SECOND CHANCE - A3! Act Addict Actors

Chapter Ten

Sorry for not posting in a while-- I'll try to post a bit more often :)

The picture above was drawn by CoriOleander, my friend, of Kiro Li-- she's done all of the OCs wearing different outfits on Amino, and I'll eventually show them all here too!

Adaya Ispek's Perspective

Since it hadn't been my turn to show up on scene, I watched the rehearsal from the sidelines. Both Masumi and Sakuya were bantering back and forth, much more easily than before. Sakuya seemed to be following a bit of a stricter schedule than usual, which had improved his acting and stamina.

"I'm worried about you, Julius," Itaru started, walking towards Masumi after Sakuya had exited the scene. "I have to protect you, as your foster brother."

I stared at Itaru in awe— his perception change in acting had changed after our attempts to get him to stay in the troupe. It also seemed like everyone's special schedules given by the director helped as well.

--

"Romeo... Are you Romeo Montague? You've got to be lying. Are you really Romeo from the Montague family?" Masumi asked, settling into his role almost perfectly. "Romeo, why must you be Romeo Montague?"

"Be it your family or name, Julius, throw it all away!" Sakuya yelled— it was as if he actually were desperate for Masumi to stay. "We have an ever bigger dream than that!"

"No. I can't throw away my family." Masumi said, his monotonous tone reappearing in that line. That line had been a slight bit different from the rest, not as much emotion in it.

The director seemed to notice it too.

"Can you repeat that line one more time, Masumi?" she asked him. She wrote a few things down, then signaled him to redo it.

"No. I can't throw away my family."

She let a small, dissatisfied sigh slip out. Lost in thought, she stared at Masumi for about a minute without saying anything.

"How about you say these lines while thinking about your real family?" I suggested after a moment— the director nodded to Masumi.

"...That won't change anything," he muttered quietly. It'd possibly been the first time he seemed to be so meek in that manner.

"I see..." the director said, scribbling some notes down. She seemed to conclude something after a moment. "You completed your special schedule, correct?"

"Yeah. I found a favorite performance."

"Try thinking about how the actors from that play would rehearse the line," she suggested. "Do it again."

He recited the line once more, the quality of the run through being better than the ones before.

"That's good!" she said, smiling brightly. Her smile seemed to make Masumi smile— which was something he didn't seem to do often for anyone besides the director.

"Thank goodness..."

"But it'll be good if you put a little bit of emotion while saying that. Let's work hard until the actual performance. It may be difficult, but I think your performance will be way better if you say that line based on your own feelings."

"I'll try..."

"Alright everyone," she said, closing her notebook— that typically signified the end of practice for the day. "We only have a little bit more time until the show. Let's all work hard!"

"Speaking of which," Tsuzuru added, piping into the conversation. "Have we started selling tickets?"

"Oh! I advertised to some people earlier." Sakuya told us all. "Selling tickets... All of this is making me excited!"