Meet Me At The river

Chapter Eighty-one

Chapter Eighty One

Gareth Middleton

Our audition day had finally arrived. Stuart and I were backstage, nervous as ever watching the clock tick by as our performance was only moments away; as the act before us was receiving some amazing feedback with both pros and cons but our nerves were made worse as we had an earful before the performance.

Suddenly our names were being called and we stepped onto the stage in full Romeo and Juliet costume. One of the judges said, ‘Hello Gareth and Stuart, we are looking forward to watching your performance but first can you please give us a small synopsis of your intended pieces.’

‘Yes, we will be doing a reading from Romeo and Juliet the chamber scene, and then we will be doing a freestyle slash tap dance performance.  I hope you enjoy,’ I replied.

‘Very well, start in your own time,’ a judge said.

The Shakespeare piece went smoothly and we quickly moved on to the dance number which also went better than expected and soon we were both back on stage receiving feedback, ‘Thank you for those two brilliant performances. I’m clueless about the dance number so I will give feedback on the Shakespeare piece. Your voices had good projection I could hear every single word you were saying, your Shakespearean English was perfect, and I can tell you with all my experience with Shakespeare I can’t comprehend the pronunciation of a single word correctly. A few minor blips did occur but still Broadway standard, also you engaged the audience with the way you acted like two young people madly in love with each other. Top marks from me, and an amazing and truly breath-taking piece of acting congratulations.’

Then her colleague sitting next to her began to speak,’ I’m going to ask you a personal question. Now don’t be offended, I’d like to get a better understanding of you two, your Shakespeare piece was how Shakespeare envisioned it two males acting as a heterosexual couple whose love isn’t approved by their fathers. Are you two in a relationship if I may ask?’

‘Yes, we’ve been together since we started attending this school; this is our fourth year together,’ I replied with a small smile.

She nodded and said, ‘That’s why I could believe that Shakespeare piece and the love you two share. I’m not homophobic in any way I know some people are, but the love you two share I feel can enhance a performance and make it spectacular. Can I ask if you have seen the film A Beautiful Thing? I reckon that would be a perfect play for you two to do, the love between the two boys living on a London council estate. The love they share is exactly the love you share. Okay, moving on I’m a trained dancer and not much can be said about the dancing. It’s a good performance when the moves flow in synch with the music. Tap and freestyle don’t work together I feel, but your performance with the music did work so I was very impressed with that, but all in all two very good performances with one of them amazing, so congratulations.’

We both left the stage with a clear head and amazing feedback. I couldn’t resist it and I pulled Stuart into a massive hug and snogged him and said, ‘New York here we come.’

*

The rest of the term flew by and I was looking forward to a week off, knowing all our auditions were a success I just wanted to put them behind me and enjoy the week together.

I returned home on the Saturday and stepped into my house only to be greeted by a woman instead of my dad, I was at first shocked, but when my dad appeared I had to have a word with him, ‘Who’s the lady then Dad? A new girlfriend?’

‘Yes, actually a new girlfriend, her name’s Sheila, and I met her at work,’ dad said.

‘Why didn’t I get a phone call? I was ready to explode at the door when I saw her instead of you,’ I responded.