Chapter 26

“All he did was sing it, I’m the one who programmed and played it, where’s my kiss?” Maurice said with a smirk on his face.

My beautiful little sister walked over to where Maurice was sitting, got on his lap, and gave him a nice kiss, on the lips, surprising him so much, that he actually blushed.

SUNDAY LATE AFTERNOON

This second weekend’s performances of WEST SIDE STORY went better than anticipated, a subtle notch below opening night, but quite good nonetheless. Word of mouth generated full houses on Friday and Saturday night, and Sunday’s 2pm matinee had a respectable 350 people. I had a number of the cast come up to me, and tell me they would be at ‘Beauty’ auditions.

One weekend to go of WEST SIDE STORY, but more important than that, is my BEAUTY AND THE BEAST auditions are now less than a week away.

Surprised there wasn’t one already, I went on Facebook and created a SFU group, lumping everyone I know to come to the auditions. Quite a few theatre folk are on Facebook, using it to find out about upcoming auditions and performances, at all the levels of theatre; elementary school, junior high and high school, community college and university, as well as traditional community theatre; which is where SFU gets its actors when it needs someone 25 and older.

In ‘Beauty’, I will need an older gentleman to play Belle’s father Maurice, and I want a ‘belter’ alto singer to play Mrs. Potts. All the rest will probably come from SFU, The Santa Fe Playhouse or The Southwest Children’s Theatre Productions, which is where I expect to get a half a dozen children to complement the cast of students, playing the children in the opening number ‘Belle’.

I’ll need a really talented young boy to play Chip, Mrs. Potts son. Too bad that our Mom is off on her 2^nd honeymoon ... she has a beautiful voice, but she only sings to Dad.

After working on some ideas about directing the group scenes, I grabbed Carol, telling her it was time to go get something to eat. She agreed ... she was hungry and we went off to The Coyote Café on West Water Street. We walked in and saw some of our friends from ‘Brides’ inside. They waved us over, but I begged off, seating Carol and me in a quieter section, if there was such a thing.

Immediately, a waitress came to us and I was surprised to see Shirley Sesame, who I’d had some classes with at SFU, preparing to take our order.

“Well, Randall, who is this lovely lady you’re with tonight?”

Carol grabbed my hand quickly, and said, “I’m with him every night, I’m Rann’s ‘significant other’, and how do you know Randall?”

Before this got into the female equivalent of a pissing match, I took Carol’s hand other hand as said, “Carol, this is Shirley Sesame ... we had some classes together at SFU a few years back.”

“I’m not Shirley Sesame any more, I got married and I’m now Shirley Temminger.”

“You married Tommy Temminger ... lucky guy.”

“Thanks, I didn’t mind losing my last name ... you remember what the others called me when I was a freshman at SFU?”

“They were all a bunch of idiots, I never called you Shirley GoodBuns, like the rest of the boys did, although the name fit you at the time,” I said.

“Randall Knight, how dare you talk to her that way,” Carol said jumping into the conversation.

“Calm down, Carol. Shirley did, and still does have a nice round set of buns. The kids went from calling her Shirley Sesame to Shirley Sesame Seed Buns to Shirley GoodBuns, all in matter of weeks. I hadn’t met you yet, Carol, so I was quite taken with Shirley GoodBuns at the time, although she had her eyes set on Tommy.”

“And I got him,” Shirley said, holding up her wedding ring. “What would you two like to eat tonight?”

“I’m real hungry, Shirley,” Carol said. “What would you recommend to someone who hasn’t been here before?”

“Well,” Shirley started, “For an appetizer, I would suggest the Pepper & Chicken Kebobs, everyone loves them. You could share Lobster Tails over Pasta, probably a little much for one person, but perfect for such a cute couple as yourselves.”

“That sounds great, Shirley,” I said, giving her a wink.

“And to drink, our bar is known for its ability to make just about any mixed cocktail you want,” Shirley said, with a great bit of pride.

“Just bring us some soft drinks, me a Coke and Carol a Diet Coke, please? Thanks, Shirley.”

“I’ll be right back with your drinks and I’ll put in your order. Should be about fifteen minutes for the food,” Shirley said and left.

“Shirley GoodBuns. I’m amazed that college boys ... would be that way. I always assumed that college boys weren’t as ingratiating as they are in high school,” Carol pined.

The rest of our evening at Coyote Café was fun, the food is always so good, and Carol and Shirley hit it off really well. We left and had a quiet drive home to our place, stopping at a drug store.

“Why are we stopping, Rann?” Carol said.

“At auditions next week, I want to take a Polaroid of everyone who auditions. How many do you think we need? 40, 60 ... maybe more?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you have over 150 people audition for BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, Rann. It was on Broadway for 13 years, just ending in July of 2007, and everyone who has ever seen the movie has fallen in love with it, so my guess is 100, if not more. Keep the receipt.”

“Very logical, Carol ... thanks for that. Do you want to be on the casting committee? It’ll be me, Marcus, Jeff and Maurice. A woman’s opinion would be quite helpful ... and you know I value your opinion.”

“Do you have anyone in mind for any specific roles?” Carol questioned.

“I traveled to Albuquerque last year. I saw a production of OLIVER, and the couple that played Mr. Bumble and Widow Corney were quite good. I facebooked them and sent them the audition notice ... their names were Michael Manning and Phyllis Gorman. I could tell they were really enjoying each other ... he could play your father Maurice, who has two songs, and Phyllis had a wonderfully textured alto voice; she could be Mrs. Potts who has the title song. I’m hoping they show up.”