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Date Posted: 15:07:05 11/13/07 Tue
Author: Mary
Author Host/IP: PMP.jax.org / 209.222.204.220
Subject: Characters & Shadows - Chapter 8
In reply to: Mary 's message, "Characters & Shadows - Cont." on 14:30:27 11/11/07 Sun

Chapter 8

Silence. There was nothing but silence.

Michael just stood on the stage speechless at the incredible talent that he just witnessed happen in this theater. He had worked with actresses for years, some of the absolute best in the business. But none of them brought such a passion and a depth of feeling as this woman just did. She felt it. She truly felt it. Each word, every breath, each movement. She felt all of it in her soul and that shined through her as she literally became Katernya in the space of a heartbeat.

He had never seen anything like it. He had never felt anything like it.

Madeline was also speechless at the moment. She had at least had some sense of the talent that Nikita held, having seen her perform before many years ago. But now it was so much more than it was then. Madeline had not expected this at all and she hated to be surprised more than almost anything else. There was no way to just summarily throw her out of the theater at this point, not after that performance. Madeline noted that she even managed to keep Paul’s attention during that scene, not something that was easily done at all. Paul normally ignored the auditions leaving the ‘mundane’ task to Madeline. But this time she had captured his apt attention. Not a good sign.

No, Madeline thought to herself, this was going to be much harder than she had originally thought. Michael needed to be controlled right now. It could not feel like he had the upper hand in his relationship with her and Paul. If Madeline simply dismissed Nikita without just cause then Michael would be resentful and unwilling to work with another actress. That avenue would not work at all. She knew they were going to have to be more cunning than that in order to make this work to their advantage.

So she did the only thing that was an option. She started to clap. “Fabulous. That was just wonderful!”

Nikita meanwhile had not moved from her spot when she finished the scene. She had closed her eyes and was just concentrating on breathing. She had forgotten what it really felt like. What it really took to do it. She shouldn’t be here and she knew it. She couldn’t do this, there was no way. He had been right all those years ago, she couldn’t do it. Oh she could do some of the shows. The easy parts. But as he said so long ago, she wasn’t cut out for the really hard stuff. The real world. She jumped at the sound of clapping.

She turned to see Michael at her side and Madeline making her way to the stage. Michael had a concerned look in his eyes, “Are you ok?”

Before she even had a chance to answer Madeline moved in and hugged her tightly, “You are amazing. Your energy just shines on the stage. Michael, don’t you agree?”

Michael continued to look at Nikita and the look in her eyes, “Yes. Yes, she was very good.”

“Good? She was much better than good. Now we have to talk about this Nikita. There are all kinds of things to discuss. Your schedule, rehearsals, readings, we do have to work a little on your projection and stance but those can be easily fixed with enough hard work…”

Michael watched as Madeline led Nikita away from him and continued to talk to her. He wasn’t even sure that Madeline’s words were registering with Nikita. Something was not right, but he had no idea what it was.

“Madeline,” Paul called from the seats, “Can we discuss this in private for a moment? Now!”

She tried to hide a sigh, “Yes of course. Nikita would you excuse me for a moment while I talk with Paul?”

“Yeah, sure.” she politely replied.

“Michael, you’ll keep Nikita company and not let her slip out of the theater this time?”

Although Madeline’s tone was light, Michael was not amused at the implication. Actually he was just worried about the quiet, and now quite pale, Nikita. He graced Madeline with simply a look and a nod of his head as a reply.

“All right Paul. Let’s talk. But you two stay right here, there are other things we have to discuss tonight.”

*****

As Michael watched Paul lead Madeline away he went to Nikita and sat her down in the front row and kneeled in front of her.

“You want to tell me what is going through your mind right now?” he asked gently. She obviously was shaken and he
didn’t want her any more afraid than what she was already.

She took a deep breath but couldn’t bring herself to look at him, “This was a mistake.”

Those were the words that Michael feared. “You have to tell me more than that Nikita.”

She didn’t like the way he said that to her, almost like an order and it rubbed a raw nerve, “No Michael I don’t.”

“Nikita, please….”

“No. I tried. I was terrible. I can’t do this.”

Michael was stunned that she thought that of herself, “You can’t be serious. Didn’t you hear Madeline? You were fantastic. You became Katernya in seconds, every part of you became her. Didn’t you feel that?”

Of course I felt it she thought to herself. I feel it so deeply that I can’t separate myself from it. Why can’t anyone see that? Then she remembered, there was one person who knew that. <i>He</i> knew that. She would not take that chance again.

“I didn’t feel anything. I read some lines, you read some lines, it didn’t work. I think I should just go home and forget about this.”

*****

“Are you out of your mind praising her like that? What are you thinking?” Paul was livid and he was not going to let Madeline get away with this.

Madeline stood in the office and quickly closed the door. “I’m thinking that we don’t have another way out of this situation.”

“Of course we do. We send her packing. We’ve done it with hundreds of other under-qualified actresses, they are a dime a dozen and you know it!”

“The problem with your scenario is that she isn’t under-qualified at all.” Madeline calmly spoke with a confident voice hoping to calm Paul down so they could discuss this rationally.

“You can’t be serious.”

“I am deadly serious. She has a strong presence on stage. And with Michael they play off each other beautifully. There is a chemistry there that when fully developed can be used to our advantage.”

Paul sat across from her, “Our advantage? How?”

“Michael is already attached to this woman. There is obviously an attraction, I think it may go both ways. He seemed concerned for her as we just left the theater.”

When Madeline paused Paul grew frustrated, “So?”

“Paul we can’t ignore that the girl was good. Michael was right there, he knows how well she did. So we can’t just cast that aside. It has to be factored in. But she is also unsure of herself. We can use that lack of self-confidence to, shall we say, tarnish the image that Michael has of her in his mind.”

“And then?”

“If we make Michael’s success dependent on her success, since he ‘found’ her, and if she starts to fail in the role….”

Paul smiled as he finally got it, “Then Michael will dump her, since he can’t afford a failure, all on his own and we have complete plausible deniability.”

Madeline gave a pretty smile, “Exactly.”

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