Note: This story is pure fiction. It is also a prelude to Back Stage Bliss by Tabby JJ Kitty.
It was a very wacky play written by a good friend of the director. Everybody was a good friend of the director. He was just one of those guys. His name was Fred. My then boyfriend, Steve, would come to rehearsals sometimes when Fred needed an extra pair of eyes for a scene. Steve was also going to design the set. I was stage manager, costume designer, shoulder to cry on and bearer of bad news.
Originally the cast was 14 but we kept loosing actors to TV shows and film shoots. By the second week of rehearsals it was down to 7 actors playing multiple roles. The lead actor, taking on 5 roles himself, was a deep eyed, dark haired broody fellow who would sit just off the side from the reading table and offer his lines and sarcastic comments under his breath every now and then. Bitter, broody and hot - dangerous - he was. His name was David. We're still friends...sigh. He was a brilliant actor, funny, intelligent - and hot. I didn't know that he noticed me.
I ran around rehearsals in short skirts and mini dress, tight tank tops, tight jeans handing out script changes and sundries. Not your usual stage manager wardrobe, but it was all that Steve would let me wear.
One night Fred was unable to rehearse and I was late. It was pouring rain and the roof of my mid 80's Toyota had sprung a leak, thereby raining on me from Santa Monica to North Hollywood in rush hour traffic. Then the thing died entirely - 3 blocks away. Steve was going to have to pick me up later. By the time I made it to the theatre, an hour late, I was a drowned rat. We were only rehearsing the guys that night. There were only two women in the cast but they didn't show up until act 2, so we often worked without them. I was also going to take the opportunity to do some measurements for costumes.
I entered the rehearsal room and there was a sudden silence. I stood in the door drenched, tiny clothes clinging to me like tissue paper, two giant bags on my shoulders, arms full of wet script changes. All 5 men stared at me in a way that I knew that I had been the topic of conversation for the past hour. I laughed and entered the room, throwing my stuff down o the table.
"I see you boys have been productive...!" I said.
David was leaned up on the piano, head down flipping through some old script form another show. He looked up at Howard, an older man with a bad memory, "20 bucks." said David. "
You're on!" said Howard.
Justin, the youngest cast member snickered to himself. I looked around the room at the men's guilty faces. "What's the bet fellas?" I asked in my best film noire way as I set up chairs to start a scene. The all looked like guilty children at confession. "What's the bet? Maybe I want in!" I said with a shiver and a sneeze.
