This is an audition piece I wrote for this year's drama festival. I tried to capture the feeling of being backstage, after the audience is seated and the anticipation of the curtain opening.
AUDITION PIECE
BACKSTAGE dimly lit. ACTOR warming up on stage behind the front curtain as the sounds of the audience can faintly be heard.
ACTOR: There is nothing like the smell of backstage. In the air, traces of every actor, every play, every performance. The air holds notes sung by the most beautiful voices, words spoken to and caught by the heart and dreams of young actors of their moment in the spotlight. The memories are thick and unforgettable and the feeling is beautiful. It is the only place I feel alive.
The way the dust from the curtains pass through the soft light as I tilt my head upward to the fly loft and take one long last deep and filling breath before exhaling all my nerves and worries like glass marbles rolling downstage centre, gently whispering under the front curtain across the apron and each of them jumping to their death, living just long enough to give the audience a taste of what I am feeling - behind the curtain.
I am in love with this moment because I hold a secret the audience has yet to see. I know the lines that will break their heart, I know the scenes that will make them laugh and I know the end that will launch them from their seat in a sea of whistles and thunderous applause. Right now they are taking their seats and looking at the stage with bated breath awaiting their own escape, the magic of the theatre…just seconds away from two friends meeting for the very first time from opposite sides of the curtain.
I am ready, it is time. Open the curtains, and let the lights burn away the shadows of doubt.
CURTAINS OPEN.
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© Doghaus
9 February 2018
I own all rights to the text in this post.
Image https://goo.gl/images/7SUTpo
Honestly,
Doghaus
