Origin Story

Chapter 1

***Mal***

"Thank you so much Mal I really am sorry to ask you for help but we've been working towards this fall semester and we needed more help last minute." Whitney says out of breath as we weave in between students on the way to the Varsity Theater.

"Don't worry about it, I know how psyched you are for this, and it's not likely that anyone else knows anyone who knows how to do lighting." I laugh as I narrowly avoid a passing student's elbow. I had done theater on and off throughout high school, in between soccer, track and cross country I hadn't done a lot of acting but I had nailed down how to run the lighting pretty well, and now that Whit needed someone who knew how to operate stage lights I was glad I had.

"Oh it's going to be great trust me, I don't have a huge role but it's a fun one. The whole thing is really cool too, it's like this parody of The Lion King but the BYU version, I play the equivalent of a hyena and Timone." I try to picture the various people from Divine comedy that I've met through whit and wonder what roles they might have.

"What about Jeremy and Natalie," I ask naming the only two I remember at the moment, "who do they play?" Whitney yanks open the door to the Varsity Theater and I follow her inside.

"They're hyenas too."

"Fun! Who's Simba, is it someone that I've met?"

"No, I don't think so," she replies as we slow to a walk having to be more quiet inside, "it's Matt Meese, I've mentioned him before but I don't think you've met him before." I shake my head to confirm that I don't think I've met him. "You'll love him though he's great, the man is like 90 pounds of pure talent." I laugh hoping she's exaggerating.

She opens the door to the backstage area and gestures that I should follow her. People are rushing around with costumes and props a few are huddled together in small groups practicing lines.

"Hey everyone!" Whitney calls out, "I got our lighting person!" a chorus of whoops and greetings comes from around the room before everyone goes back to whatever they were working on. Whitney points out to me the guy who will be running the video clips and such to me and then runs over to Jeremy and Natalie.

I introduce myself to the guy Whitney pointed out and he starts to tell me about the types of lights we'll be using and what effects we'll need. He's just finished his explanation of the final blackout when a brown haired man in a black Divine Comedy shirt calls for everyone's attention.

"Hey guys, we'll be rolling the opening video in a few minutes so any final things that need to happen needed to happen five minutes ago," everyone laughs nervously and the man smiles, "all jokes aside I'm really proud of everyone, y'all have worked so hard this year and it's going to be amazing. Now let's pray and get out there!" The room erupts in cheers and then everyone folds their arms as he leads us in prayer. After the group breaks we rush up to the tech booth to get everything set for showtime.

"Hey who was that guy who made the announcement earlier?" I ask as I do a final check of my equipment.

"Oh Matt? Yeah that's Matt Meese, he sorta runs the show around here and he's the star of the show today. Anyway, ready?" I nod and he presses record on the camera and starts the opening video.

Well... I think, If Whit was right, then I'm about to see a performance from a very talented man... and a very attractive one.