Theater Cubicles

Birthday

It was my birthday. September 18th. I woke up to two text messages. One was straight forward and from my father saying 'Happy Birthday, Juliette.' The other was from my mother. 'It read Happy B-day! You are my star! Insert star emoji, all the heart emojis, and dancing lady emoji' It was off to a pretty good start.

The last performing night for Hamlet was the day before Homecoming so all the girls seemed to be overjoyed. This was especially the case for every single freshman girl excluding myself as it was their first Homecoming. They were more elated about it than our performances. Most had acquired dates and I had turned down my prospective senior one. Although, it was a match purely to deter Edith. I had no regrets, however. I hadn't told my mother about the occurrence. I wasn't about to spend my free birthday weekend home covering every inch of the mall looking for a dress! God knows finding a dress for me wasn't easy. I was too accustomed to directors hand-picking my costumes for me.

I hadn't told anyone that it was my birthday. The last thing I wanted was the birthday song being sung to me in front of everyone. In previous occurrences I had turn severely red in the cheeks. Oh the horror! I did not like being the center of attention, considering I loved being on stage. Ah the conflicting feelings of my life! 

However, as I sat eating breakfast at our regular table for two with an oblivious Germaine, I felt disheartened that my birthday was being spent unbeknownst to others. There's no way she would've known, I could't blame her. However, I wanted people to congratulate me. I wanted people to acknowledge that I had turned fifteen. I had started school a little late which was the reason why I was older than many in my class. I wanted people to look over to my table and say, "Happy Birthday, Juliette," instead of me wistfully glancing at the director's table and hoping that I would be them someday. I did that everyday. I craved for the day to be special and just for me. However, that wasn't the case as I entered the small theater.

Another freshman girl's birthday was that day, too. What were the odds that there would be another girl with a September birthday? The coincidence! Her assigned director, Kasi, gave her a card and balloons. One of the balloons had a pink fourteen on it.

I didn't like attention drawing balloons but Kasi had probably taken the time to drive off campus and purchase them which I appreciated. All the girls and the girl's boyfriend surrounded her and were giving hugs. I looked at Nolan. He still had his smug grin plastered on his face and was completely oblivious to my birthday. I didn't care. Nope!

Oh, who was I kidding.

We proceeded on with the day's normal routine. The day before we had started doing run throughs, as most of us had roughly memorized almost all of our lines. We had started officially blocking and using set pieces. 

Distraught because of the day's happenings, I lost my train of thought. Daydreaming, I had completely missed my cue. Everyone's eyes were on me. Exactly what I hadn't wanted.

"Line!" I called off as "in character" as possible.

Tessa, my savior, read out my entire line. I said it and took a deep breath. Nolan walked off puffing out air in frustration. He expected more from me and I knew it. His back was turned, so I couldn't see his expression. However, he combed through his wavy hair in exasperation.

Turning around abruptly he called out in a loud voice near screaming, "After the memorization is all over and the lines subconsciously flow out at their cues it's a beautiful feeling! It means the actor can finally get to the part where they implement their own emotion. Work on this, Gertrude."

I could cry at that moment. I would pay for it in private lessons. I would have to spend my birthday writing all my lines five times each. The day was getting better and better!