Scene 1
It was the first time she had ever been on this side of the audience. Surprisingly, she thought, it felt kinda good attempting to be the entertainer rather than the entertained.
John (director): Please read your assigned passage now
Here we go, thought Mia, trying to remember what she was supposed to say.
Mia: Oft have I digg’d up dead men from their graves, and set them upright at their dear…
John had held up his hand.
John: Can you try it with more enunciation?
Flustered, she tried again.
Mia: Oft have I digg’d up dead men from their…
John had stopped her again.
John: More emphasis, and still more enunciation.
Now getting to the point of embarrassment, Mia tried to get over it and try again. So far, she was the first he’d stopped, and probably the last as well. She read the passage from Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare, 1593)for the third time.
Mia: Oft have I digg’d up dead men from their graves,
And set them upright at their dear friends’ doors,
Even when their sorrows almost were forgot;
And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,
Have with my knife carved in Roman letters,
‘Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.’
Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things
As willingly as one would kill a fly,
And nothing grieves me heartily indeed
But that I cannot do ten thousand more.
She was thrilled to have gotten through it that time, as she had told herself that one way or another, she was not going to be reading Aaron again after that. Her glee quickly deflated though, when all John gave in return was a simple nod and a smile so faint she thought she must have imagined it.
John: Next!
Scene 2
Ryan: How do you think you did?
Mia shrugged. It was the next day and callbacks would be posted at 4:00 sharp. The current time was 3:27.
Mia: Well, it doesn’t really matter how I think I did, it only matters what John thinks. And I think he doesn’t like me.
Ryan: Why do you think that?
Mia: Well, he stopped me twice before I had finished the first the sentence, and said nothing as I left.
She paused.
Mia: You don’t do that to people you like.
Now it was Ryan’s turn to shrug.
Ryan: Well I’m sure you did fine. Maybe that is just how he acts around everybody.
Mia: I guess we’ll find out in half an hour.
The current time was 3:29.
Scene Three
The last 10 minutes were by far the hardest to endure. She could literally see the second hand slowing down as it drew ever closer to 4:00. She wondered if the final second would just never end, like exponential graph or something. God she hated pre-calc.
Mia: How long is this going to take?
The rest of the people gathered around the board shook their head, or conveyed their lack of knowledge in other manners.
Boy 1: Usually he’s pretty on top of it, or even early. He must have a tough decision.
At 4:05, John came out with a piece of paper and tacked it to the cork board. It read like this:
-Titus Andronicus Cast-
Titus: Kevin Smith
Aaron: Brendon Jordan
Tamora: Mia Stevenson
Lavinia: Emily McDonald
Marcus: Jesse Zeal
Saturninus: James Ryan
Bassianus: Billy Anderson
Lucius: Alex Nelson
Chiron: Rose Cooper
Demetrius: Sarah Harris
Mia couldn’t believe her eyes. She had done it.