Topic: A Friend You Haven't Met Yet

Brigid Kelly

Date: 2010-09-23 12:49 EST
Cathy sat outside the Shanachie Theatre, a broad rimmed red hat upon her head with a white scarf to tie it around her chin. She was dressed elegantly, perhaps too elegantly for the little wooden picnic table and brown bag lunch she ate from. Still, she was a dancer and her graceful body demanded nothing but silks and satins. Her three inch pumps matched her hat, as did the belt that cinched her already tiny waist. Her dress was a creamy ivory that rode up her thighs, modestly enough. Sunglasses, of course, were large and round and hid her suede green eyes. She glanced around; it'd been a while since she'd been in Rhy'din. News travelled fast though and the news of a new theater company auditioning had brought her into town faster than she could whip out her credit card.

By contrast, Brigid looked positively rough and ready in her light jeans and pink shirt, blue sneakers on her feet and her rehearsal kit stowed away in the bag over her shoulder. Her own past shoulder-length mop of brunette waves was barely tameable at the best of times, and the hours she'd spent sitting near the beauty at the picnic table during the auditions today had only served to highlight just how low maintenance she really was herself. But ice queen or not, Brigid wasn't one to pass up an opportunity to make a friend of someone. She moved over to the immaculately turned out Cathy, waving a hand to get her attention. "Evenin'," she greeted warmly. "Don't suppose you know the best route to Ivy Heights from here?"

Cathy may have seemed unapproachable, but that was hardly the case. When one of the other dancers approached her, she turned and removed her sunglasses. She smiled brightly and canted her head slightly. "I'm sorry, I'm fairly new to this area myself. My name is Cathy." She extended her hand to the woman. "How are the auditions going for you?" Cathy's own bag of goodies was tucked neatly under the table beside her feet.

Brigid's hand was quick to slide into Cathy's with a firm squeezing shake as her smile brightened further. "I'm Brigid," she introduced herself, insinuating one leg beneath the table to straddle the bench next to her new companion. Her bag thumped onto the ground easily. "Auditions are the same, no matter where you go," she added with a shrug. "It's just a matter of bullin' it out." Her smile turned cheeky. "And they're just startin' up, it isn't like they can turn us all away for bein' awful just yet."

"I've watched you dance. You're going to make it." Cathy nodded with a smile. "I mean, you know the ones that aren't going to. They don't have that drive, you know" I mean, did you see the guy in the pink and yellow tights" He couldn't even keep balanced on two feet, much less doing anything else." She laughed softly and picked up her lunch bag. "I've got a turkey sandwich if you want some."

Brigid snickered quietly, rolling her eyes at the memory of the same guy, who'd bulled his way in and then managed to sabotage any attempt at taking the audition seriously for any of them. Even the woman who'd been running the group had had a hard time keeping her face straight. "Yeah, I know," she nodded in agreement, waving off the offer of a sandwich with a smile. "But then, if you've gone through all the trainin' and still don't have the drive, you need to find somethin' else to do with your life."

Cathy wasn't one to eat in front of others when the others aren't eating, so her bag was rolled up and she ignored it. "I can't imagine doing anything else. Just feeling the lights on you and the entire audience is just waiting to hear your voice or watch you dance. There's nothing like it." She turned to Brigid and bit her lower lip. "How many have you been in?"

Brigid smiled faintly as she listened, recognising the same feeling for performance in herself as the other woman described. "Three or four," she admitted with a shrug, "outside of school. I couldn't begin to list the performances when we were in school." She chuckled, rolling her eyes. "And yourself, how many have you been with?"

"Well, I hate to admit this, but I think I'm at least a decade older than most of the people auditioning here. So I've been with six different companies. Everything off Broadway, though." Cathy shrugged and put her hand to her face. "I don't look old, do I?"

Brigid Kelly

Date: 2010-09-23 12:49 EST
Brigid snorted - not the most ladylike noise, but what the hell. "You look fantastic, and you know it," she laughed cheerfully. "Besides, in this business, experience counts for a lot more than tits and bum. I mean, look at me. I don't have much of either, but people keep hirin' me."

"Are you kidding me?" Her green eyes flashed wide and she laughed. "If I had what you have back when I was your age" Honey, I'd have had more than stage experience." She laughed and reached to pat Brigid on the shoulder. "Really, too much tits and bum and you'd be stumbling over your own feet."

Shaking her head, Brigid relaxed as Cathy patted her shoulder. "I don't want anythin' but the stage," she confessed merrily. "Let the big stars keep the screen; I'm happy in a chorus line."

"I think you've got more in you than just chorus line work," she retreated her hand and held it in her lap. "So, Ivy Place" Is that a nice place to live" I'm looking for someplace. My old apartment is rented to somebody else now so I'm kind of in limbo."

"Ivy Heights," Brigid corrected gently, nodding with enthusiasm. "Yeah, it seems pretty nice. It's clean, which is a bonus. But it is a high-rise, which is not so cool. I'm on the fourth floor."

"I'll have to check it out, once we can figure out where it is," Cathy giggled behind her hand. "Do you think they're going to call us back today, or are they done?" She glanced in the direction of the old mansion-turned-theater.

Glancing over her shoulder at the theatre, Brigid shrugged again. "I think we're done, they didn't say anythin' about goin' back," she reminded her companion. "And it said on the form that we'll hear by nightfall on Saturday if they want us for the company, so I'd say we're on our own time from now until then."

"Gee, three days until we know." Cathy sighed, her eyes going wide. "It's going to be horrible. No sleep, nervous everytime the phone rings," she laughed at that. "It never goes away. Everytime you audition, it's the same thing, you know?"

"Which is why you find someone to distract you while you're waitin'," Brigid grinned impishly. "If you're up for it, I'll distract you while you distract me."

"I'm more than up for that!" Cathy grinned and then bent to pick up her bag of clothes. Standing up, she slung her bag over her shoulder. "So, lead the way, roomie."

Letting out a whoop of triumph, Brigid hoisted her leg over the bench a little too enthusiastically and paused, bent over in the strangest manner possible. A moment later, she straightened carefully, and hiked her own bag onto her shoulder. "Off to Ivy Heights it is, then!"

"Whoa, careful!" Cathy giggled and the girls set off. "You know, I stayed here once, for about a month. Had a fling of the most torrid type. Was a lot of fun. But the winds changed and I went with them."

Brow raising in amusement, Brigid grinned over at Cathy. They must have made an interesting pair - the tall, skinny blonde, and the shorter brunette with a bulkier build. "Torrid" I haven't heard that word use in conversation for a while," she chuckled. "Details, woman, details!"

"Well," she grinned, looking down at her counterpart. "He was very handsome, but not somebody you'd think was my type. Very sweet but had tattoos and his....thing was pierced." she giggled again.

Again, Brigid eyed her, laughing. "How old are you?" she laughed teasingly. "His 'thing'? The thing has a name, use it! His Yang-Doodle!"

Brigid Kelly

Date: 2010-09-23 12:50 EST
"Would you believe twenty eight?" She had a pained look on her face, but it didn't last long. "Yang Doodle!" She laughed out loud and shook her head. "He was very romantic and sweet, but I don't think that a recent widower was ready to settle down and I know I wasn't ready. So we just had fun."

"Fun is good for grief," Brigid nodded sagely. "So've heard. Of course, fun is fun, no matter what, too." Her grin returned as she paused, peering around at the junction of the street they'd come to. "I think it's this way." Pointing, she moved to lead Cathy along and to the right.

"Yes, it was a lot of fun." She followed Brigid's lead down the road. "How long have you been in Rhy'Din?" It was easy for Cathy to make quick friends; she'd never met a stranger.

"Oh, about ..." Brigid looked at her watch. "Thirty hours, give or take?" She chuckled. "I can move pretty fast when it comes to meals and a bed, you know."

"Wow, you do move fast," she laughed again and shifted her bag on her shoulder. "Have you met anybody else? I've not really talked to any of the other performers. I don't know why they seem to avoid me." She giggled and put her sunglasses back on then looked over them at Brigid with a serious look on her face. "Am I really that much of an ice queen?" A wink of her eye and a quick smile ruined the effect.

"You're beautiful." Brigid's answer was prompt and without malice of forethought. "You're the epitome of the stunning dancer, but you're not just a dancer. We all saw you today; you can sing, and you can act, too. You're a triple threat, and a lot of people just see the threat, and nothin' else."

"That may be so, but you and the others have all got something I don't." She smiled kindly and sighed wistfully. "You're young and you don't get aches and pains so easily. I was nearly limping when I got off of the stage today. Really should have warmed up better."

"And who is it plays the best roles in the theatre, woman?" Brigid demanded, her Irish accent growing thicker as she protested vehemently. "Won't never see a young bright thing get a good meaty role to get her teeth into, if she ever even gets past the chorus line. Experience does wonders - sod it if the dancin' doesn't pan out for much longer, you've the voice and the actin' skill to see you through!"

Cathy flushed softly in the dying sun. "Thank you, I mean that. But you know, it's really not that hard to do. The singing and acting part, that is. As long as you can feel it in your heart, you can do it. Just put yourself in the character's shoes for a while. You'll see."

Tactfully, Brigid chose not to point out that she had nine years of training and four of work behind her, simply nodding in agreement. "I'm just grateful for everyday I can stand upright and take to the stage, myself," she shrugged lightly, gesturing toward a tall white high-rise apartment block ahead of them. "That's it; Ivy Heights."

"I pray for that each night and thank the gods for it every day," Cathy nodded in agreement. Looking up, she held her hat to her head. "Well, that's a very nice looking high rise, as far as high rises go. At least we're not going to stay in a slum. You've got good taste."

Brigid Kelly

Date: 2010-09-23 12:50 EST
"I do have standards, you know," Brigid chortled. "I wouldn't sleep just any old place. And there's a spare room in the apartment, so you're more than welcome to make your home with me. Just so long as you're on time with the rent."

"You've got a deal!" Cathy was more than relieved that she wouldn't have to stay at an inn. "You really are very kind to let me stay. Would it be alright if we stayed in and ordered something sinful like pizza" My treat, of course."

"Best person to share with an actor is another actor, didn't you know that' We won't get on each other's nerves half so much as we would anyone else's," Brigid laughed, her keys jangling as she unlocked the main door. "And, my dear woman, pizza sounds like a gift from the gods."

"Dontcha know that's the truth, ayuh." The more relaxed she became around Brigid, the more Cathy's North Eastern accent came out. "Then pizza it is. With a ton of mushrooms, pepperoni and bell peppers."

"I'll make cheesecake for puddin', too," the brunette added, her voice echoing away from them as they turned into the stairwell. "Lime and ginger suit you?" Yes, a particularly unhealthy meal, but in their line of work, they deserved to misbehave every once in a while.

"Oh, that sounds absolutely divine," Cathy gushed as they trouped up the stairs. "I think we deserve it after a day like today. Rehearsals can be so brutal." She giggled and bounced her way up the steps behind Brigid.

Chuckling as they made their way up six flights of stairs to the fourth floor, Brigid glanced over her shoulder with a smile. There weren't many people she'd willingly invite into her home after less than a day's acquaintance, but an audition either brought people together or threw them apart. Looked like she'd got a friend out of today, and if she was really lucky, a room-mate, too.

((Adapted from live play. Thanks to Cathy's player!))