by Holly Webb
“I told you he wouldn’t be here yet!” she moaned to Lily, massaging her ankle. “You made us rush all this way for nothing.” But she didn’t really mind that much. She and Nathan had their first rehearsals for Mary Poppins that weekend, and she was aiming to be at least an hour early, so she understood how Lily and Chloe felt.
As soon as Mr Lessing walked in the door, Lily and Chloe pounced on him, and Emily and Lauren, the other two girls up for the audition, weren’t far behind.
“Have you got the script?” Chloe demanded, skidding across the polished floor.
Mr Lessing grinned. He was always teasing. “Possibly, possibly. What’s it worth?”
Lily and the others gazed at him with identical reproachful expressions. “Oh, all right. You could have been a bit nicer to me. You know, ‘Good afternoon, Mr Lessing. Isn’t it a lovely day?’ then mugging me for the script – that would have been better, but since you’re looking at me like starved kittens… Yes. Four copies of the audition script are currently in my bag.”
The four of them stared at the bag, more like wolves than kittens. They looked as though they were seriously considering knocking him to the ground and grabbing it.
“You’re getting your copies at the end of the lesson and not a minute earlier.” He ignored their groaning. “Can you all stay after school, do you think? I know it’s short notice but I’d like to do a bit of coaching. Then you can take the scripts away and work on them some more over the weekend.”
They nodded eagerly. Of course they’d stay. Lily beamed at Chloe. Being coached for an audition for a part she was desperate for! Why on earth had she ever made a fuss about stage school?
After registration, Lily and Chloe dashed back to the drama studio, their scripts gripped tightly in their hands. Even just holding the script was exciting! They hadn’t had much time to look at them, but the dire warnings printed on the covers about them being the property of the production company and not to be shown to anyone made it all seem so real.
Emily and Lauren arrived a couple of minutes later, reverently clutching their scripts too. Lily didn’t know either of them that well – they’d chatted occasionally but that was all. She was so glad that she was doing this with Chloe. Every so often she couldn’t help thinking about her previous audition experience – which had been a nightmare – but at least this time she had a mate with her. At the moment she was refusing to worry about the fact that, actually, she and Chloe were competing for these roles. It was just too much. If Chloe got a part and she didn’t, then Lily would just have to try and be happy for her…
Mr Lessing was coaching the Year Eight girls separately as he needed small groups, so it was just the four of them.
“Just take five minutes to read through the scene, girls. Try and get a feel for it. Have you read the book, any of you?”
Lily nodded and so did Emily, but Chloe and Lauren looked embarrassed.
“Don’t worry, it doesn’t matter. Just bear in mind that Amy’s the youngest sister, quite spoilt and very self-conscious about not having a lot of money compared to her school friends. Beth’s different – a year or so older, very shy and quiet. It’s a more difficult part, really. She’s so saintly and mouse-like that you’ll have to try hard to get anything interesting out of her. You’re all reading for both parts at the audition but I’d guess that each of you feels closer to one of the girls. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the casting team will agree with you though!”
Lily couldn’t help feeling that she was more the Beth type and Chloe was an Amy. Not that her friend was spoilt, but she certainly wasn’t saintly and mouselike! She wasn’t sure about Emily and Lauren yet.
Lily had seen lots of her mum’s scripts lying around, so the layout of the lines and the directions was pretty familiar. The scene was one she remembered well from the book, where Beth catches scarlet fever from trying to help the children of a poorer family in the town. Her older sisters, Meg and Jo, feel really guilty because they should have been helping instead of Beth. Amy is miserable because it means she has to go and stay with their scary old aunt, so as not to catch the fever herself.
It was so weird to see the scene as a script rather than a book. But Lily could see that her dad was right – the scriptwriter had really kept to the feel of the book. He’d just got rid of a lot of the wordier bits that Lily had to admit she’d skimmed through anyway! She looked up eagerly at Mr Lessing when she finished reading.
He grinned at her. “Everyone finished? What do you think?”
“I love Amy!” Chloe was practically bouncing up and down. “I mean – if I got cast as Beth it would be fab but Amy’s really fun. She’s got this catty side to her, I really like it! Lily, she doesn’t go all sweet and nice in the end, does she?”
“A bit. They all do really,” Lily admitted. “But there’s a sequel and she ends up falling in love with the boy next door. Beth dies,” she added impressively.
“Oh wow,” Lauren put in. “Would whoever gets that part have to do a deathbed scene then? That would be weird.”
“I’m not sure how far the series is taking the story,” Mr Lessing admitted. “I’ve a feeling that the sequel is set a few years later, so even if they do go that far, they might have another actress playing Beth, and I’m sure they will for Amy. Let’s read through anyway. We’ll split into pairs. Chloe, you read Amy as you like her so much, and Lily, you can do Beth – you’ll have to fill in Jo and Meg too. I’ll work with Emily and Lauren for a bit, and then I’ll come to you.”
Chloe and Lily practised reading the scene through a couple of times, and Lily really felt that Chloe’s natural sparkly character came through as Amy, who loved wearing beautiful clothes and having nice things.
“You’re doing her so well,” she exclaimed as they finished the scene for the second time, with Amy grumbling about how unfair everything was.
Chloe grinned. “I think Mr Lessing’s right – Beth’s much harder. She’s just so nice, isn’t she?”
“You don’t feel you’re qualified for acting nice, Chloe?” Mr Lessing said, laughing at her as he walked over to them.
Chloe shook her head. “Not really,” she admitted, giggling.
“Well, let’s see how Lily manages. Start again for me.”
They read it through again, Lily trying very hard to sound more than just ‘nice’ – she didn’t want her character to be boring. Beth had to come back from looking after a sick baby and tell her sisters that she thought she had scarlet fever. How would she really sound? Lily wondered. Her lines were brave and she was worried about Amy catching the disease, but she must be scared really. Lily tried to read it as though Beth wasn’t as brave inside as she acted outside, and at the end of the scene she looked hopefully at Mr Lessing. Had it worked?
“Excellent, both of you.” He was nodding and looking pleased. “Especially you, Lily, that was a very clever reading. You were really thinking about what was going on inside her. Keep doing it like that, you’re bringing a lot out of it. Chloe, I’m sorry to say this, but you’re right – you do just have a natural advantage playing Amy! Swap round now and see how you feel playing the other sister. You’ll find it interesting.”
It was interesting. Lily could see why Chloe enjoyed being Amy so much – it was quite fun being selfish and trying hard to pretend not to be! But she couldn’t help thinking that Beth was the more challenging, rewarding role.
It was hard to believe that an hour had passed when Mr Lessing finally looked at the clock and sent them home. “Try and start learning the words,” he told them. “You’ll be able to have the scripts at the audition but you don’t want to be staring down at the page all the time. And keep thinking about what you want to bring out of the lines. I’d like to do some coaching with each of you separately as well.” He checked his diary. “I can do before school and lunchtime on Monday – Lily, can you get in by eight thirty?”
Lily and Chloe were buzzing with enthusiasm as they walked to the station. “I
hope the audition’s soon,” Chloe said, “like really early next week. I just want to get on and do it.”
Lily nodded. “Will you work on it lots at home?” she asked.
“Definitely! I’ll get my mum to read in the other parts. She’ll be really excited.” Chloe beamed but Lily couldn’t hold back a tiny shudder. Her mum would be excited too. And she had said she would be home all weekend to work on the script with her. Lily had a feeling that this weekend might just be hard work…
She was right. Her mum demanded the script as soon as she got home and Lily handed it over reluctantly. It made it feel like it was hers, not Lily’s. She didn’t really want her mum interfering but it would be stupid to turn down coaching from a professional actress, wouldn’t it? That’s what she had to think of her mum as – just extra coaching.
“This is wonderful, Lily!” Her mum’s voice was so excited. “Come on, let’s read through it together.”
“What? Now?” Lily asked helplessly.
“Of course!”
“Can’t it wait until tomorrow? I’ve got homework and – and stuff,” Lily muttered.
Her mum gazed at her in disappointment. “Don’t you want to do this?”
“Yes, but—” How could she explain? “Tomorrow, OK? I’ve just had a coaching session and I’m really tired.” She snatched the script out of her mum’s hand and raced off upstairs before her mum could complain. Maybe tomorrow she’d feel up to it. Right now she just wanted to curl up on her bed and think herself back to America, a hundred and fifty years before. On her own.
Lily’s mum hardly let her finish breakfast the next morning – she seemed to be channelling some scary energy from somewhere and she was clearly desperate to get going on the script. Unfortunately Lily had even less energy than she normally did in the morning, after a night of weird dreams about auditions where she turned up with her skirt tucked into her knickers.
Shooed into the living room while still eating a piece of toast, Lily sighed and collapsed on the sofa.
“Right, I’ve copied the script,” her mum said briskly. “You don’t mind, do you darling? I got it from your room while you were having a shower.”
Lily gaped, too furious to speak. Of course she minded! But there seemed no point in having a fight about it. She shook her head dumbly.
“It’s much easier if we both have a copy. Then I can write notes on this one.”
Notes? Her mum was taking this so seriously. Not for the first time, Lily began to wish the school had sent the letter about the audition to her dad.
“Now, you’re auditioning for both parts but let’s start with you doing Beth. Much less exciting but then we can go on to Amy, which will be lots more fun.”
“But I—” Lily started to explain that she was more interested in Beth anyway. Her mother wasn’t listening.
“Oh, I know, but you do need to be prepared for both parts. Don’t worry – we won’t spend that long on this one.” Lily’s mum beamed at her. “I’ll start, shall I?” And she launched into the scene. She was very good, Lily had to admit. She had subtly different voices for each of the girls and even her face seemed to transform when she changed character. Lily couldn’t help remembering all the times her mum had acted out stories for her at bedtime – she had thought she was so lucky to have such a brilliant storyteller all to herself.
Grudgingly, she started to read Beth’s lines and as the scene went on, some of her grumpiness melted away. She began to get a feel for it again – Beth’s fear fighting with her need to be strong for her family. She felt quite pleased with herself as the scene ended.
“Hmmm.” Her mother looked at her thoughtfully. “Ye-es. I think you’re trying to do too much with it, darling. It’s a very straight part. There’s not really much point in trying to bring out something that isn’t there.”
Lily felt so hurt. However much she complained about her mum, she knew that she was a good actress and she desperately wanted her to be impressed. How could she say that Lily’s reading of the part was all wrong? Had she messed it up completely? Mr Lessing had really liked the way she tried to give Beth’s lines a deeper meaning.
They went through the scene again and this time Lily just said the lines as they were written, no frills. Beth was brave and saintly and that was it. Lily couldn’t summon up much enthusiasm for it though – if that was how her mum thought the part should be done, she could see why she reckoned Amy was the better role.
“That’s much more like it. Now, let’s do Amy.”
Reluctantly, Lily turned back to the beginning of the scene. What would her mum’s take on Amy be? She couldn’t help reading the scene unenthusiastically – she didn’t even want to do this part! (Well, obviously, if they offered it to her she wouldn’t actually say no…)
“Come on, Lily, put some life into it!” her mum said crossly, interrupting her in the middle of a line. “You’re just not bothering!”
Lily started again, this time making a bit more effort – she could tell her mother wasn’t going to let her get away with anything less. But the thought of a whole weekend of this was torture. Her mum was obviously much more interested in this part. She kept breaking in with little comments and suggestions, most of which Lily agreed with and she could tell they were helping. When her mum read Amy’s lines to show her what she meant, it was amazing – her thirty-five-year-old mum became the spoilt eleven-year-old. She just wished her mum was putting in all that effort for Beth’s lines instead of Amy’s.
After about the fifth read-through, she tried suggesting it. “Can we go back and look at Beth now?”
“Oh, I don’t think we need to, darling. You were fine with those lines. Let’s concentrate on the part you actually want.”
Lily snapped. Her mum was taking over again. Lily wasn’t her clone! Why couldn’t she listen to what Lily was saying? She jumped up. “Beth is the part I want, Mum! She’s brilliant!”
Her mother looked confused. “Lily, that’s just nonsense, anyone can see—”
“No, anyone can’t! I really want to be cast as Beth and if you won’t help me, that’s fine. I’ll do it on my own, my way!” And Lily walked out, ignoring her mum shouting after her.
Lily called up one of her friends from her old school who she’d kept in touch with and arranged to go and see a film with her. She wanted to be well out of the way for as much of the day as possible. A showdown with her mum was bound to happen but she needed to put it off until she’d calmed down.
She got back home in time for dinner and a full family conference. Luckily her dad didn’t seem to have decided whose side he was on. He was annoyed with Lily for walking out, even though she’d texted him to say where she was going. He had a real go at her about being responsible. Lily thought that remembering to text in the mood she’d been in was as much as they could expect, but she wisely decided not to say this.
“I had my phone,” she put in, when her dad stopped for breath at one point. “And I often go to the cinema with Molly at the weekend. I don’t see why you’re so worried about it.”
Unfortunately, this set her dad going on his irresponsibly-dashing-off-without-permission thing again, so Lily tried a different tack. “Look, I’m sorry, but I was upset and I wanted to get out of the house. I couldn’t ask Mum because it was her I was upset with!”
“Exactly!” her mother snapped. “You knew I would say no, so you just went anyway!”
“What were you so upset about?” her dad asked.
Lily stared at the table. How should she put this? She didn’t want to sound whingy about it – her dad hated that. “Me and Mum don’t agree about my audition scene. I want to do it differently – and my drama teacher agreed with what I was doing before! He thought I was doing Beth really well!” Lily forgot she was meant to be explaining to her dad, and left him looking confused while she tried to make her mum see. “I know you think it’s a boring part but I don’t, and it’s got to be up to me, hasn’t it?” she asked pleadingly. She so wanted
her mum to understand.
“So you basically don’t want my help at all?” her mum said frostily.
“No, I don’t mean that—”
“I would have thought, Lily, that you’d have the sense to make the most of your advantages.” Her mother got up and stalked out. “But obviously not. Do it your way.” Her voice was the haughty tone she’d used for a high society lady in a film once – it seemed to come over her whenever she was hurt and angry.
Lily gazed after her, her eyes filling with tears.
Lily and her mum didn’t talk for the rest of the weekend. Lily stayed in her room most of the time. Her dad said he could see her point but he wasn’t going to interfere – it was up to Lily and her mum to sort it out between them. By Monday, Lily was desperate to get back to school and escape the atmosphere. But that morning, another bombshell hit.
She was sitting on the stairs, sorting her stuff into her bag – being at Shine meant having three different dance kits to wash and the staff got very snappy if you forgot bits of it. Hunting for her ballet tights, Lily suddenly tuned in to the conversation she’d been vaguely hearing from the kitchen.
“I don’t think that’s a very good idea.” Her dad’s voice.
“Why on earth not?” Her mum said, sounding irritable. “I’m sure Julia wouldn’t mind. I’d do the same for her.”
“That’s not the point, Marina! You’re right – Julia would probably be quite happy to put in a good word for Lily with the director, but Lily would hate that!”
“Lily is behaving like a spoilt child over this whole thing!” her mum snapped. “She needs to learn to make use of her connections and stop being so silly about it.”
