"This is all your fault, director's pet. This is a play. I'm not falling in love with you, and I would never ever go out with you, Jack Garrison."
Jack and Shayna can't get through a rehearsal without fighting.
Cheerleader Shayna loathes perfect Ja...
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Play nice with Shayna.
Seeing it written at the top of my script in my uncle's looping handwriting made me want to laugh. It wasn't my fault he cast us as lovers in a play when she usually refused to speak to me in real life.
When Uncle Anton proposed directing my high school's first-ever Shakespeare production, I assumed the idea would never take off. Yet now, here I was on stage with the oddest collective group of students Crestview High School had to offer.
The lights beamed down as I looked at my script one more time. Lines of dialogue were arranged down the page with my various scrawled notes and stage directions, including the friendly reminder from my uncle.
I tried to ignore Shayna prancing across the stage. She'd auditioned for my uncle's play despite it being common knowledge that I was also auditioning.
She wasn't the only person who'd lined up for a fine arts credit after my uncle struck a deal with the school to direct As You Like It. Between everyone's homework and extracurricular activities, there wasn't much rehearsal time that worked for everyone.
This didn't deter Uncle Anton. He was convinced we could practice even if it meant we had forty-five-minute rehearsals at the old community theater on weeknights.
My mother always said her brother would imagine greatness and do anything to achieve it. I'd seen his first off-Broadway show when I was seven and was mesmerized.
Now, he was back in town after ten years in New York City. He'd convinced the principal to let him put on a Shakespeare production at the state festival. He sat in the audience tonight, scribbling notes on a clipboard.
There was a sharp jab at my back, and I looked up to see Hugh pointing at the script to get my attention.
"Come on, dude," he said, adjusting his glasses. "We're about to go on."
I stiffened and walked out on stage on cue with Hugh and Rita towards Kai, Carson, Shayna, and Tasha. Moving off to the right of the stage, I stood alone as the others said their lines.
"Come on: since the youth will not be entreated, his," Hugh said as Duke Frederick, "own peril on his forwardness."
Shayna pointed at me. "Is yonder the man?"
Kai nodded. "Even he, madam."
"Alas, he is too young! yet he looks successfully." Tasha said.
They couldn't have been more different off-stage, but Tasha and Shayna made a lovely Celia and Rosalind. Tasha shed her uptight grade-oriented persona for a playful princess, while Shayna commanded all her confidence as the cheerleading captain to tackle Rosalind.
It impressed me that my uncle had found any onstage talent at a school without a drama department. Hugh was on the debate team, which I guessed was like performing, and Carson and Kai both played instruments.
