Stefanielle/Marina One Shots

Acting Class (Stefanielle)

It wasn't that Danielle hated Stefania, but she kind of hated Stefania. 

The acting class she had been attending for the past two months was made up of about twenty other people. Over the time Danielle had been there, some had left and some had joined. But overall, everyone got along quite well and it was an even playing field.

That was until Stefania Spampinato joined three weeks into the course. 

Danielle was used to earning praise and receiving little constructive criticism because her performances tended to run flawlessly, but somehow Stefania was better than her. At everything. And Danielle hated that. It was a jealousy thing. She would glare at the back of Stefania's head, or sometimes just at her whenever she spoke. Everyone hung onto every single word she said, including the teacher. It was like they had all idolised her for a reason that Danielle couldn't quite seem to understand. 

Stefania could sense the distaste that Danielle had towards her, but she appreciated it. The ill-mannered glances pushed her to perform even better out of spite and she had to stop herself from laughing in Danielle's face whenever she received praise. So each time she attended the acting class, she allowed everyone to treat her like she was some and high and mighty power. Stefania left it down to the fact that she was once in a blockbuster movie. 

"Amazing work as always, Stefania," The teacher, Eric, said as Stefania returned to her seat after delivering her monologue. Danielle begrudgingly applauded from where she sat but quickly stopped when Stefania had the audacity to wink at her. Bitch. "As you all know, we are wrapping up on our work around monologues and will be diving into the fantastic world of... duologues!"

There were a few murmurs of approval around the room and while a lot of the participants had questions, they knew it was best to let Eric continue talking before anything else. 

"So! Duologues. A performance between only two actors. That's it. Sounds easy enough, however, if we think about the creative freedom you have when devising a monologue, that is halved. The ability to work alongside your duologue partner will have a massive outcome on your performance. Outside chemistry translated into acting can be quite sublime," Eric walked to the front of the room and picked up a large stack of papers. "I have scripts! And I have pairings!"

Danielle closed her eyes briefly, praying to whatever greater presence there may be that she was not paired with Stefania. One thing that Eric had taught them from the beginning of this course, sometimes you just have to work with who you're told to work with. Even if you don't like them. Meaning that if any of them had a problem and tried to change their partner, they would be promptly told to suck it up.

Eric started to walk around the room, listing off pairs of names and then handing them scripts. The further he won't along, the more prevalent the sinking feeling in Danielle's chest was, until Eric was left standing with two scripts and two names left to call... 

"Last but not least, Danielle and Stefania. An extract from 'The Sum of Us'. It was written specifically for a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community in the theatre world and looks at two young,  completely different girls from different backgrounds who fall in love. I'm sure you both will play these roles fantastically and I look forward to seeing what you come up with," He handed them both the script then walked back to the front, giving the chance for both of them to roll their eyes. 

Danielle stared down at the script in front of her. He couldn't have chosen something about best friends or acquaintances or people who work at the same job or maybe just not even paired her and Stefania up in the first place. Maybe he could sense the displacement between the two of them and really wanted to put them to the test.