WORKING THE BOOTH

"Great. I can't believe I have to do an entire run with that jerk Kory," Julien thought to himself as he drove to the theater. He'd never actually met Kory, but Julien knew the man by reputation. Kory had rubbed a lot of Julien's friends the wrong way over the years. According to Julien's friends, Kory was disrespectful, cocky, and thought he knew more than he actually did. Julien knew he shouldn't judge Kory before he'd even met the guy, but he trusted his friends' opinions. If they thought Kory was a jerk, then Julien had no reason not to believe them.

It was bad enough that Julien would be stuck in a small, hot building for two weekends in the middle of the humid Missouri summer. It was worse that he had to be stuck behind the scenes instead of on stage. The worst by far however, was the prospect of being stuck in those conditions with someone who he couldn't stand to be around. Julien cranked up the car's stereo and tried to focus on the original cast recording of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. As "The More We Dance" gave way to "Love is My Legs," Julien tried to decide if he'd rather play Lawrence or Freddy. Both lead roles were written in his vocal range. Lawrence was a slightly bigger part, but Freddy could be considered the better part. In Julien's opinion, Lawrence got the best songs, but Freddy would give him more opportunity to show off his dancing.

* * * * *

"Great. I can't believe I have to do an entire run with that showoff Julien," Kory thought to himself as he parked his car and walked toward the theater. Kory felt like he lived at the Ryland Farmhouse Theatre. Considering the amount of time, he spent there, this assessment wasn't too far off. The Ryland Farmhouse Theatre, or The Farm for short, was one of two theaters in Conrad. The Farm was the outdoor theater and Conrad Entertainment Center, CEC as it was called, was an indoor theater. CEC was known for its extravagant musicals while The Farm excelled at straight plays. The Farm prided itself on being open to everyone and the shows the theater produced reflected this vision. Their theater had a saying, "once you've down a show at The Farm, you become a Farmer for life." Kory took pride in being a Farmer, the nickname given to The Farm's volunteers. Being involved with the theater gave him a sense of purpose. Kory thought of his involvement at The Farm in the same way that most people thought of being members of a church. It brought Kory joy to be a part of something bigger than himself. He enjoyed working with a core group of people to bring a production together.

Conrad Entertainment Company had a reputation for being cliquish and pretentious. While The Farm boasted at least one new volunteer a production, often someone who had always wanted to try theatre but had never before set foot on a stage, CEC seemed to cast their shows from the same main pool of actors. There were of course some variations, and CEC did attract the occasional newcomer. Yet it seemed to Kory that he saw some combination of the same fifteen names on every cast list. Kory had never done a show with CEC, but he knew people who did and had seen some productions put on by the theater. He wasn't one for snap judgements, but his own interactions with CEC volunteers and his experiences seeing their shows led him to believe that the reputation of pretentiousness was well earned.

Each theater had its own core group of volunteers but there were those who chose to perform with both companies. Kory envied those who were able to switch between projects at the two theaters. This was his fifth full season with The Farm and in that time, he'd done a little bit of everything, including acting, stage managing, directing, set design, construction, and even costuming. He was also in the middle of the second year of his three-year term on The Farmhouse Board of Directors. The biggest strength Kory brought to The Farm was his knowledge of sound and light design. He was widely considered The Farm's go-to person when a problem arose with the lights or the sound system. His high level of involvement and the need for his skills, even on productions he wasn't directly involved with, kept him too busy to be able to freely choose which projects he wanted to work on. At least not in the same way as his colleagues and fellow thespians. Kory was tied to The Farm by a sense of duty and shared comradery. Even though he enjoyed the work, a small part of him yearned for the freedom to only work on projects that brought him joy. Trying his best to push his feelings of dread over having to work with Julien out of his head, Kory started to set up the floor microphones across the front of the stage.

* * * * *

Halfway to the theater, Julien was still considering his options for which role to choose in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. On one hand, the role of Freddy offered more opportunity to get laughs from the audience. Julien had already begun to think up schtick for both Ruprecht and the scenes where Freddy pretended to be paralyzed. One the other hand, Lawrence also offered the opportunity to play two characters in a single role. Julien imagined that he'd play the Lawrence part as confident and smooth, while playing the Dr. Shuffhausen part with a German accent. In his head, Julien pictured himself playing Dr. Shuffhausen like a comedic Sigmund Freud. Even though he didn't know which part he'd choose, Julien did know one thing. By the time the auditions for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels rolled around, he'd have the experience needed to play a convincing con artist.

            * * * * *

Halfway through setting up the microphones, Kory was going over the steps for running lights at The Farm in his head. Running a light board was generally easy but at The Farm it was a piece of cake, especially for this show. The Farm was getting ready to put on a production of Steel Magnolias. The show only required lights up and lights down and it didn't call for any special lighting or effects. Kory had already climbed the twenty-four-foot ladder and aimed the lights on the set, so all the light board operator would have to do was move a single slider up or down. Kory was confident that he would have been able to run both the light board and sound board on his own, he'd down it before. Unfortunately, the cast of this production was having technical difficulties.

That night was supposed to be the first dress rehearsal and the show was supposed to open in three days. The big issue was that the cast was having trouble remembering their cues and the order of their lines. Each of the actors had a firm grasp on what their character was supposed to say. The problem was that without clear cue lines, combined with occasional paraphrasing, all the actors were struggling with the order in which the lines were supposed to be said. They would randomly jump ahead or backtrack. All theatre eventually takes on a life of its own and this production of Steel Magnolias definitely had come alive. The ladies in the cast had truly made the show their own but in doing so had deviated from how their lines were written and laid out in the script.

Unless an audience member was extremely familiar with the play itself, these deviations would likely go unnoticed. Unfortunately for Kory, the deviations from the script posed a bigger issue for the tech crew. Steel Magnolias called for several sound effects that were cued off specific lines. Those sound effects were in turn necessary to cue the next line. Tracey, the director of the show, worried that if the sound effects were delayed then there would be noticeable dead air during the performance. Since the chances were good that the actors weren't going to say their lines exactly as they were written in the script, Tracey wanted Kory to be able to focus completely on the lines as they were being spoken. Some of the sound effects were supposed to happen right before the end of a scene and she worried that Kory wouldn't be able to handle running both the sound board and the light board.

Since Tracey wanted Kory to be able to put his whole focus toward running the sound board and playing the sound effects, she had decided to find someone else to run the light board. Tracey's stage manager Darla had put Julien's name forward. They approached him about helping with the show and Julien accepted. Now it was up to Kory to train him on how to run the light board. Kory had lost count of the number of people he'd trained to do tech at The Farm. Yet, it was always a struggle to find people to volunteer to run the boards. So, Kory found himself having to train another newbie and this time it was someone whose company he was pretty sure he wouldn't enjoy.

* * * * *

Julien turned into the back parking lot of The Farm and decided to sit for a few minutes before heading down to the stage. He had never down a show at The Farm and had never wanted to before this. He was used to working with what he considered to be a higher caliber of performer and most of the Farmers seemed amateur, even by community theatre standards. Julien also had no real desire to do theater tech. He wanted to be on stage, not stuck in a little building flipping a switch on and off. However, after hearing Darla's offer, Julien had decided it was more than worth it to go behind the scenes and work the light board for The Farm's production of Steel Magnolias.

Aside from being the stage manager for Steel Magnolias, Darla had been selected to direct CEC's production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Darla was part of a core group of thespians in Conrad whose passion was putting on and performing in musicals. Julien had already done several shows with Darla and considered her a close friend. A few days earlier, Darla had offered Julien a deal. If Julien agreed to run the light board for Steel Magnolias, Darla would make sure he got whichever part he wanted in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. He'd still have to audition, but that would just be a formality. He'd be guaranteed to get whichever role he chose.

Julien would have immediately taken the offer if Darla hadn't mentioned that he'd have to work alongside Kory. Darla sat on The Farmhouse Board of Directors with Kory. For more than a year Julien had listened to Darla vent to their mutual friends about how much of a pain Kory was to work with. According to Darla, Kory constantly disrespected her and argued against everything she suggested during Board meetings. Darla said Kory had a habit of doing things his own way instead of the way the Board had done things for years. Both Darla and Kory were administrators of The Farm's website and he was apparently in the habit of deleting things she'd posted and editing the site without telling her. She had more than once threatened to take away his access, but Kory continued to change things and not communicate with her.

With all those details and the rumors he'd heard from others about Kory swirling through his mind, Julien had at first hesitated to commit to Steel Magnolias. Julien knew he was talented enough that he would most likely get any role in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels he auditioned for anyway. However, Darla was his friend and he didn't want her to be upset with him if he turned down her offer. After thinking it over, Julien realized it was an opportunity he couldn't pass up and he accepted Darla's offer.

* * * * *

Kory turned on the sound system's amplifier and decided to go sit in the tech booth for a few minutes before Julien arrived. He could have sat in the air-conditioned Farmhouse but didn't want to be around Darla. Kory and Darla had been butting heads since before he joined the Farmhouse Board of Directors. Kory did his best to work with her despite their differences. He always tried to put the good of the theater before his own feelings. It was important to him to be the bigger person, but just because he could force himself to work with Darla didn't mean he wanted to be around her any more than was already required.

Kory made his way out to the tech booth. He sat down on the sidewalk outside of the booth and light a cigarette. As he smoked, he thought again of Julien. Kory had seen Julien perform on stage several times, most recently as Bert in Mary Poppins. In the show Julien had perfectly mimicked the accent and body movements that Dick Van Dyke had adopted in the movie. Kory found his performance to be too over the top. In Kory's opinion, Julien had upstaged everyone else in every scene. Kory viewed theatre as a group activity. Whether someone was onstage or backstage, everyone needed to work together to put on the best show possible. In Kory's opinion, Julien was only in it for himself, only focused on the laughs and applause. Julien didn't seem to care about working with others. He performed in a manner that seemed intended to ensure all eyes were always on him.

Despite his complaints about Julien's performance style, Kory had to admit he was a little envious of Julien. Kory loved to perform. He preferred straight plays to musicals, but he enjoyed singing and had taken ballroom dancing lessons for years as a kid. Unfortunately, it had been almost two years since he'd been on a stage. He instead spent his time doing tech and performing his duties as a Board member.

Technically, Kory could be in shows and still be a Board member, but he didn't want to spread himself too thin or let his responsibilities fall through the cracks. He also carried around doubt that he was good enough to be cast in lead roles. He felt he was more likely to be offered a chorus role or just flat out asked to do tech instead. What Kory envied most about Julien was that he was constantly given opportunities to improve upon his craft, while Kory felt he was stuck doing tech. He wanted to be onstage more often, but didn't want to leave his colleagues without someone to handle the tech aspects of putting on a show.

* * * * *

Once Julien walked into the Farmhouse, Tracey took him out to the tech booth and introduced him to Kory. The two shook hands and Tracey want back to the Farmhouse to make sure her cast was getting ready for the dress rehearsal. Kory and Julien shook hands and then lapsed into silence.

Kory thought about complimenting Julien on his performance in Mary Poppins, but decided against it. He didn't want to encourage Julien to talk about his experience in the show. Kory worried that his envy would turn into resentment if he had to hear Julien brag about his performance. Feeling resentful was sure to make the experience of working the booth together worse.

Julien thought about telling Kory that he'd heard good things about his knowledge of theater tech, but decided against it. He didn't want to encourage Kory's ego. Julien worried that he'd become annoyed if Kory started talking about all of his experience with theatre tech. Feeling annoyance was sure to make the experience of working the booth together worse.   Since neither of them wanted to admit they knew the other one, the silence between them stretched further. Neither really knew what to say or how to move forward. Before the silence between them grew too awkward Kory suggested they get started with the training. Julien agreed and the two walked into the tech booth. Kory launched into the training and Julien listened intently. They each focused on the task in front of them and kept their true feelings to themselves.