Chapter 43: Rehearsals Begin

Monday, January 18, 1982

After school we all congregated in the Drama room. I knew some of these kids better than others, of course. Others, not at all. I couldn’t say I knew any of them well except Jasmine. Lexi and I were at least on the path to knowing each other better.

The Drama room has a tiered seating area to allow for a small stage; we sat there. Jasmine wound up in my lap, with Angie next to me, on the highest tier. Surprising both of us, Lexi sat in Angie’s lap.

“Hi! Remember me?”

Angie laughed. “Yes. Not like this, though.”

“I figured I’d get to know you better. Plopping my ass on you is a step in that direction.”

“An unusual one, even for me,” Jasmine laughed.

Paige winked from a row down. “I think it’s a great idea.”

Sheila laughed. “You would.” It didn’t sound like a putdown; it was much closer to the way Angie and Candice had called each other ‘hussy’. Something that, until very recently, I’d tried to avoid thinking about, because I knew Candice must have heard it a different way. But, with Candice doing so much better, it no longer felt bad.

Steffie smiled. “Quiet, everyone. Thank you all in advance for what’s going to be a lot of hard work. Leads! For this show, that will be Tommy and Fiona, A.K.A. Alan and Linda. All of you, support the leads! And Glenn and Sheila, their understudies. No leads, no show! That’s also true of our major characters: Charlie and Meg, A.K.A. Gary and Mikayla. Next is Jean. Susan’s our best pure dancer, and it’s a very strong dance part.” Beth blushed a bit; I’m not sure why. She was understudying Susan.

“Angus, Stuart, Sandy, McGregor — that would be John, Danny, Glenn, and Sam. Each of you has solo sections of a chorus piece.” They nodded.

“The rest of you have lines and choral work. Some of you — Jeff, for instance — have quite a few lines. And Harry — you need to manage a tragic ending well.” More nodding. Marshall, who played Harry, made a sad face and clutched his chest.

“The rest of you, chorus and dance. We’ll be doing the major numbers until your legs fall off and your voices give out. But we won’t be doing that today. Today I’m handing out copies of the libretto to each of you. If you would like a copy of the music because you play and can use it for individual practice, just ask. Any questions?”

None turned up. “Understudies — and that’s most of you — I want you to develop your characters yourself. Do not lean on the person you’re understudying. Glenn and Sheila, I want to see your Tommy and Fiona, not your version of Alan and Linda’s. That’s true of all of you.

“Today, read through the libretto. Highlight your material and the material you’re understudying. Use different colored highlighters! For a while, we’re doing Monday and Wednesday. Later, we’ll add Thursday. Even later we’ll add either Tuesday or Friday, or both if necessary.”

Everyone nodded. This was going to be a lot of work, maybe even more than debate prep.

“On Wednesday, we’re watching the movie version. I know some of you saw it on stage in the fall.” More heads nodded than just ours. “Those of you who saw it are not excused. More familiarity is better. However, you’re still in charge of your portrayals. Just because the professionals did it one way does not mean that’s the way. Now, get to work.”

Lexi whispered something to Angie, who giggled. She hopped up. “Thanks for being a good sport.”

We all split up to tables, pulling out highlighters and getting to work.

“So, we’re all in chorus together,” Lexi said. “I’m understudying Maggie, Jasmine’s understudying Kate. Steve’s got Jeff and Sandy, and Angie’s got Meg and Frank. Well, Frankie. Sandy and Frankie won’t take much time. And you two already have a handle on Jeff and Meg, which tells me Steffie thinks you did a solid job with them in audition.” She leaned in, whispered. “Tell you a secret — most of us didn’t have to present as much as you did. Steffie already knows our strengths and weaknesses.”

I laughed. “Well, good. I’m much more worried about not tripping over my own feet in the dance numbers.”

Angie snorted. “You are not that bad!”

“I can still worry about it. Winding up in a heap on the stage might be fun, but not during a performance.”

Lexi giggled. “On the stage would be a new one.”

We sat and chatted, others dropping by. Most of the sophomores checked in; so did Mikayla and Beth. I still didn’t know most of them that well, but I liked what I knew of them.

Dance class was fun. Still exhausting — maybe it’d always be exhausting — but fun.

Tuesday, January 19, 1982

I stuck to studying this time. There was just too much this week to do anything else. Angie got her nap, but for me? Work, work, work.

Wednesday, January 20, 1982

We met again just after school, dragging chairs around so we could all watch the movie. Laps were involved, too.

The movie cuts several numbers, which is unfortunate. Still useful, but the song I’d worked up isn’t in the movie, for instance. Still, it was nice seeing another take; it had been a long time since I’d seen the movie. And, officially, I hadn’t seen it before at all.

Jasmine and I arranged not one but two dates this weekend. Friday and Saturday. Friday was a rehearsal date — or, rather, a night where we’d rehearse a little. ‘Brigadoon’, that is. Not other things. She’d invited Angie. I guessed she wouldn’t rehearse other things with Angie there. Probably.

Jasmine hadn’t invited Angie on Saturday. Whether Lexi was, who knew? Lexi and Jasmine?

Thursday, January 21, 1982

I checked in with Jane between school and karate. She was hoping we could spare some time on Saturday. We offered her a few hours on Sunday instead, starting at 1pm. We had nowhere to be during the Super Bowl.

Friday, January 22, 1982

Angie and I met up with Jasmine right after class. We planned to finish by 7pm so that Angie and I could get home and catch a late-ish dinner with Mom and Dad. We’d go out in the afternoon Saturday, have dinner, and ... dessert? Perhaps.

We headed over to Jasmine’s, parked, went in. Jasmine’s mom was in the living room. “Hey, mama!”

“Hello, honey.”

“Mama, this is my friend Angie. Steve’s sister.”

“A pleasure to meet you!” She smiled and came over, offering Angie a hug which Angie accepted, hugging back.

“A pleasure to meet you as well, Ms. Nguyen.”

“Please! You must call me Camille!”

“Then it’s a pleasure to meet you, Camille.”

She smiled, and Angie smiled back. “We’re going back to my room, Mama. There may be singing.”

Camille laughed. “Singing, or... singing?” She winked. “Enjoy yourselves, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

“You continue to not tell me what that is, mama!”

“Nothing for you to worry yourself over, dear!”

We headed back to Jasmine’s room, laughing. When we got in, Angie grinned. “Your mother is a bit different than ours.”

I nodded. “Just a tiny little bit.”

Jasmine giggled. “They don’t care if I have sex. Or if it involves girls. I still don’t have an answer for ‘don’t do anything I wouldn’t do’ except that she has something specific in mind. But she won’t tell me! So how am I supposed to not do it? Maybe I already do it all the time.”

I ignored the obvious pun and went for a secondary reference. “No! She said the word! She said the word!”

“She did!” Angie laughed. “She said it! Oh! I said it! I said it again! I can’t stop saying it!”

Jasmine snickered and flopped on her side on the bed. “You debaters and your ‘Holy Grail’ references!”

“Guilty! Meg has us all corrupted,” I chuckled.

Angie smiled. “It’s more than that for me. My Daddy Frank and I used to watch Python on TV.”

“Awww, that’s sweet,” Jasmine smiled right back, hopping up and giving Angie a hug.

“So, what are we doing?” I said. “Besides in-jokes? And commenting on the sexual proclivities of our parents?”

Both of them clapped hands over their mouths, giggling. Finally, Angie spoke up. “I said long ago that I can’t ever be sure of what will come out of his mouth!”

“I thought we’d get out the libretto and try singing the first chorus number together.”

“Do you have the music? I think I know how it goes,” Angie said, “but we should try to follow the music. If we get the tune wrong, it’ll bite us in the ass later. And not in the way you want to, Miss Smirky.”

Jasmine was indeed smirking at that.

“I pulled a copy of the music, but I don’t play an instrument,” I said.

“And I don’t have my piano,” Angie said.

Jasmine smiled. “I have an LP of the cast recording. We can sing over them.”

“Does it have the choral opening?” I asked.

Jasmine nodded.

“Okay. Then, let’s go for it.”

We sang, which turned into a lot of friendly coaching from Jasmine. And I don’t want to make that sound bad — hence ‘friendly’. It could have been bad, but she just meant to make us better, and who could fault that? Jasmine was a year and a half into Drama and had done some serious vocal work; she had some excellent suggestions.