Playing Juliet

Playing Juliet — page 1 — For Jillian Scott and Graham who trod the boards

Playing Juliet — page 2 — Prologue The actors are at hand and by their show You shall know all that you are like to know Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream There’s a play by William Shakespeare that’s so unlucky no actor ever says the title out loud They call it the Scottish play if they have to refer to it at all For the past few weeks two lines from that play have been running through my head over and over again To make it even worse they’re spoken by a witch By the pricking of my thumbs Something wicked this way comes

Playing Juliet — page 3 — vi PLAYING JULIET I shivered as I walked into the theater Why did those lines keep coming back to me The lobby looked perfectly normal for six o’clock on a rainy Friday night A trail of wet footprints led across the red tile floor I followed their damp path took a program for Cinderella from the tottering stack on top of the ticket stand opened it to the third page and ran my finger slowly down the cast list The actors and the roles they play were listed in order of appearance I found my name about a quarter of the way down CAT BETH SONDQUIST My biggest part yet Twenty-eight lines and a solo Suddenly I felt fine And I knew why those gloomy lines from Shakespeare had popped into my head just part of my usual opening night jitters Cinderella is my twelfth play Not bad for someone who’s twelve-and-a-half One of these days I might even be able to call myself an actor I put the program in my backpack and glanced around casually to make sure no one else was in the lobby Then I walked over to the back wall where a photograph was hanging slightly crooked against the redwood paneling I straightened it and looked around one more time The only people in sight were the teenage couple in the picture holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes

Playing Juliet — page 4 — JOANNE STEWART WETZEL vii They’d been staring like that for almost fifty years A brass sign on the frame read ROMEO AND JULIET FIRST PLAY OAKFIELD CHILDREN’S THEATER I touched the last word in the first line Someday I whispered and headed for the dressing room

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