Start your story looking down from a stage.

Posted in Thriller and Suspense on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 56 stories

“Southern Comfort and the Kindness of Strangers” by Patrick Samuel

🏆 Winner of Contest #123

(Warning: contains spoilers for A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie.)She stands proud and defiant, glass in hand. The tiara on her head sparkling, eyes burning with feverish gaiety. The stage lights blind her but that's the price you pay to dazzle. Though she can't see them, she feels the audience holding on to her every word, her every breath: the kind of communion you'd damn your soul for. She plays them like an instrument, modulating her performance on their response. It's like swimming every night on a constantly changing se...

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“Wunderbar!” by A.Dot Ram

Submitted to Contest #123

I - SacramentoThe lights blared in Vivian’s eyes, distorting her reflection in the foil mirror. As she dabbed the empty make-up brush over her cheeks, already blushed backstage, she wondered if the audience could see the pallor beneath her mask of make-up. Would Conrad see it? He always saw right through her.She exaggerated her smile until her cheeks brushed the false lashes on her lower lids. It didn’t matter. The show must go on. She listened for the heavy stomp of Conrad's leather boots on the stage's wooden floorboards and ignored the wa...

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“Room at the Inn” by Howard Halsall

Submitted to Contest #123

George Hartley stared down at the rows of assorted parents, parent-governors, teachers and siblings and his stomach tightened like a boiled crustacean. He wiped a moist hand on his innkeeper’s shirt and disguised a dry cough with an acrid smelling palm. Mr Brewer queued George from the wings and directed him to take centre stage. George swallowed and stepped forward to hit his mark underneath sizzling spotlights. Two costumed classmates trudged towards him; one with a false beard and the other bearing a pillow stuffed inside her voluminous g...

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“Curtain Call” by Tatjana Bulovic

Submitted to Contest #123

“Tonight is Ana’s last night. She has been with us for forty-seven years. Thank you for everything, Ana! Ladies and gentlemen, Ana Jackson!” Ana stepped to the microphone and looked at the full theater below her. Her chest swelled as the whole theater stood up and started applauding. “Thank you. Thank you so much!” She wanted to say something clever, something touching, but nothing came out. She just stood there, listening to the applause getting louder and louder. She remembered the day she joined the theater, she was only a few y...

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“Doctor Frickle’s Mysterious Cabinet of Transmogrify” by Connie Elstun

Submitted to Contest #123

Gentlemen, I observed my audience looking positively frabjous in their waiting that night; yes, I took a little peek from the red velvets right before showtime. Curiosity killed the cat, and my magic proficiency cannot hold a candle to Carroll's 71’-word invention of frabjous. What a wordsmith as his reading audience fell for his poppycock hook line and sinker; the same will be valid for me, the magician. I pulled my red velveteen curtain open and hooked it to the left. I began my well-rehearsed opening pat...

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“In The Spotlight” by Greg Gillis

Submitted to Contest #123

As we take our final bows, I look down from the stage at the theatre filled with people. All of them were standing and applauding. I thought back to what brought me to this moment. Nine months earlier: My name is Jacob, a carpenter by trade. The workload has been sparse these last few weeks. A few repairs here and there, and if I were lucky, a kitchen remodel would come up. Currently, I am in between jobs, s...

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“Opening Night” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #123

Shelby Rappaport stood at center stage awaiting the curtain’s rise. He could hear the audience anticipation. What a delicious moment.He loved opening night. They gathered to see him. Yes, they came for a performance. His performance. No one came for the play, when he starred.A delectable variety of women would be on display on the curtain’s rise. Most, of course, would be escorted by husbands, or other men. But the women came for him. The men were place holders. He wagered with himself. How many women stared in adoration? And how many could ...

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“The Purple Rock” by Melony Beard

Submitted to Contest #123

Henry Tiller's evil heckle rose above the others. I had one simple line in the Christmas play and somehow, for the third time this week, I managed to mess that up. "It's a Christmas m... marble." I stuttered. "Miracle. Catherine. The word is miracle." Ms. Haywood's gentle voice whispered. Though the eyes in the crowd seemed to burn holes through my skin, my body shivered in the freezing air of the auditorium. I closed my eyes and tried to hide from the gawking faces staring back at me. I whispered, “Miracle.” Thankfully, it’s the la...

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“Night at the Ballet” by L.J Sunwing

Submitted to Contest #123

The overture is chaotic and is thick in the theatre. From the ground level seats, it is overwhelming but the nosebleed seats allow it to be quieter and drummed out. The box overlooks the stage in a regal way. The stage itself is lit with the vibrancy of the gold and red curtain. The columns in the ballet itself are grand and secure. The onlooker seems far away from the very small performers that will soon enter the stage. As though the man had paid to be royalty for a night and ruled over the rest of the cast members of the ballet, he pats t...

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“Debut Under the Big Top” by Jamie Gregory

Submitted to Contest #123

[CW: The death of a parent is mentioned.] I stood with my feet firmly planted on the small wooden platform twenty feet above the ring and the surrounding crowd. My sweaty, shaking hands gripped the railings beside me in an attempt to steady my trembling body. I looked down, but only with my eyes since I was too afraid to move my head. The ringmaster pranced to the center of the ring to introduce the next act, my act. This time yesterday I was trudging home from the coal mine, covered head to toe in soot, and praying that my days wo...

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“The Foxy Footman” by Carole Penfield

Submitted to Contest #123

The Foxy Footman Copyright 2021, All rights reserved Carole Penfield Bart Just look at me, standing on this stage waiting for the curtain to open, dressed in a footman costume! If only poor Aunt Mary had lived to see this day, she would have been so proud. I remember her taking me to see my first play on her half-day off from work. She saved enough from her pittance wage as lady’s maid to get us each a standing place in the pit. I was awestruck by actors strutting across the boards. “One day, you’ll be a wunnerful actor, Bart,” she ha...

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“Ovation ” by Peter Rosch

Submitted to Contest #123

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.As the other actors make their w...

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“The Ghost of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come” by Haz Cady

Submitted to Contest #123

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 just that this was his first time in a play. He worked at a copy center, for goodness sake. He didn’t know who Stanislavski ...

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“Comfortably Numb, Blindingly Bright ” by Ash Greene

Submitted to Contest #123

TW: Drugs, Loss, Death If you read this story, please comment your thoughts, writing tips, ect. Good or bad, give me some feedback please :) --------------------------------------------------------------- Everything was pitch black and then the lights came on. Blindingly bright lights from somewhere up above, possibly directly over his head. He knows he should be here, but he can’t remember why. What are his lines? His eyes strain down towards the audience, but he can only make out oval shaped blobs that are faces staring back at him. What...

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“Stegatha and Al” by Rachel Stratton

Submitted to Contest #123

“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 the aggressive Allosaurus, growled, watching this unfold from the wings of the stage. He didn’t know how long he could watch Stegatha flounder out there. She looked positively petrified.&nb...

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Ended on 23:59 - Dec 10, 2021 EST

Won by Patrick Samuel 🏆

Title: Southern Comfort and the Kindness of Strangers

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Start your story looking down from a stage.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 56 stories

“Southern Comfort and the Kindness of Strangers” by Patrick Samuel

“Wunderbar!” by A.Dot Ram

“Room at the Inn” by Howard Halsall

“Curtain Call” by Tatjana Bulovic

“Doctor Frickle’s Mysterious Cabinet of Transmogrify” by Connie Elstun

“In The Spotlight” by Greg Gillis

“Opening Night” by John K Adams

“The Purple Rock” by Melony Beard

“Night at the Ballet” by L.J Sunwing

“Debut Under the Big Top” by Jamie Gregory

“The Foxy Footman” by Carole Penfield

“Ovation ” by Peter Rosch

“The Ghost of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come” by Haz Cady

“Comfortably Numb, Blindingly Bright ” by Ash Greene

“Stegatha and Al” by Rachel Stratton

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about a character who always wears a mask (physical or metaphorical).

Begin or end your story with “Well, that was dramatic.”

Write a story about a character practising a speech in front of the mirror. What are they preparing for?

Set your story backstage at the theater.

Contest #123

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

212

Contest entries

134

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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