"If you're in, I'm in." We made a pact and a play happened.
THE BEGINNING: Bastion, Spencer and I were standing around Spencer’s car. We’d just met at Dan Solomon’s house and had a few beers and read the script. Karina wasn’t yet a part of the project so it was just us three. The following dialogue is unattributed for a reason.
“What do you think?”
“I don’t know.”
“Dan’s never directed before.”
“And that script has not been workshopped.”
“Yeah, but he’s really smart. And he has good taste.”
“It could be really good.”
“It could be really bad.”
“I was going to audition for I ♥ Walmart.”
“Me too.”
“Me too.”
We stare at each other.
“Well if you guys aren’t going to do it, I’m not going to do it. I only want to do it because of you two.”
“I feel the same way.”
“Well if you both are in, then I’m in. Otherwise, no.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
We smile at each other. The experiment began. I suppose it had begun before our pact in the street. It began when Dan decided he wanted to throw his hat in the ring and move from being critic to director. When he chose his wife’s smart, new work to be the experiment itself. When he hand-selected us for the roles and decided that if any one of us said no, then he’d just shelf the whole idea. He had no idea what we were saying just outside his window. How we basically spit on our palms and agreed that if we were going to do this thing, we were going to do it together. But that’s exactly how it all happened. And at the end of it, we had a play that only a handful of people got to witness. A play that even with its faults, had such a visceral effect on the audience that you could hear them saying things out loud as they watched– “Oh my god.” “No way, no way.” “SHIT.” I call it an experiment, but it was really more of a gamble, with high stakes for everyone involved, especially Dan. And now that its coming to a close, all I can think of is how glad I am that he gambled on it, on all of us, and how No One Else could have been no one else.
See you tomorrow. Shows at 8 and 10:30 p.m.
Oh, and if any of you out there think you may want to take on such an experiment, you still have four days to submit your application to Capital T.
Austin Actress 