“Good call.” She touched Lauren on the wrist as she passed, which caught Lauren off guard. She stared at Carly’s hand, briefly on her arm. “I’ll let you enjoy it then. Really nice to meet you.” Then Carly Daniel and what was left of her irresponsible iced coffee glided through the room, speaking with the other members of the cast, laughing with them, and remaining a palpable presence.
She was a force, that was for sure. Lauren just hadn’t yet categorized what kind: good, evil, or somewhere in between. Regardless, the temperature in the space had changed noticeably when Carly arrived, and Lauren had a feeling that working on Starry Nights was going to be a handful. Nothing she was wasn’t up for, however. She’d better buckle up.
* * *
Good God. That stage manager, Lauren, didn’t mess around. That’s what Carly had come to understand in just the few days she’d known her. When she’d arrived for their third rehearsal six minutes late, only six minutes, Lauren had pulled her aside and felt the need to point that out, too. How important were six minutes in the scheme of life? That was actually a great step in the right direction. Why had Lauren not noticed that? The progress. The day before she’d been twelve.
“We need to talk about your tardiness,” Lauren had said calmly to Carly during a quiet moment the day after that. “This is the third time in three days. It’s eating into our rehearsal time, and I need you to make more of an effort to be here before we begin. Shoot for fifteen minutes early, maybe? And if there’s anything I can do to help the process, please tell me. That’s what I’m here for.”
“Are you offering to wake me up in the morning, Lauren?” She’d said it playfully, because let’s be honest, Lauren was really cute, a little too serious, and Carly was a harmless flirt. The comment fell flat. Ouch. Not that kind of environment, apparently. A shame, too. Lauren was probably very straight, and likely taken. She was a looker with all that thick brown hair paired with a really pretty pair of green eyes, or were they hazel? No, definitely green.
Lauren blinked patiently. “If that’s what you need, I will happily be your wake-up call. I’m serious about making sure we’re able to begin on time each day.”
For the love of a good martini! She’d been only six minutes late. Since when did that constitute a crisis? Their play would still come together. In fact, she’d been impressed with herself lately when it came to focus and responsibility. She’d been hours late for film shoots and heard less about it. People tended to give you whatever you wanted when your name was on the poster. The theater world, she was finding, was way less forgiving and uptight as hell. She swallowed her reaction, however, remembering Alika’s advice to be good.
“Got it, coach. I’ll work on punching the clock more to your liking, so you don’t have to worry about me so much. I mean, unless you want to.”
Lauren smiled. If the coach nickname had rubbed her wrong, Carly never would have known. Lauren-the-organized-beauty was a puzzle, never giving away too much of what she was feeling. It made Carly want to find out and unwrap that mystery one piece at a time. There was a real girl underneath all of the business, and maybe one day, she’d get to meet her.
An hour later and here Carly sat, waiting for notes from Ethan Moore on what was turning out to be a more complicated character than she’d ever anticipated.
Ethan met her gaze with a thoughtful one of his own. “Carly, I love the frustrated sink to the floor, but can we try it again, the moment where Ashley notices Mandy nearby just after?”
Carly nodded at Ethan and reset herself in the scene. “Yeah, of course. As in a fleeting glance, or something more meaningful?”
“Let Ashley’s stare linger a moment before she recesses into her thoughts again. Notice something about Mandy. You choose what that is. Oh, and I love the action of you blowing your hair off your forehead. You did it earlier.”
“Great. I’ll keep it.” She studied Evelyn, who sat waiting on the floor of the faux airport for them to pick up again. Evelyn, Carly had decided, was a decent enough actress, but certainly not very giving within their scene work. Carly didn’t have a lot to play off emotionally. They were supposed to be constructing this deep, destined-to-be relationship a little at a time, but with Evelyn as her counterpart, they were falling flat. Surely Ethan felt that. Hopefully, they still had time.
This whole process was a trip. Carly had never been allotted this much rehearsal on any one project or character. With screen work, there was rehearsal, sure, but it was short, and then you shot the scene, moved forward to the next, and never looked back. The rehearsal process for the play, however, came with a never before experienced intensity for her. It blew Carly’s mind how deep they were going with each nuanced moment, how much time they invested in just two minutes of the play. The technique allowed her to sink her teeth into this role like she’d never done before. The jury was still out on whether this had been a good move, career-wise, but on the plus side, she was learning a lot from working with Ethan Moore. He damn well knew his stuff. They’d gone over objectives, tactics, line-by-line intentions, all of it, and they still had over three quarters of the play ahead of them. Mind-boggling.
“You good, Evelyn?” Carly asked before beginning. Evelyn nodded politely and looked away as if choosing not to engage further. “Before we start, do you need anything more from me in the scene? Or less, for that matter? I’m open.”
“I’m good,” Evelyn said coolly.
Inside, Carly sighed. The two of them definitely had different processes. Carly liked finding the moments in the rehearsal room, taking a more organic approach. Evelyn showed up with every choice already made in advance. What you saw on the first run-through of the day with Evelyn was often the same set of choices she ended with. Didn’t allow for a ton of collaboration.
As Carly reset herself for another run of the scene, she stole a glance at Lauren Prescott, who sat at the table next to Ethan, complete with her clipboard and series of file folders, all neatly laid out. She was studiously scribbling something in her production book. From the moment they’d first met, she’d noticed Lauren. She came with a quality that was hard to look away from. She carried herself with confidence, and while she seemed friendly, there was also a removed quality that drove Carly nuts. She’d tried several times to break through that shell, to only fleeting success.
“Lauren?” she’d asked on their last break of the day, because she was apparently five years old and simply couldn’t seem to leave it alone.
“Yep. What can I do for you?”
She rested her chin in her hand, hoping Lauren would make eye contact. “How many tickles do you think it takes to make an octopus laugh? I’m just curious. I’ve been dying to figure it out. Up all night. It’s a problem.” She flashed what she hoped was a killer smile.
Lauren looked up from her laptop with confusion in her green eyes that quickly dissolved into what could best be described as slight amusement. Not a full-on smile, no, but the start of one. “I don’t know, Carly. Why don’t you tell me how many? I have a feeling you know.”
“Ten, Lauren. Ten tickles to make an octopus laugh. Can you imagine?”