Free Curtain Up by Lisa Fiedler Page B

production.
    As I let the information sink in, Austin turned and threw me a wink. “I think you just gave them an acting lesson,” he said. “Very directorial of you.”
    â€œThanks,” I said, realizing he was right. I felt a glimmer of pride.
    And suddenly I wasn’t so mad about the Sophia thing anymore.

We gave the actors forty-five minutes to rehearse, then got down to business with the acting auditions. Austin and Elle were the first scene partners to read. Sitting in the last row of folding chairs, I felt a flutter of disbelief as I watched them take the stage. This was happening!
    It was hard not to giggle, thinking of Austin as Peter Pan, because I just couldn’t picture him in green tights! But Elle was charming as Wendy. My only real concern was that she kept forgetting to “cheat out” to the audience. I made a note on my legal pad to remind her to angle herself slightly when speaking to another actor so she’d always be facing effectively downstage, or toward the audience, and not turning her profile to them.
    After Elle’s audition, I (with Susan’s help) continued to audition the scene partners on the stage, while Austin tookthe monologues outside to read on the lawn.
    Not surprisingly, Sam’s audition was hilarious. His acting choice was to take his Wendy totally over the top, making her more of a caricature than a character, which worked beautifully. I laughed so hard, I almost cried. Eddie was terrific too, keeping up with Sam’s energy and never so much as cracking a smile, no matter how wacky Sam got.
    Gracie, on the other hand, went a different way entirely with her gender-bending experiment. Despite the silly “boy impersonation” she’d done earlier, for the actual audition she chose to play it with perfect authenticity, digging deep and “becoming” Peter Pan. Susan and I were blown away; Gracie had actually “acted herself” into a boy.
    â€œWe’ve got some real talent here, don’t we?” Susan whispered.
    â€œYes.” I nodded, feeling that familiar swirl of excitement in my belly. “We really do!”
    Mia and Travis had just finished their scene when Austin and the others returned from outside.
    I gave Austin a questioning look to which he responded with a grin and a nod. I took this to mean that he was pleased with what he’d seen during the monologues.
    It was time to move on to the dance auditions. Austin dug the sheet music from How to Succeed out of my backpackand sat down at the piano.
    He played the first few bars and winced. “This baby is way out of tune,” he said. “It’ll do for now, but we’re going to have to get it taken care of before the show.”
    I told Susan to make a note of that, then I wrangled everyone onto the floor, away from the chairs. “Everybody ready to dance?”
    Elle wanted to know if we were going to be doing the fox trot or maybe the tango, both of which she’d taught herself by binge-watching Dancing with the Stars episodes on YouTube.
    â€œSorry, Elle,” I said. “No fox trots.”
    Mackenzie was a little worried about dancing in sneakers as opposed to her actual jazz shoes (or toe shoes or tap shoes or whatever she usually wore for this sort of thing), but thankfully, she didn’t make a big deal about it.
    Spencer, Eddie, and Gracie just flat out refused to dance at all.
    â€œYou can’t refuse,” I said reasonably. “It’s part of the audition process. It’s mandatory.”
    â€œBut I stink at dancing,” said Spencer.
    â€œSo do I,” said Gracie. “I’m what you might call . . . clumsy.” As if to prove it, she accidently backed into the wobbly old table and nearly knocked over my laptop. Fortunately, baseball star Sam was there to catch it before it hit the floor.
    â€œI feel goofy when I dance,” Eddie admitted. “It feels like everyone will be