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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Start your story looking down from a stage.

Posted in General on Dec 3, 2021

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✍️ 62 stories

“The Aria” by Richard Hann

The Aria By Richard Hann Violins began to play a soft melody as the flutes echoed their tune and the soft chatter among the audience dimmed to a complete silence. Ida twisted her fingers together nervously as she had done twice before with each performance. She scrunched her toes, feeling the wooden stage beneath them, she stil...

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“The Things We Leave Behind” by Reina Johnson

He memorized the planes of his father’s face, so that he saw signs of him each time a member of the audience’s eyelids crinkled or they leaned forward with their hands clasped together. His mind transformed the dimly lit auditorium. He imagined lights ensconced in gold and burgundy velvet furnishing the metal folding chairs. Tomás’s nicotine stained teeth sank into his lower lip as he bit back a smile. He nudged the elbo...

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“Ovation ” by Peter Rosch

I say my last line, "God bless us, Every One!"Then, just shy of the stage's apron, I look down and into the auditorium, trying my hardest to go evil eyes—eyes that scream, screw you all—upon what are supposed to be my victims.I wasn't expecting applause, but listen to it!Of course, it is the holidays... Their enthusiastic adoration could be for any number of reasons: the story itself, the typical up-tick in polite behavior around this time, the eggnog that had been served in the foyer prior to the performance...

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“When The Lights Came Up” by Maureen Mac Lennan

Some sex, hints of violence. When The Lights Came Up All he could think was that the costume smelled musty with undertones of sweat, and that led to wondering how many people had worn it over the years. The theater group had been running for over fifty years, he’d heard that from the stage manager just last week. The mind boggles he sneered inwardly. It hadn’t been his...

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“The Ghost of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come” by Ace Dennis

Dev looked down from the stage into the wings at the stage manager, Alicia. He knew that as an actor, he was supposed to keep his attention focused on the scene happening before him onstage, but he was only a partygoer. “Being a true actor means being present in the scene” or the Stanislavski method or whatever the director had gone on about on the first day of rehearsal. It wasn’t that he hadn’t paid attention, it was j...

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“Stegatha and Al” by Rachel Stratton

“And it’s showtime!” Stegatha, the stellar Stegosaurus stomped onto the stage. She was nervous to sing on a stage for the first time but was also confident in her musical ability. When she looked out at all the dinosaurs in the audience, down from the stage, she froze. “I don’t know if I can do this!” She thought and began to shake from nerves. Al ...

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“I follow where my thought flows” by Sim K

I start playing the keys, flowing through them as smooth and sharp as a river may go. I don’t know if I’ll make it, for there are too many obstacles, pieces of wood floating downstream, hell-bent on interrupting my flow. I’m a sea now……. Or perhaps a ship floating on its surface..... I can hear violins, sweet and mournful, (is that how they sound?) in perfect rhythm ...

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“Final Costume Change ” by Peyton Cone

Everything has led up to this moment. All the work put into these last few months—these last few years— is finally coming full circle. Here’s the outcome. Right in front of me. I should feel accomplished. My dreams have come true and I’m in the midst of the proof.    Yet all I see are blinding lights weighing me down with expectations. Ear splitting applause I know I deserve but can’t seem to stomach.     W...

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“Real Magic” by David Partington

A tumbler of scotch, intended to combat stage fright, was beginning to take effect as The Amazing Felix invited a young woman to join him onstage.    A spotlight followed Elyse as she made her way up the aisle then climbed the steps to stand alongside Felix. She squinted in the bright light as she looked out into the crowd.      "Have we ever met before?" asked Felix.    Elyse had been his assistant ...

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“The Incident ” by Michaela Edo

The IncidentIf there’s one moment where I can say I’ve truly never felt more alive, it would be right now. Looking back on it all, I wouldn’t change a thing. As I stand on stage, looking down at the same Nike Cortez’s I wore when my life fell apart, I recall a time where life was going nowhere. Life lost purpose. It was more than just a blip in the way; it was as if someone had ripped my heart out, put it in front of me to watch it break. A series of unfortunate events; a sudden death in the fami...

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“FROM A STAGE” by John Minnaar

FROM A STAGE I stood there stunned, not knowing what was expected of me, and I was shaking just from being goaded into something that I did not feel part of nor felt I had attained – I was just a good scholar. Isn’t that what everyone was doing here! When I looked down on all the people in front of me from that height I wasn’t sure wha...

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“Practice Your Look” by John Steckley

 Practice Your Look It was very much an experimental play, called “Long Ago and Far Away”. But Hal needed the work, and it had been too long a time since his last acting gig. He had no lines to rehearse, no words to remember.  And he spent almost all of the play standing in one spot, which was in a circle painted black, so he didn’t have to worry about where he should be at any time.  So it should...

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“The Yi Variant” by Rowena Marsh

[This story satirizes responses to a devastating illness.]Senator Harold Loughty, perched high on the stage, raked his gaze across the packed and noisy house. He coughed once into the microphone and his audience fell silent, waiting. After pausing to extend the silence, he fired out, “Kids. I love kids.” He cocked his head upward to question the rafters, “You know?” Turning back to his supporters, he answered, “Kids say the darnedest things. My lovely wife Lola is pregnant, and we couldn’t possibly be happier....

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“The Nativity Goat” by Tanya Humphreys

The small black goat looked out into the immense auditorium and sighed. The cavernous space was devoid of an audience, each of the 600 upholstered maroon seats stared back at him with taunting flat faces. “Jaxon Jesse Simpson!” Screeched the teacher. Literally. She was a puffy, square-shaped screech owl with chestnut tufts for ears, and round golden eyes the size of saucers behind her wire framed glasses. Jaxon jumped and glowered at her. His scruffy eyebrows pulled into hoods over his eyes. The th...

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“The Theater” by Jeremiah Benson

To look down from the stage is to see the world in its many pieces. Of course, from the audience's view, we are but pawns and rooks, knights and queens, sliding across the stage according to the kings' bidding; but we do so only for their amusement. In truth, we are free. We are free because we are aware that it's all a lie.After each night's performance, I return back into the world as a fool. Last evening I was asked to accompany Isabelle, a young Portuguese woman I only met briefly, to an event of nobles. Before we le...

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