Love and Other Drugs, Right?

-1-

I pull on a pair of jeans, a sweater and a bomber jacket. The weather in New York has been slowly getting chillier as we reach the middle of October. I grab my back-pack and then my keys, shoving them in my pocket. My phone lights up on the counter and I snatch it,

Chris: Crew meeting today at noon, just a reminder :)

It's almost 11am, which gives me an hour to grab something to eat and head to the theatre. I'm head of sound engineering at the Hudson Theatre on broadway as of last year. It took me a while to get to this level, and we're getting ready for a new show to go on in a couple months.

Before sound was my full time profession I did a lot of freelance stuff, writing, photography, sound design for other theatres and the likes. I still keep up the side-business of freelancing and so I bring in a pretty good amount of money. My apartment is modern, a one bedroom two bathroom place that I'm absolutely in love with. Considering my first apartment was kind of a shit hole, the day I moved into the new one was one of my proudest moments, it was the day I finally proved to my parents that I wouldn't be a total failure.

I hop on the elevator in the hall because even though my place is nice, it's not nice enough to have an en-suite elevator. In the lobby I wave to the woman at the front desk and then head out into the cool New York air. I make my way towards broadway, stopping in at a Starbucks along the way for a coffee and breakfast sandwich.

Once I get to Hudson Theatre I go in through the back, walking up the stairs towards a conference room on the other side of the building, across from the actual stage and theatre area. I can see my fellow techies mulling about, we've got a lot to discuss before the directors, writers and cast come in. They'll be here around 1.

I take a seat next to Chris, the head of lighting. Together we pretty much run the show, because it's a minimalistic show we won't need many crew members on stage, so the group we've got together right now is fairly small, but shows at the Hudson usually have a small crew.

"Alright, so before Cast gets here we need to talk rigging, I'm sure you all read the script so you know this is a crazy simple show. Which means lights and sound need to be even better than usual, without a huge set doing the work for us we're going to have to use tech to make the show great." I say, the crew nods and we launch into discussing logistics.

About an hour later I get a text from Carrie, the director, she tells me that she and the writers have just shown up and are on stage with the actors. I dismiss the rest of tech minus Chris because we won't need them until tomorrow, when show prep really gets going. Together Chris and I head to the stage. I whisper to Chris,

"Hopefully the actors this time are a little nicer." I say, considering the last show we did had a few particularly stuck up leads in it. That's show business for you.

"Yeah didn't you hear, one of them is Jake Gyllenhaal." He says, I raise my eyebrows,

"Wait, Donnie Darko?" I ask, Chris laughs and nods. I secretly hope his ego won't be as big as his reputation.

We climb on stage, usually the cast is much larger but for this show it's two separate monologues which means only two actors. I smile and shake hands with the writers and the director, costume and scenic designers, a projection artist and the musical director, finally I turn and shake hands with the actors,

"Hi I'm y/n! I'm the sound engineer!" I smile,

"I'm Tom nice to meet you!" The shorter of the two shakes my hand, and then Chris comes over and introduces himself so I move onto the next, Jake Gyllenhaal. He smiles and I shake his hand,

"Hi! I'm Jake." He says,

"Y/n, I don't know if you heard already." I say,

"Yeah, sound engineer right!" He asks, I nod, "that's awesome!" He says,

"Thanks! I loved you in Donnie Darko, oh and Enemy, and Velvet Buzzsaw andddd all the other ones" I joke,

"thanks!" He says, seemingly taken off guard, as if he wasn't a famous actor. Before we can keep chatting the director calls our attention over and we start discussing the show.

Next thing I know it's almost 6pm, I'm starving and we've finally finished the read through and the pre-production discussion. Now I'm ready to head out for a dinner. Chris and I stand around talking about the show for a while as the rest of the team mills about.

"Hey, sorry, I hope I'm not interrupting." I turn and see Jake approaching us. "I didn't get the chance to properly introduce myself, I'm Jake." He says, shaking Chris' hand. Chris introduces himself and we all talk for a minute before Christie calls Chris over. I go to grab my bag, not wanting to linger around Jake too much, stars like him usually take it as fishing for a number or something stupid like that.

"Hey Y/n, I uh, I heard you did sound for Spring Awakening for a while right?" He asks, I smile,

"Yeah," I'm surprised he knows one of my past shows. That was before I'd really made a name for myself. Even now it's rare to find someone who's well-read on the techies.

"That's a great show." He says, I agree with him,

"You were George in Sunday in the Park with George right?" I ask, Jake beams and nods.

"You've got a great voice, I was kinda shocked not gonna lie." I say,

"You've listened to Sunday in the Park?" He seems surprised.

"Jesus I work on Broadway!" I say, "I've listened to more shows than I can count."

Jake laughs,

"I guess that makes sense." He smiles,

"Well I'm excited to work with you!" I say, "but I'm starving so I'm gonna head out."

"Yeah it's gonna be a great show." He replies, I swing my bag over my shoulder,

"See you!" I say, waving. He smiles and waves as well, i go over and meet up with Chris.

Chris, being 6 years older than me and my mentor since I was 18, is like a big brother to me. He taught me basically everything I know.

"I'm going to go out for dinner if you want to tag along." I offer, he's finished up his conversation with Christie and seems ready to head out.

"Yeah for sure, I'll meet you out front I left my bag in the conference room." He says, I nod and start towards the front of the theatre, I glance over and see Jake quickly look away. No way I just caught Jake Gyllenhaal staring at me? I brush it off and head out.