The Plays the Thing

The Cast List

It was the early October, one month into my Junior year of high school and I had been nervous since I woke up. The cast list for the school play would go up today. We were, unfortunately in my mind, going to do The Kissing Booth, in an effort to get more people to come see the play. Since I always played character parts (the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz, the plant in in Little Shop of Horror, the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet) there really wasn't a good part for me in the play. That was OK. I loved to act but I liked parts where I could hide in an over the top character. Characters where no one could see it was really me. It was fun to totally escape into being someone else. But still, I hoped I would at least end up getting a part as a teacher or a kid at a party.

It was finally lunch time. Ms. Katz always posted the cast list right before lunch. Which was crazy. Why post it in the middle of the day? So, everyone could gloat or walk around heartbroken? But that's how she did it. So, I walked from Pre-Calc toward the drama room door, where I knew I would find a crowd of my fellow theater geeks. Everyone stared at me as I walked up and started to whisper. Uh oh, I thought and began to panic. Did I not get a part, even a small one?

Then my best friend Eve spotted me and squealed. "Livy you got it. You got the part!"

I stopped. Confused. There was no part I had wanted. Maybe Noah's mom?

"What part?"

"Elle Evans!"

I froze. I was pretty sure I had imagined what she had just said. That or this was a dream. Or maybe a nightmare. Probably a nightmare because every eye in the hallway was on me. I could not have gotten the lead. Elle Evans was tiny and adorable. I was, well, not. And, she spent half the play making out with the male lead. I had only kissed a boy once and it had been a disaster. She walked around in a bikini . . . She strutted around a locker room in her bra . . . It had to be a nightmare.

So, I brilliantly said, "What?"

But there, on the cast list was my name at the top "Elle Evans . . . Livy Williams."

"But I didn't try out for the part." I said. Starting to panic.

Eve, looked at me, sensing I was not nearly as excited as I should be. "You know Ms. Katz." Taking a dramatic tone. "No one tries out for parts in my theater program, you try out for the play and I decide what part you are meant to play."

And, then my eyes slipped one line lower on the cast list "Noah Flynn . . . Xander Davis," and I gasped.

Eve saw where I am looking. "I know, who knew he could act? Everyone knows he has to do the play because he needs the extra credit or he will fail the class. Drama being an easy A does not mean blowing off all the assignments. Mrs. Katz was so mad when he didn't even bother to memorize his lines for his final scene for first quarter."

Ok, this could not get any worse. I could not have the lead in the school play. I could not have to make out with a boy on stage. And that boy could not be one of the most popular boys in school and my step brother's best friend. Who was so gorgeous I had trouble speaking in front of him. Who was the captain of the football team and the lacrosse team. . . 

"Earth to Livy. Are you there? You don't seem excited."

"I'm excited.  Really.  Just shocked."

"You will be great.  You work harder than everyone else at every play.  You stole the show last time as the Wicked Witch.  Dorthy got half the applause you did."  

Eve is the best friend ever, she was even starting to make me feel better.  Maybe I could do the part, in a strange parallel universe where I would be willing to wear a bikini on stage in front of the entire school.