To Put On An Act [bxb]

Chapter 30 - lysander

"Stand forth, Lysander. This man hath bewitched the bo- I'm sorry. The bosom- The-"

Egeus laughed, so did Lysander, so did the audience, and Youngbin sighed. Act one, scene one, and the Sirius Miller High School theatre class could barely get through the very first part of this play. And now that Youngbin was part of the audience instead of part of the stage, the class had become so much more insufferable.

It was a shame, really. Theatre class was always filled with people who enjoyed what they did. Who took this seriously, who matched Youngbin's energy. But things had shifted. Maybe he just had a different perspective now, or maybe it was the new cast of students that had joined the club when last year's seniors had left.

And now nothing was serious anymore. Everything was a goddamn joke, and Youngbin watched from the sidelines because he was too scared to become part of that joke once more.

"Come on, boys," Mister Davis called, his voice much more tired than usual. It was hard to believe that this man could ever lose his passion for teaching high schoolers the joy of theatre, but this seemed to be it. The end of it all. His last straw, some freshmen laughing at the word bosom. "Start again. Stand forth-"

"S-Stand forth, Lysander. This man ha-" The boy on stage laughed again, so did everyone around him.

"Okay. How about we approach this differently? Let's-" Mister Davis waved his hands in desperation, stood in front of the stage as he looked at the actors, then the audience. "Let's break up into small groups. It's our first time practising with our given roles today, I understand that this is very exciting. But we want to take this seriously."

He did, and everyone else that'd been in this class for longer also did, but these immature teenage boys up on stage certainly didn't.

"How about that? I'll assign you into small groups, and everyone gets to just read their own lines a couple of times until they're less- funny to you. I expect the other students to give a lot of feedback and stay serious as well. We all want to learn here."

Mister Davis waited for feedback from the students, maybe would've expected a resounding yes, but all he got was an eye roll from the new students and a sad nod from the older ones. He suppressed a sigh, and to see the man like this almost broke Youngbin's heart a little.

It didn't take too long for him to assign the groups, and Youngbin ended up torn away from Kaya, instead paired up with Wanda, last years Juliet and this years Titania, Zander, who had the role of Puck, and one of the new kids, a boy named Ben who had somehow gotten the role of Lysander. Youngbin understood why Mister Davis wanted him to play that part now. Ben wasn't the most skilled actor, but he was one of the only ones to audition. Out of the few they'd gotten, he wasn't really the best, but he seemed like the type of guy to not be hurt too deeply if people started making fun of him. In fact, he seemed like the one to make fun of someone himself.

"So," Wanda started once the small group had settled down somewhere in an empty classroom to practise in peace. "Let's just start with scene one for Lysander. I can read Egeus and Zander can do Theseus, okay?"

Ben wasn't paying too much attention.

"Okay?" Wanda repeated. He finally looked up.

"Okay. Sure."

She cleared her throat, straightened her back. As strange as Wanda had been, especially since Youngbin had come out, she was a great actor and easy to play with. Youngbin knew that Ben wasn't going to appreciate that.

"Stand forth, Lysander." Her voice dropped a little, her tone shifted. She already read that single line so much better than whoever actually had to play Egeus, though this part of the scene was nowhere close to Lyander's first lines. Perhaps she just wanted to show off a little, and Youngbin let her. "This man hath bewitched the bosom of my child. Thou, thou, Lysander, thou has-"