A Thousand and One Nights ~ Robert Manion {on hiatus}

chapter 2

(this is not following the timeline at all and I also switched up some of the roles. Sorry not sorry?)

"Livvy!"

"Jonny!" I saw the one and only Jon Matteson sprinting towards me. He tackled me in a bear hug and we fell to the floor, laughing.

"I missed you!"

"And I missed you!" I said, getting up off the floor and straightening out my skirt. Jon and I did a few performances together in Chicago, which is where I was going to college before switching to a digital course to focus on more shows and jobs between shows. He moved away first and I followed soon after, not realizing we both lived in LA until the cast of The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals was released.

"What've you been up to?" he asked me.

"I was in a production of Les Mis and one of Heathers, but other than that, just school and YouTube," I tell him, talking about my YouTube I do on the side. It's not super well known, but I have a good fan base and it's just for fun anyway.

"That sounds fun! Come meet everyone," he said, leading me, and I began to feel slightly overwhelmed by all of this. Most people were already there, we were just waiting on Joey, Kendall, who is playing my character's little sister, and Jaime. Jon ushered me over to a group with Robert, Jeff, Curt, and Lauren.

"Hey guys, this is my friend, Olivia. She's gonna play, Lex. We met in Chicago and she's super cool," Jon told the group.

"Um, hi," I said awkwardly, taking a sip of my coffee to make it seem like I was less nervous than I was.

"Hey, I'm Lauren and I'm playing Linda Monroe," Lauren said. My fangirl senses were going crazy at ACTUALLY MEETING these people I've loved forever.

"I'm Curt and I'm playing President Howard Goodman." (fun fact: the president's last name used to be Phillips, and I just rewatched the stream and that bothered me bc no)

We all continued talking for a while and I was at ease and really enjoying talking to them. Joey, Kendall, and Jaime finally arrived, and I was introduced to all of them, plus the people I hadn't already met.

Finally, Nick called out, "Alright, everyone sit down. We're going to start by reading the script and developing our characters. Then, we may run through some songs if we have time." Everyone walked over to the big circle of chairs, which had binders containing our scripts on them. I picked a chair that was currently isolated, and Robert soon took the seat to my left, and Lauren took the seat to my right.

Getting situated, we opened our scripts to the first page and Nick said, "Action!"

Down a handful of seats away from me, Joey read, "Ahoy there boys and girls! Hop aboard the SS Sniggle, we're setting sail, for giggles. Come on Sniggles!"

Everyone, minus Dylan and Kendall, said in various levels of fake enthusiasm, "Yeah!" and then my first line was up.

"Hey everyone, we're the Sniggles. Don't be scared!" I said in a fake childish voice.

"That was really good, guys. We're gonna listen to the scratch tracks Jeff made for the song now," Nick said, pressing play on his laptop.

We all sat there and listened to the song and I was thinking, wow.

~~~~

(I'm not writing the entire rehearsal)

OKAY, I AM LITERALLY IN LOVE WITH BLACK FRIDAY (Same Olivia, Same). The Wiggly Jingle was really good for not being an actual commercial and the script is fantastic. I had a lot of fun reading with the cast, especially when we were all trying to figure out the dialects of our characters.