Chapter 15 A bag full of ball dust Part 2

Power Suit begins to call us up one at a time. The Casting Director places the contract in front of us individually handing us his pen and we are told to sign.

We begin to form a line, like cattle to the slaughter.

"I need to read my contract", says someone. "No time", says the Casting Director. “We need to finish this in the next 20 minutes so we can get everything in gear” We sign and leave.

I lie in bed and look at the shadows on my ceiling; I drift in and out of sleep all night long.

We spend the next day in rehearsal, changing everything that we learned this far. We put things back into the show that we cut during the second week. We learn new sections that change after lunch. We have learned every possible combination to this show that we can learn. No one is retaining anything. We push on."Lots to do", say's the Assistant Director.

We are now rehearsing new things every day, changing old things from 30 minutes ago and nothing is ever set. We are told that “It’s up to be changed”

A sign is posted on the call board of the theatre after rehearsal. I can see a group standing around reading it. The heads of the company will be throwing us a Christmas party before we leave the island. The note goes on to say that they will pay for the first two drinks and then we will pay for anything we drink after that. Clearly they know this group.

The night for the party arrives; the company has reserved a special bus to drive us to a restaurant. We dress in our finest clothes and walk into the parking lot of the condo. Small talk is made as the bus arrives and we pile in and drive off to the party. Everyone is happy that at least the end is in sight. The mood is very light, we joke and laugh, we act like children hopped up on sugar. I haven't seen the Cast this happy in months.

The bus climbs the long hill to the restaurant, and the setting is magical. Twinkling Christmas lights cover all the trees and the moon is shining bright in the sky. We enter the place, warm lighting falls across the walls and soft music is playing. The Cast grows completely silent as we look around. “It’s a trap,” I whisper. This gets several giggles in response.

The crew at the restaurant hands out Raffle tickets as we make our ways to our seats. We look around the room with our mouths hanging open, we are in awe. The Company has gone above and beyond to put this together.

We have made it. We went into hell and we came out alive.

The heads of the Company are patting themselves on the back as they take their seats at the front of the room. I am reminded of the Bride and Grooms table.

One of them picks up the microphone, asks “Is this on?” and starts the show. It starts as a roast to the other company heads."We had a hard struggle, but we made it"' says one. I imagine him wearing dance clothes and sweating next to me. They continue the show with back patting and stories about each other’s wives. All the time they are laughing and pushing food into their mouths. In my eyes they turn into little pigs. The Cast look at each other in horror as they finish the show by swilling down liquor.

‘Attention, Attention,” one of heads yells into the microphone. “It’s time to start the raffle!” They all scream in excitement.

The raffle begins and numbers are drawn out of a hat. It is clear that this is fixed as we all begin to win prizes. So many company gifts are given out.

We drink and dance late into the night, another announcement is made."We have gift bags for everyone." The heads yell “Hurrah!” Everyone receives a bag with a watch and glass Christmas ornament. Everyone eagerly opens their bags. "Hey I got a bag of dust!"yells one cast member.

For the first time we are treated really well, maybe It won’t be that bad, maybe it’s all over and we will move on to the next phase. We are sure that it will be smooth sailing from here on out.

We leave the party happier than we have ever been, safe in the knowledge that things would get better.

Boy, were we wrong.

to be continued......

Geoffrey Doig-Marx holds all written and electronic rights to his writting "Not Only Magic Floats". It can not be reprinted in part or whole without his written consent.