1st Act

I guess I should try and tell you how I got into this situation. I did not plan on it, it just sort of happened. I had been married six months, and after the wedding we moved to New York City where my husband Jack had a job at a brokerage firm. He found an apartment that cost a fortune but then everything cost so much in the city.

Jack knew that I wanted to act in a play, and that was part of the reason that we decided to live in the city, so it would make it easy for me to find an acting job. I did not want to act for the money, although to get paid to act would be great. What I wanted was the experience so maybe one day I could be good enough to get into a real, high-class Broadway show.

In the six months that I went out to the "cattle calls," I had only been trying to get a bit part. So I did not expect the callback asking me to go back and read for the lead part in a play about a struggling couple with the husband going to fight overseas. The catch of the story was, it was based on a very good-looking black man and a very pretty white wife. The play was to show the modern troubles of a mixed marriage. They wanted the wife to be young because she was to be right out of high school (I had been out for a year) and they wanted to show that in today's life problems still did exist even in our open-minded times.

I was one of five women called back to read one last time for the part. I was so excited that night I was on a cloud, Jack was happy for me and I told him what they told me and he wished me luck. I showed up at 9 a.m., and already sitting in the waiting room were four other women, all of them lovely and, to my surprise, all blondes. I am a deep bright redhead (have been all my life). I was the last to read for the part.

I walked in the office and was handed a script. I read it and when I finished, the questions began. The first question they asked me was would I agree to dye my hair blonde. They wanted a deep contrast between the lead actor (who had read with me), who was as black as a black man could get. Next to me, there was a deed, deep black and white contrast. I was asked if I could work nude scenes because this play did have them in it because it was a husband and wife play. Since I have never had any problem showing off my body I quickly told them I didn't have a problem with that. I did let them know that my husband might, and I asked them if they would mind him coming to the rehearsals to watch if I got the part. They agreed and I knew as long as Jack was there, I would not have any problems with getting him to agree.

They told me they would call me later to let me know if I got the part or not and I went home higher than a kite. I just knew I would get the job by the way that I did my lines and handled the questions. The other women had gone right in and come right out; I went in and it was almost an hour before I walked out. By the time I got home the phone was ringing and, sure enough, I got the lead! I blurted it all out as Jack walked in the door. He was happy for me but, as I thought, he was not all that thrilled about me doing any nude scenes.

The next day I went back to pick up the script and the rehearsal schedule. That night both my husband and I read the script. I was reading it to learn the story line and, of course, to learn my lines. Jack, on the other hand, went straight to the nude scenes to see what they involved. Whenever he came across one or even just a sexy scene he, of course, had to read it to me and we talked about it. We found that there were no nude scenes in Act 1, just talking and three kisses (of course, Jack counted them for me to let me know). He found the first nude scene and it was followed with going to bed and having sex. The script also had "Simulated, under the covers" in big bold text.

In Act 3 we were to wake up and have morning sex before we got up, only this time I was to be the one on top. Again in big bold letters it had "(Simulated being covered from the back at the waist with back to audience)" on the script. There was to be a part where Ben (the other actor's stage name for the part) got under the covers to simulated performing oral sex on me, and then I return the favor. Jack read that and said, "Boy, there is a lot of sex in this play." I stopped reading my lines and said, "If you think about it, honey, it is just like us. I mean, don't we have morning sex and haven't I given you a morning blowjob?" Jack said, "Yeah, but that is us being married." I said, "That is the point, married couples do that, so if this is going to be a good play, we have to simulate it being real."

Now in all of my drama classes in high school I never had any bedroom scenes and I always wondered how actors acted that stuff out and make it look so real. I was finally going to get my chance to learn and to do just that. My first rehearsal was at 8 a.m. The schedule I was given gave us three weeks to rehearse and learn our parts. The first day we just went in and spent all day reading back and forth. Ben (Jason Kiel) and I paired up with the director to read. Ben was a seasoned actor and I had done 12 different plays in high school, so it was easy. When it came to the different things we had to do, Sara (the director) would read that section of the script.

I'll give you an idea. I would read, "Oh, honey, you're back," then Sara would read, "Linda, you run from the kitchen into Ben's arms, you kiss, Ben pulls back and says..." then Ben said, "Oh, I missed you so much, you were all I ever thought about." The next day we worked the stage holding the script as we ran through the parts. Every night Jack would ask me what happened during the day and of course I told him. We had Act 1 down pat in four days and we began Act 2 that had the first nude scene and simulated sex act. Again the first day of Act 2 practice we read and I told Jack that night that we were going to do our first run-through with script the next day. He called in and took a sick day to come in with me.

We did the reading and when it came to the part where we were to be on the bed, Sara asked me if I ever simulated sex before in a play. I told her no, that in high school we could not have any sex scenes. She said, "OK, tell you what. Let's put down the scripts and I'll show you how it is done under the covers. We want the audience to believe it is happening, yet we all know this is acting. Why don't you have your husband come up here? I want him to see how this is done just so he knows it is true acting."

I turned to Jack and motioned for him to come up on stage with us. Sara had me lay down on the bed on my back (I was clothed) and she positioned my legs up with my knees bent. She said, "It is very important to keep your knees up to hold the blanket up so the only movement seen by the audience is from Ben's rear which he will bounce up and down, simulating the act." Once I was ready she had Ben get up between my legs and said, "OK, for today and tomorrow we will not use a blanket. I want to see acting, I want you to make us believe you two are doing it. Now Ben is going to place his groin right here," Sara said, putting her hand on my tummy. "His groin will never be touching yours. If there is any contact whatsoever, it will be up here on your tummy. Now when you get to the part where he lifts your legs up and places them on his shoulders, your groin will be lifted way above his. There will not be any contact. I put on a real play and there will not be any thing going on but acting. You two got that?"

I was shocked when she said that! I mean, I sure as hell was not going o do anything, but I was glad she said that for Ben's sake, I mean Jason Kiel. I looked at my husband sitting in a chair watching me like a bird watching his prey. We did it and read the lines. I gave my best rendition of having wild sex and climaxing, but everything I did was not enough for Sara. She wanted me louder and much more vocal. The script just said "long wild passionate sex with Ben on top." By the time we finished for her, my throat was sore and dry.

One other thing happened in the rehearsal later in the afternoon. I was so turned on by what we were doing that I actually did have a climax; in fact, I had two of them. I guess it was the crotch of my jeans against me as I laid there being bounced on the bed moaning and pretending to climax. In fact, the times that I did climax I was not acting but Sara afterward wanted me to do it again, only louder and to talk dirty to Ben.

By the time back home, I was on fire. We walked into the apartment and we attacked each other. It turned my husband on as much as it did me. Afterwards we talked about it and he was going to take his three-week vacation because he was not going to let me go to rehearsal alone. He wanted to watch and make sure that nothing happened. I assured him that I could handle it and it was just acting (I did not tell him I climaxed on the bed under Ben) but he, being the loving and protecting husband, wanted to just make sure.