Joy on Stage Part Ch. 01

"Harry... I'm not..."

He lowered himself to his knees fast enough that it seemed almost like he fell. And she cried out in anguish and sexual pain as Harry embraced her and began to pump at her body. I wondered how they could be faking, but I was sure they were. I palmed away the sweat on my forehead and licked my lips.

"Joy's line," Rosemary said, distracted, and I almost missed that it was my line. I called it out from my place off-stage.

"Doesn't it feel good to get what you want, Harry?"

"Noooooo!" sobbed Tracy, and I felt terrible for her. I felt guilty, as if I myself had done it and not the character. This play was such a mindfuck. At least I knew these people as actors and professionals, I had that out, I couldn't imagine what I would leave the theater thinking if I didn't have that advantage.

"That's good, that's good," Rosemary said. I think she was teary-eyed. I almost wished I was one of them, that I had given a performance to impress her that much.

They sat on the bed and received notes from Rosemary, both of them remaining nude before she suggested they get dressed and try it again. I had to take the stage since we were going to be blocking it from here on out like the rest of the play.

"That was fantastic," I whispered to Michelle as she got dressed again. "I suppose it was no big deal for you."

"It was scary as hell," she laughed, then she added, "I've never been naked in public like that before."

I found that so hard to believe. I asked her why she agreed to do the play, did Rosemary tell her how explicitly she was going to stage it?

"Oh yeah," Michelle told me, smiling. "She doesn't like surprises. I thought about it overnight. I had probably made my decision when I got the call, though. I saw the play performed in New York—oh, I told you already. But they really deflated it. It fell so flat. They had some risky ideas and they pulled back from them at the last minute because they knew some critics would rip them apart for it. That's what happens when you don't take those risks. I know this is a great play. I really want to see it done right. I want to be a part of doing it right, making it memorable... making it effective."

"Me, too," I said, reminded suddenly of the fact I was in my underwear. "I guess I would go pretty far to do a good play. Do a good job in a good play. But that scene... it's so tough! And I'm not sure I could ever really be naked like that... physically intimate with another actor like that... in front of everyone. I went out for Tracy at first, I thought my age and hers would make it a good role for me. I'm kind of terrified of thinking what would have happened if I had gotten it."

"Oh, I think it's harder to watch than it is to do. Well... maybe that's not quite true... but when you know you have to do it, you rise to the occasion," Michelle said. I looked Walt's way and we both burst out into girlish laughs, hoping he hadn't heard us. With a straighter face, she told me, "You know, one day I'll be eighty... I'll have grown grandchildren of my own... and they'll be telling me how crazy and wild they are. And I'll get to wipe the smirks off their faces by telling them I once mimed getting fucked by a famous actor's son in front of a live audience."

"That would be a fun story to tell," I agreed, laughing harder. "Maybe by the time I'm eighty I will have my own naked-on-stage story to tell."

The fact was, I would have my own before opening night of the play.

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