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Subject: {ASSM} AnnD"Dress Rehearsal"FF(1/4)
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Dress Rehearsal
by Ann Douglas
(ann_douglas@hotmail.com)
Part One
Amber Hall sat in the back booth of the
small diner, her eyes lost in the black cup of coffee
she had been staring at for the last half-hour. The
twenty-three year old had a big problem and felt
she had to get out of her apartment to think about
it.
"Well how’s my favorite television star
doing today?" the tall black waitress asked as she
walked back to the short haired blond with a fresh
pot of coffee in her hand.
The dark skinned twenty-one year old
looked down at the untouched cup of coffee
sitting on the table and knew something was
wrong. Amber had been coming into the dinner
for the last six months, ever since she had gotten
her role on the hit show, Angie O'Neil. It had
been the young woman's big break, landing the
role of Cynthia Pennington, one of Angie's office
girls. She had been almost a total unknown at the
time; with only a few guest shots to her credit.
"What's wrong, girlfriend?" Heather Cox
said as she sat down on the opposite side of the
booth.
Amber and her had struck up a
camaraderie of sorts over the last months.
Especially since Heather had aspirations of
becoming an actress herself, majoring in drama at
the local University. Despite her success, Amber
was still a small town girl at heart and welcomed
the younger woman's friendship.
Heather knew her boss wouldn't complain
if she took a little break, it wasn't busy this time of
day. Besides even if old man Robinson had a
problem with her talking some time to talk to
Amber, he wouldn’t get on Heather’s case about
it. Not when Heather knew all there was to know
about how he was doing the nasty with Mildred
Wilson, the cook he had hired a few months back.
No, he’d never take the chance of his wife even
getting a suspicion of something like that.
Especially when there were all those sharp utensils
in the kitchen.
"They didn't cancel the show, did they?"
Heather asked, thinking that might be the cause of
Amber's depression.
If the Network had canceled the show,
Heather would've been greatly surprised. Angie
O'Neil had been the surprise hit of the year.
Written off at first as just another office drama, it
had burst out of the mold to become a solid top
ten show.
"No, but I think they're going to cancel
me." the dejected girl said.
"Why?" Heather asked, visibly concerned
for her friend.
"Because I screwed up at rehearsal today."
Amber said. "And I heard the director say if I did
it when we taped it tomorrow, he'd give my part
to someone else."
"He told you that?" the younger girl
asked.
"Not directly, but I overheard him telling
the producer."
"Well what was the big screw up?" the
drama student asked.
"Well, I guess I'd better start from the
beginning." Amber said, thankful to have
someone to talk to about it. "You know how
important sweep weeks are to a Television Show,
right?"
Heather nodded her head in understanding.
A sweep week was a benchmark for shows
ratings. The viewership numbers they got during
sweeps set the amount they could charge for
commercial time. And after all, making money for
the Network was what television was all about.
"And you know how a lot of shows pull
out all the stops to get people to watch. Especially
when they are on against another popular show,
which of course is doing to same thing to draw
the numbers."
"Sure, I understand all that." Heather said.
"Well, Angie O'Neil is no different. They
found out that two of the other Networks were
going to run an all out effort to knock Angie right
into last place during sweeps next week. They had
a meeting a couple of days ago and decided that
our original story for next week wasn’t a big
enough rating booster. So instead they announced
they were going to have a storyline where Angie
kisses one of the girl's in the office."
"You have to be kidding." Heather almost
groaned.
The girl/girl kiss was becoming more and
more frequent on Network TV. It had made an
appearance on both Roseanne and LA Law, and
most recently three appearances on Ally McBeal.
Almost now a cliché, it was nevertheless almost
always a ratings booster. Especially if it was two
good-looking women doing the kissing.
The Networks were always saying they
put things like that into programs to push the
envelope and show how tolerant they were. How
they weren't just appealing to what she considered
juvenile male sexual fantasies. Heather would
believe the Network boasts when they put two
leading men making out on a prime time show.
"No, I'm not kidding," Amber said. "And
guess whose character they picked to have Angie
lip lock with."
Just her asking the question gave Heather
the answer. If the producers were going to use a
gimmick like that to draw viewers, then picking
Amber was the first thing she agreed with them
on. Amber Hall was, in her opinion, the most
attractive girl on the show.
"And you didn't want to do the scene?"
"Quite the contrary," the actress said with
an excitement in her voice. "I almost jumped for
joy when they told me. Think about it for a
moment. I'd be the center of attention for almost
the entire episode."
Actual on screen time was something
every actor and actress was always conscious of.
"So what happened?" a now confused
Heather asked.
"Actual filming for the episode doesn't
really start until tomorrow, but they scheduled a
dress rehearsal for today. Just to see how the kiss
scene would play out."
"And the dress rehearsal?" Heather asked.
"Turned into a disaster, at least for me."
Amber said. "Everything was going great, I had
my lines down pat and was right on my marks. I
have to say, I had some really great scenes too."
Heather could see in Amber's eyes how
important this all was to her.
"Then came the big moment, Angie and I
looked into each other's eyes, her hand took mine
and then ... I started laughing."
"Laughing?" Heather repeated.
"Giggling actually," the blond said.
"Loud, uncontrollable giggling."
Heather responded by giggling herself.
"I'm sorry, Amber." she apologized. "I
can't help it. I just never expected you to say
that."
"At first, the director took it in stride,
saying that sometimes it happened, especially
when you were doing a love scene. But after the
fourth and fifth try, I could tell he was getting
pretty annoyed."
"What was the matter?"
"I don't know. I just couldn't look at Kate
and seriously think, now I'm going to kiss her and
not laugh."
Kate Douglas, an attractive 44 year old,
played Angie O'Neil in the series.
"I apologized over and over, but the
producer said it had been a long day and we might
as well wrap it up. That we'd start fresh in the
morning."
Heather could now see frustration in the
older girl's eyes.
"After everyone else had left, I went back
onto the set to think about it. The producer and
the director were sitting there talking about my
performance, or lack of it. I heard them say they
should make some alternate changes in the script
to make Monique the girl who winds up kissing
Angie - just in case."
Monique St. George played Virginia
Brooks on the series, Cynthia's main rival in the
office.
"I also heard them say if I couldn't pull off
a simple scene like this, then maybe they made a
mistake hiring someone with my inexperience."
"That's not good." Heather said.
"No it's not." Amber admitted.
"So what are you going to do about it?"
"I don't know." the actress said with an air
of finality.
The two women sat there in silence for a
few moments as each tried to think of something
more to say.
"You know, I feel pretty silly offering you
advice about acting..." Heather started to say.
"Go ahead, cause I'm at a dead end."
Amber interrupted.
"Well in acting class they said that you
should always use what you know to improve
your performance."
"I've been told the same thing." Amber
said. "But I don't get your point."
"Lets look at it another way," Heather
said. "You remember that movie you were in,
what was it called, Sorority Girl's Pool Party?"
Amber cringed. That B Film had been her
first screen credit. A low budget tit and ass film,
the kind that played in drive ins and drew teen
boys and couples looking for a make out movie.
"I'd rather forget that." Amber grinned.
"The point is, you had a love scene in that
movie." the waitress said. "As I remember it, a
rather hot love scene."
Amber thought back to when she was
making that film. She had been hesitant about
doing that scene, especially because the script
called for her to appear topless. It wasn't that she
had a bad body, actually the reverse was true.
The twenty-year-old was just nervous about
showing off her breasts to thousands of
moviegoers.
The movie producers were quick to point
out that if she didn't want the role, there were
literally a thousand unemployed young actresses
that did. The final bit of advice that made her do
it came from an older actress on the film.
"Honey," she'd said. "When you take your
bra off, trust me, no one is going to be looking at
or going to remember your face."
"I still don't get your point?" Amber said.
"Well you didn't seem to be giggling when
you lost your blouse and made out with that guy
playing your boyfriend." Heather noted. "How
did you manage that?"
"I made believe I was making out with my
real boyfriend at the time." she answered.
"Bingo, you used what you knew."
Heather smiled.
"But I could hardly make believe Kate is
my boyfriend." Amber insisted.
Heather hadn't considered that. When she
pictured Kate Douglas in her mind, she'd be hard
pressed to think of her as a man either.
"Unfortunately I don't have any experience
kissing a woman, got any you could spare?"
Amber laughed.
It took a moment for her to realize that
Heather wasn't laughing. She stopped and looked
at the expression on her friend's face.
"You're kidding." Amber said.
"No, I'm not." the younger girl said.
"You've actually kissed a girl, a real kiss,
not one you give a friend."
"I've done a lot more than kiss one."
Heather said, hoping the revelation didn't shock
her too much.
"Maybe you should be the one kissing
Angie O'Neil." Amber grinned, taking the news in
stride.
"You think they'd hire me?" Heather
asked.
"I'm afraid Kate wouldn't want to do a
scene with someone like you." Amber confessed.
Heather suddenly became very angry in
her tone.
"Don't tell me she had a problem with
sisters." she said.
"Oh no," Amber said, realizing that was
what she had said made it sound like. "What she
has a problem with is appearing with girls who
have bigger boobs than she does. Kate feels men
wind up looking at them, and not her."
Heather looked down at her large bosom
and laughed. This time Amber joined her.
"So I guess we know now what we have
to do about your problem." Heather said,
changing the subject.
"What's that?" Amber said still laughing,
feeling better than she had all afternoon.
"Make you feel more comfortable about
kissing a woman." Heather grinned.
"What?" Amber exclaimed, no longer
laughing.
"Unless of course you'd rather see
Monique saying your lines." she smiled.
Amber thought about that for a moment,
then smiled back. No, that wasn't something she
wanted to see.
Heather had to get back to work, the
dinner rush was starting. She told Amber to go
out and have a nice dinner, the food here really
isn't all that good she confided. Then meet her
back here at eight when she got off.
"We'll go out and talk some more," she'd
said as she climbed out of the booth. "Wear
something nice."
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
(missing parts may be found at)
Ann Douglas Web Page
/~Ann_Douglas/
ASSTR Donation Page
/donations.html
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