Stage Craft

[DeeperWater]

The stage lights were dimmed as Jack stepped out onto the stage, but a spotlight shown down. He tugged his red bathrobe nervously, making sure that it was closed, before stepping into the spotlight's bright pool. A disembodied voice called out instructions to him, leading him through a scene in the script, one of the love songs. Jack had worked over the lines for days. He felt comfortable with them and with the singing. It was what was coming up that made him nervous.

The Bad Wolf Theater was a little off, off Broadway venue which pulled in audiences by showcasing shows that were a little to risque for bigger theaters. They had done runs of Evil Dead the Musical and an all nude version of The Taming of the Shrew. Their newest show was called Skinny Dippin'. It was a funny, clever musical with lighthearted songs and dances, a cheesy old fashioned romance and colorful costumes. The whole thing was an ironic throwback to a simpler age, except for one thing. The actors and actresses would all, at one point or another, have to be in the nude and some simple sexual acts were written into the script, to keep the story moving.

The story revolved around a city boy visiting his country cousins the summer before he left to join the army. The character, Ned Hanson, was a virgin and a good boy, who had never even seen a naked woman. His cousins were three beauties who would, at one point or other in the play, help show usher him into adulthood. There were also parts for the local beaus of his cousins, but they weren't the lead and Jack badly wanted the lead.

At the request of the director, he nervously undid the clasp on his robe and let it fall to the floor. His pale nude body was slender, but well formed, with lean muscle built from hours of dance practice. His shaggy brown hair was moussed into a style more like the 1950s, when the play was set. He had deep blue eyes, a oval face and slim nose and full lips. He forced himself not to cover himself, but held his hands at his side and turned slowly. Despite this slender, almost hairless frame, his circumcised penis emerged from a dark thatch. It was somewhat slender in it's flaccid state, but hung down long enough to be seen easily from the back of the house.

(This was written on a cell phone, so forgive my mistakes. I have limited Internet access via computer. This is a romance thread, despite appearances. I am looking for two semi-innocent characters to discover each other in an odd situation. I am looking for a writer who can post at least twice weekly and write at least three paragraphs. PM me if you are interested.)

 

[Surine]

Jayde waited patiently in the dressing room for her turn at the audition. She was nervous as she slowly brushed out her dark red hair, wondering if she was going to be go through with what the director was asking of the girls that will be performing in this play. She had grown up reserved, so the thought of having to be nude in front of people and actually perform sexual acts scared her to death. She was never what anyone would call an exhibitionist and while she didn't believe that she had anything to be ashamed of, would the director feel the same.

Looking in the mirror, she tried to imagine how the director may see her. The darkness of her red hair was offset by her green eyes, which was the reason for her name. Her mother had always told her that when she was born, her eyes were the brightest green she had ever seen and the name she was going to have was pushed aside for the name she would eventually have. She had a round face that that was set off by a small pert nose, and lips that were not too full but not too thin. Sitting up straighter in her chair, she pushed the robe she was wearing down her shoulders and then started to turn to the side to look at herself.

Her breasts were medium sized, and although she had wished that they were just a little big bigger and fuller, she was blessed with smaller breasts with dark nipples. Her stomach was not as flat as she would like and she worried that the director will not want her for the part if it wasn't. She really wanted the part and she would be willing to diet if necessary to get the part. She looked down and wondered briefly if she should have shaved completely. She sighed deeply knowing that it was too late now.

She really wanted the role of Daisy Mae, one of the cousins of the main character, Ned. She would be one of three girls who would bring Ned into adulthood. It was a little risqué but it was a way to break into theatre and there was nothing more that she wanted at this time. A sudden knock on the door startled her and she called out, "Yes?"

"Your turn ma'am," came the voice of the stage hand.

"I'll be right there," Jayde said and sighed again, knowing that it was now or never. She stood up and left the room and went out towards the stage, hoping that it will not be the last time.

 

[DeeperWater]

All right Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my close-up,

Jack Michael London has always hated his name. His parents had both been English teachers, and had always said that they would name their first born son after his father's favorite adventure writer. They had wanted to have an original name for their son, so set him apart, so they had named him after an old, dead writer that not many people cared about any more.

It had all gone well until seventh grade, when his class had been assigned to read Call of the Wild. Before he had always been a quiet, geeky boy who secretly studied dance. After that he was a quiet, geeky boy, who had wolf calls follow him down the halls of the school. Bags of dog shit were left in his locker and on his seat. His life had grown so miserable that his parents eventually pulled him out of school and home schooled him.

He had returned to high school, but had managed to get into a school for the arts. He had introduced himself as Michael and put his past behind him. Still, in the past few years, as he struggled to make a name for himself on the New York stage, under the name Michael London, he had kind of missed Jack.

Jack had glasses. Michael had corrective eye surgery. Jack had felt awkward around women. Michael had learn to use his acting skills to seem normal and had finally dated. Jack had not been able to handle teasing and ridicule. Jack had the ability to use humor to diffuse teasing, and to return gentle teasing of his own. He was Michael, but he was also Jack. Jack had been awkward, bespectacled and undesirable, but he had been honest and interesting.

It was Jack that stood thanked the director and pulled his robe back on and waited while strangers, hiding in the darkness, judged him. It was Jack that nervously thought "I should have tanned, or worked out more, or gotten a tattoo". Finally, he was dismissed and thanked them. He thanked them for probably hating him, but he did it as Michael, because Michael could handle this sort of thing.

As he walked back behind the curtain, a cute redhead was waiting to go out. She had a cute, girl-next-door sort of face and looked nervous. Michael winked at her. "Don't worry. Just think of them in their underwear, while their staring at you." Jack was in the back of his head though, telling him that he might as well go home and start looking through the want ads for fry cook jobs. Also, why did was he winking at a strange girl? She probably thought he was a pathetic weirdo. Michael told him, firmly, to shut up.

OCC: O.K., I know the double voice thing is odd, but it felt right.

 

[Surine]

Jayde took a deep breath and was about to go out when the curtain parted slightly and a guy came out who looked like he had stepped right out of the '50's. He was obviously going for the role of Ned, the main character and she thought that he was pretty good looking. He was wearing a red robe and when he winked at her, she knew that she must have blushed. Then he said the craziest thing to her, assuming that it would make her not as nervous. She smiled slightly and nodded as if in agreement but she couldn't resist looking back as he walked away from her.

She heard the director call from the other side of the curtain, "Next!" and she took another deep breath and opened the curtain and stepped out and moved to where the spotlight was and stood still. She couldn't see anyone out in the audience and hoped that there were not too many people. Although she knew that if she got the part, she would be performing in front of a lot of people, right now was a case of being judged good enough to even really make the audition. She felt like she did when she was in high school and she had a bit part in one of the plays. She only had a few lines but as soon as she had walked out on stage, she had gotten scared and couldn't talk and completely messed up the whole play.

The rest of the cast never forgave her. She supposed that is one of the reasons she wanted to do this play so much, to get rid of the demons within in her now. And it was so uninhibited that it may help to cast aside all the things that she was worried about. "Well, Jayde, it's now or never," she said to herself as she undid the tie at her robe and slowly slid it down her shoulders until it pooled around her feet. Her nude body was on display for everyone sitting out there and she could only hope that she was what they were looking for in the main cousin role of Daisy Mae.

She didn't know how long she stood there but as she moved from one foot to the other, her nerves were beginning to get the best of her. She was on the verge of snatching up the robe and making her way back to the dressing room when the director called out, "Thank you. We will let you know." Jayde frowned, thinking to herself, 'That's it?' She frowned as she bent down, picked up her robe, and put it back on. She stood there for a few more moments before walking back to the curtain, opening it and almost running head long into the next person in line. Another girl, who was far prettier than Jayde ever thought she could be and she knew her chances were doomed.

 

[DeeperWater]

Donny Romero, director of the play, sat looking over the photos of the potential actresses. His massive jowls were chewing on his third sausage sandwich and three empty Red Bulls sat on his kitchen table. He was a fat, balding man, sitting at a dirty kitchen table in a dinky apartment. He had already chosen two gorgeous girls, but needed one more. His eyes drifted again to the snapshots he had taken of the redheaded girl. She surely didn't have a models body, but there was something really natural about her, as if she might actually be found slopping some hogs, or pounding nails into a board. He suddenly wondered what she would look like with a bit of mud spattered across her modest natural breasts. A leering look filled his eyes as he slowly reached past his belly to what lay below.

Somewhere in Heaven, his poor mother stared at him in disgust. She turned to the angel next to her. How the fuck did I ever raise such a pervert Linda? I should have smacked him with my shoe, the first time I found him playing with his disgusting little ding-dong. Oh Donald, you were always such a disapointment!"

-------------------------------
Three days later stood outside the theater, full of excitement. He had gotten the lead! He had never dreamed that he would. There had been some taller, better looking actors at every audition he had ever gone too. He had always been cast in the chorus, or as the comic relief. He pinched himself through his black dress shirt, to be sure it was real. He had already seen a few people headed through the side door. So he headed in. He went down a hallway and found a conference room.

The room was a long plain rectangle with faded yellow walls, a lack of windows and a two long fold down banquet tables sat end to end. A really fat man with a balding head sat at the head of the table on a buckling folding chair. His Les Miserables t-shirt was stretched painfully across his broad belly, and the waif on it seemed to be crying for someone to rescue her.

Next to him sat a tall, hunky blond with bulging biceps and a store bought smile. With his flannel shirt, tight jeans and Little Abner hairdo he might have looked like a real farmer's son, but the illusion was spoiled by the ten dollar bottle of imported Swish spring water in his left hand. The man ignored his entrance and kept laughing with the fat man, over some joke he had just told.

There were two women in the room. One was a curvy brunette with a cute pixie haircut and horn rimmed spectacles. She was wearing tan capri pants which hugged her curves and a sleeveless green t-shirt with a v-shaped neckline with showed off a hint of tasteful cleavage. Her bosoms did not look, to Jack, as if they were the ones which God had chosen for her, but he still found himself staring. She peered over the rim of her glassed at him and then looked back down at the script in her hands.

The other woman was an athletic blond with long, curly hair pulled up into two pig-tails on the top of her head. She had a cute, heart-shaped face, big red lips, to much eye shadow and a lite cigarette in one slender hand. Her probably natural, fairly large bosom was shown off by the faded overalls she wore, over a plain white t-shirt. Her shoes were stiletto heeled and red and her long fingernails matched them perfectly. She smiled at Jack as he entered and took a long drag on her death stick, sending out a perfect smoke ring.

The fat man slapped the blonde beef cake on the back and stood, painfully. "Ah! Here is our leading man! Now we are just waiting for Daisy Mae. Take a seat and grab a snack." He gestured with one flesh paw at two boxes of donuts on the table. "We need to put a bit of flesh on our lovely ladies, to plump them up for the part." He was peering down the shirt of the girl with glasses when he said this. She glanced up at him with a disgusted look, but reached for a Boston Cream.