't mind but there were the usual dress rehearsal tensions:

"Where did you put the hair spray?"

"I've lost my headdress! I had it literally a second ago."

"I swear Jackie just gave me the crown and I can't find it anywhere. Ricky will kill me!"

"I am not wearing eyeliner!"

"Shut up, for one second, that's all I'm asking."

"Here! The hair spray."

"I did not give you the crown. I gave it to Clare. Clare!"

"Argh! What did you just put in my eye? It kills!"

"For heavens sake! Stop acting like a baby."

And the inevitable: "Oh God Katie! You still look like a girl!"

"It's working for me," said Matt, walking past at that moment. I grinned at him and Ricky stared. "What?" Matt asked defensively, looking almost out of place with his cheerfulness. We laughed and relaxed slightly.

The whole dress rehearsal went badly like Clare had hoped. It began well and it was pretty cool to finally have the space and props, and of course the set and back drops. Our audience was the other half of the SAS, the Senior Art Society, according to Andy, who couldn't hide a grin. It was really awesome.

Acting on stage made it all seem real. I was the only one not in costume which was disappointing for me and Ricky, but as Jackie said, these things happen and it couldn't be helped.

I could feel the thrill of the half-empty theatre as I stood in the theatre as I stood in the wings next to Will and Clare. From the other side of the stage Andy (as Ptolomy) began to speak, unseen, introducing the play. His voice was steady and measured.

"His tragedy was one of increasing loneliness and impatience with those who could not understand him, and if his desire to unite Greek and barbarian ended in failure...what failure? His failure towered over other men's successes. I've lived... I've lived a long life. But the glory and the memory of man will always belong to the ones who follow their great visions. And the greatest of these is the one they now... call "Megas Alexandros" - the greatest Alexander of them all."

There was a beat of silence and then, grinning at me, Will and Clare walked onto the stage. It had begun.

From there it went downhill. When Matt grabbed me and shouted; "the King lives!" he somehow managed to sprain my wrist. Actually, the audience and Ricky didn't notice anything was wrong so I guess it just went downhill for the cast. Apparently my face twisting in pain looked like a shock of emotions and Matt's, "Oh God, I'm sorry. Are you okay?" was like whispered encouragement. It made the performance better!

Next, the scene with Louisa was awful as I forgot my lines and we were reduced to staring at each other uncomfortably and somewhat awkwardly. I found it incredibly hard to improvise any believable lines in that situation, but luckily Louisa was amazing and saved the performance just by completely being Roxanne and staying in character. The bit where Steve attempts to kill me was, Ricky said, the best acted scene. Incredibly painful for me though! I couldn't stop the cry of pain as he pushed my arms above my head. What the audience didn't see was my closed eyes and Steve's concerned face.

We didn't mention my wrist in the interval between acts because we all knew how much it meant to Ricky that we finished. This resulted in me fainting rather than acting in the death scene. I was completely out of it as Andy wafted incense around. I came round to applause and much enthusiasm from Ricky and concern from the rest of the cast. Oh, what we suffer to make these things happen!

Unsurprisingly, Jackie was livid when she found out, shouting alternatively at me, then Ricky and then the rest of the cast. And Ricky still had the audacity to say to me as we left: "Awesome Katie! Well done. Reckon you could do that again next week?"