I walk into the room
Finally
I have been waiting
Outside
In the fluorescently lit room
Sitting
On a cracked, vinyl chair
Waiting
Just waiting
With a sea of kids
My age
Good kids
Great kids
Kids rehearsing
With their parents
Or by themselves
Muttering
The lines
I know so well
I scope out
My competition
There is a girl
With red hair
Who sits next to me
Her mother yells
At her
She yells rude things
When the girl forgets
A line
Or says it wrong
I do not know
Why she yells
The girl is very good
Maybe the best
In the
Fluorescently lit room
I am
Number 262
Finally
Finally
They call me
Into the room
Past the red door
That every kid
Sitting on a
Cracked, vinyl chair
Wishes to go through
And three faces
Stare up at me
They stare
And smile
Not a nice smile
They look tired
Very tired
I can imagine
I am the 262nd person
They have seen
Since early that morning
Since I first sat down
In that
Cracked, vinyl chair
In that
Fluorescently lit room
“Hello,” a woman says
Pleasantly
Very pleasantly
But I look past her voice
Read her face
I am an actor
I understand
Emotion
Hers is
Stressed
Tired
Maybe even
Bored
I take a breath
A deep breath
Clear my throat
Smile
Smiles help
Then I begin
The street light
From the window
Outside
Illuminates
Her face
It is dark
Outside
Already night
I have spent
A whole day
In that
Fluorescently lit room
Sitting in that
Cracked, vinyl chair
I say the first
Line
The first word
Even
Already
It is wrong
I can see it
In their
Faces
I ask to start again
But they shake their heads
“Keep going.”
I continue
But I don’t really
Try
I already know
I am
Out
The man
The frowning man
Who sits
In between the two women
Holds up his
Hand
Stops me
“Thank you,”
He says
Grimly
But it is clear
He is not
Thankful
At all
The other
Woman
Smiles apologetically
I stuff
My hands in my
Pockets
And go back out
Through the red door
The red haired girl
Is next
I smile as she
Goes in
But she only
Frowns
At me
A nasty frown
Her mother also
Frowns
And glares
At my mother
My mother looks
Away
She is new
To the business
We both are
We don’t understand
The unfriendly
Atmosphere
I shrug my shoulders
At my mother and she
Hugs me
Every parent and actor
Stares
At her
Sympathy
The red haired girl
Comes back out
Crying
Her mother rises
Yells
Shouts
Grabs the girl
And drags her
Away
My mother glances
At me
I roll
My eyes
We walk out
Of the
Fluorescently lit room
Away from the sea of
Cracked, vinyl chairs
To our car
Waiting silently in the
Full parking lot
It is past
Dinner now
We stop at a fast food restaurant
For a bite to eat
We have been there
Since breakfast
All for those five minutes
In the room past
The red door
That is how it always is
A lot of waiting
Not much time
But it is all worth it
When you get that call
Late at night
Telling you
To come back in
Two weeks
So you can start
The read throughs.
2 comments:
I'm both sorry for you and want to congratulate you. This poem was able to manipulate my emotions. But maybe that's because i've done a little acting--just school plays, but still--and i understand how frustrating it can be to have an audition where everything goes wrong. I love this.
i like it. a lot. at first i thought that maybe it was trying too hard, but then I thought, "no, it's good, you just have to see past the parts you don't want to like but do anyway,"
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