STAGECRAFT

Chapter Six: Blocking

Hannah stole a look at the paper in her backpack and nearly chuckled. Is this an invite or a memo? She thought of Coach Wilder playing with fonts and trying to make his invite to the Annual Varsity Lacrosse Dinner look exclusive. Not exactly an invite to the Met Gala. But I'll take it. And I'm pretty sure the whole school knows the "secret location" is Applebees. Still she couldn't believe she was going to be Brody Wolcott's date for the Lacrosse Dinner. Hannah looked forward to seeing him for their date that night too.

Even with Brody in her near future, dance rehearsal dragged. Learn a combo. Ms. Panzini changes something. Samuels and Panzini consult, and Panzini changes it again.

The dancers learned (and relearned) a small ensemble dance number in the first act. In Stagecraft, a small-town poor girl named Aurelia leaves her abusive father and horrible boyfriend to make it big in the city. Things don't go exactly as planned at first but in the end, she lives out her dream as a Broadway star. The Whispering Hills cast rehearsed "Make It," the upbeat song that Aurelia sings with her waitress friends in the cheerless diner where she works.

Mr. Samuels pulled Skylar up front, "Remember, Skylar, you're poor. You have nothing. No prospects. You depend on others. But now you have to depend on yourself." The motivation for the scene.

This is ludicrous. Skylar as a poor girl with no prospects? Her big decision lately was whether to play D1 softball (yes, Skylar was a wicked pitcher) at UConn or go to Daddy's alma mater—Swarthmore. Either way, she would meet some rich jock douchecanoe, get married, get her MBA, quit working as soon as her first baby came along, and live out the rest of her life terrorizing the other members of the Bronxville Junior League. But when the scene started, Skylar played the part effortlessly. Even Hannah pitied her for a few seconds.

Hannah, Greg, Cynthia, Skylar, Paige, and a few others were there to learn the dance. For once, Hannah was actually in the number. Just a patron in the diner but still...

Cynthia played the salty old crow who warns the beautiful ingénue about staying in "this no good town." Greg played the cook at the greasy spoon. He got to bust through the swinging kitchen door at one point and yell at the waitresses to get back to work. "Blue plate specials aren't going to serve themselves, ladies!"

Close to the end of rehearsal, Ms. Panzini and Mr. Samuels got into an argument. No one dared leave the dance floor. No one dared sit down. No one dared to check a cell phone. Both adults were hyper-aware that the room was watching. This is intense. But maybe, if they get pissed enough, they will let us out early. Then I'll have more time to get ready for my date with Brody.

Suddenly, Ms. Panzini turned to the group, face red with stress and physical exertion. She called to the student director, "Sarah, run the dance from the bridge. Keep running it until the timing of the turns are right."

Crap. Sarah is definitely going to make us work until the end. No chance of getting an extra twenty minutes to prep. Sarah Young popped up from the floor, a misty area left on the mirror where she'd been leaning. Skylar turned to Hannah and made a face. Hannah raised an eyebrow back. No one can stomach Sarah—especially when Sarah has been given permission to yell at the cast.