Rehearsals for See the Light were at a studio tucked into a narrow, tall building on 45th Street. It wasn’t a huge space, but it was sufficient for the small cast. After Jeremy stored his bag in a dressing room, he presented himself to Regina Morris, who introduced him to Alex Walsh, the director.
There were only seven principal cast members. Margaret Hathaway, who insisted Jeremy call her Maggie, played Benjamin’s best friend, Julie, and she and Jeremy got along like a house on fire, already laughing and joking around with each other by the time Alex clapped his hands to signal he’d finished taping marks to the studio floor.
“You all had an assignment,” Alex said. “We’re going to do that number first. Jeremy, this X here is your mark. Maggie, that’s yours, David is there, and Trevor is there. Let’s see what you got.”
They collectively launched into the second number in the show. Jeremy sang most of it, but a few other characters popped in to sing one or two lines. As Jeremy sang, he imagined he’d have to move as well, and he saw the choreographer, Jesse Douglas, sitting on the side, watching everything like a hawk. When they finished, Alex stood with a hand on his chin.
“All right,” Alex said. “Maggie, you’re a little flat. You sang—” He sang Maggie’s line, but sang it in the wrong key, or so it sounded to Jeremy. “But the actual line is up here.” He sang it again in the right key.
“Got it,” Maggie said. She sang the line in the right key.
“Good. David, you came in a hair late. It’s a half rest, not a whole rest. So Jeremy sings, ‘Every day is the same,’ beat, ‘Caesar and Brutus and Cassius.’”
“Okay,” David said, who played Benjamin’s favorite teacher, Mr. Rome. He taught ancient history, hence the lines about Caesar.
“Trevor, that was fine, but try to be a little more menacing. We want the audience to think you’re the villain. And Jeremy, that was...well, really good. You’re hanging on to a couple of the notes too long, but we can adjust.”
Jesse Douglas burst off the side of the room on one graceful movement to stand beside Alex. “My vision for this scene is that Benjamin is walking down a hallway at school, and each of the characters in the scene is standing there or passing through. Probably Mr. Rome is passing by on the way to his class, but Julie and Dan can be standing in the hallway.”
Jeremy took a deep breath. If Alex referred to the actors by their names but Jesse referred to everyone by their characters, this was going to get confusing quickly.
When they took their first break, Regina motioned Jeremy over and introduced him to Keenan. “He’s playing Austin,” she explained.
Which meant he was playing Benjamin’s love interest.
Jeremy extended his hand while taking in this man, wondering if he could convincingly play someone enamored with him. Keenan was shorter than Jeremy by a good six inches, but he was cute. Biracial, Jeremy guessed, with warm, light brown skin and hair cropped so close it wasn’t much more than black fuzz all over his scalp. He wore thick, black-rimmed glasses, but his brown eyes still popped. He smiled broadly and displayed a row of perfect, white teeth.
Yeah, Jeremy could pull it off. “Great to meet you.”
“Likewise.” Keenan had a firm handshake. “I think this will be fun.”
“Yeah, definitely.”
“And not at all awkward.”
Jeremy laughed. “Well, maybe a little. I’m still excited, though.”
Regina moved off and started talking to a few of the other actors.
“I auditioned for Benjamin, you know,” Keenan said when she was out of earshot.
That made Jeremy pause. He detected no jealousy or bitterness, but he wasn’t sure what to say in response. “I did not know that.”
“I’m not mad I got Austin instead. I just watched you rehearse. You have a much stronger voice than I do.”
If he wasn’t mad, why was he bringing it up? Jeremy worried now some kind of rivalry could be brewing. But he said, “Thank you.”
Keenan frowned. “We’re off on the wrong foot, aren’t we? I totally bungled that. I just meant it as trivia. I auditioned for this part, but you’re clearly better for it. That’s a genuine compliment.”
“Oh. Well, I do appreciate it.”
“You hate me now.”
Jeremy laughed. “No. Your comment just took me off guard. You’ve got plenty to do in Act 2, if you’re worried about stage time. I look forward to working with you.”
“Thanks.” Keenan smiled. “I have plenty to do with you.”
That was certainly true; most of Austin’s scenes were with Benjamin. And they had some romantic moments toward the end of the show. Keenan’s subtext seemed to be, We’d better get to like each other, because we’ll have to pretend to onstage soon. And that was the part of all this that had Jeremy the most tied in knots.
A gay love story felt important.
Maybe Jeremy was projecting awkwardness onto the situation that wasn’t there.
“Well, I’m glad we got to meet before getting thrust into the fray. Er, as it were.”
Keenan laughed. “Agreed. According to the schedule, we’re working on Act 2 later this week.”
Jeremy smiled, though his stomach churned. When all this was just in his imagination, in the abstract, he could easily fantasize about how great it would all be, but now that he was confronted with some reality of the show, he felt nervous. The man standing before him was someone he’d have to act against, whom he’d have to kiss onstage, whom he would sing a love ballad to every night.
But he was a professional. “Bring on Act 2,” Jeremy said.
The meeting with the producers and designers of the fantasy musical, called Sword of Dawn, was nerve-wracking, in part because everyone was late. Max sat in his conference room while he waited for the team from the production to show up for the meeting and sketched out a makeup scheme for Veronica Fake that would make her look like a 1960s Barbie doll. Stephen had found a swimsuit at a thrift store that looked just like the black-and-white-striped suit that came with the original Barbie. Max was excited about the look, not the least because it was a distraction from this crazy-making meeting.
No contracts had been signed, but he’d heard through the grapevine that he was the last makeup studio standing to get this job. One of the other studios in the city that specialized in monster makeup had been in the running but was now tied up with a new superhero TV series. So even though the job was not officially his, he would act as though it were.
He felt good about his sketches, and the next step was to measure the actors so they could be fitted for latex masks and other prosthetics, like the elves’ pointed ears. He just had to get the final design for the goblins approved, plus he was working with the costume designer to do more with costume than makeup to represent the dragons. Julie Taymor style puppets would work better, to be more like the Lion King costumes than to try to make humans look like dragons with prosthetics. This likely meant painting the dragon actors green or something, so that was the last puzzle piece.
When the staff from the musical finally arrived, Max laid out his sketches on the table for them to peruse.
Winston Marsh, one of the producers, looked at every sketch without saying anything. Max’s heart pounded and his skin broke out with a cold sweat. He could only sit there and wait for condemnation. It was a bit of a surprise when Jennifer, the costume designer, said, “These are great. The latex masks for most of the characters will do the trick. How long do you think it will take you to make those after you measure the actors?”
“I don’t have the means here, but I’ve been making calls, and NYU has a studio we can use to make the mock-ups. For a fee, of course.” Max had tried hard to think of everything. He could front the cost of the mock-ups, but he’d need more money from the production companies to do the whole shebang. “If you want to invest more after that, it’s up to you, but that should be sufficient to do fittings and see what works and doesn’t. And I’ll need to know if any cast members have latex allergies, so I can find alternate materials if need be. I think some of the prosthetics can just be built out of plastic. NYU also has a 3D printer we can use for those.”
“Good, good,” Jennifer said, nodding. “And I love your ideas for doing the dragons with puppets instead of makeup. I was worried dragon makeup would be hokey, but if we design the puppets well, that will work fine. You have any experience with that, Max?”
“I took a puppet-making class in college. That’s the limit of it.” But, man, he wanted to make them. He had such a clear vision of how everything should look. “But I was thinking, something lightweight, painted to look like a dragon, parts of it moved with wires. Here, I drew some ideas for what I mean.”
Max wasn’t usually this bold, but he was willing to do what it took to secure this job. He passed over his sketches for the dragon costumes.
“My thought was,” Max said, “we do some makeup. Make the actors green and scaly. But we complete the look with puppets or props. I know it’s not the most innovative idea, but I think it would really add something to the production. What do you think?”
Jennifer looked at Winston and George, the two producers sitting at the table. Neither of them had spoken more than greetings at the meeting so far. Jennifer smiled and said, “I love it. I think it solves the problem we’ve been discussing. We can’t achieve realism, per se, on a stage, but there’s a lot we can do with makeup, props, and lighting to achieve some special effects.”
Winston leaned forward. “So you’d still paint the actors under these puppets?”
“Yes,” Max said. “Scales are pretty easy. You cover the skin with fishnet, and I’ve got this iridescent spray that makes the skin glow. I think if we—”
“No, I like it,” Winston said, without much oomph. Max worried he was being placated until George Hayward—seventy-five years old if he was a day, an old school Broadway producer—cleared his throat.
“Let’s do it,” George said with conviction.
Max had to grasp the arms of his chair to keep from falling out of it.
He spent the rest of the day floating on a cloud. The Sword of Dawn job was fun to think about in the abstract, but it became something else once all the contracts were signed. And now that it was a done deal, Max’s imagination was off to the races.
Daphne snuck out and bought a bottle of champagne, and the whole staff had a toast before Max let everyone go for the day. It was a big job, and it came with a big paycheck, and this might have been among the best days since Max had started the studio. He was reluctant to celebrate too much—as Jeremy kept saying about See the Light, the show could still turn out to be a big fat flop. But Max was not one to turn away from opportunity.
At least not at work.
Jeremy was home when Max got there. Jeremy wore old sweats and appeared to be flipping through television channels. “Oh, you’re home. I had the best day!”
Max grinned. This was how it should have been, right? Coming home to each other, talking about their days? Max pushed aside his sadness, because he’d just secured a huge job, and he was proud of it.
“Me too,” Max said. “Sword of Dawn is mine. I signed the contracts this afternoon. Soon I’ll be making dragons and goblins onstage.”
Jeremy hopped off the couch. “Oh my god, that’s amazing! Congratulations!”
“Thanks!”
Before Max even knew what was going on, before he’d even put his bag down, he was wrapped up in Jeremy, who gave him a tight hug. “I’m so happy for you.”
Max leaned into the hug for a moment, savoring having Jeremy’s body pressed against his, but then pulled away. He didn’t want to get too used to this. He slid his bag off his shoulder and said, “So I take it you had a good rehearsal today?”
“Well, I met my love interest.”
“What?” Love interest? Max’s heart pounded.
“The actor playing my love interest in the play. His name is Keenan. He’s...wow. Let’s just say, it won’t be hard to play being attracted to him.”
Oh. “That’s good.”
“I mean, it was a little awkward between us at first, but once we warmed up and tried a few lines with each other, everything clicked.” Jeremy snapped his fingers a couple of times. “He’s talented, he’s cute, I think it’ll work really well.”
Well, that was just great. And wasn’t that always the way? Max had been starting to think that maybe he should say something, but any time he got that idea in his head, Jeremy laughed, or he met someone else. Of course he met someone else. “Good. I’m happy for you.”
“Man, I’m so stoked about all this. Let’s go out! We should get a drink or something.”
It was like all the air had been let out of a helium balloon, and it twirled impotently in the air before it hit the floor. Max sighed. “You know, I’m tired, and I have an early morning tomorrow.”
“Oh. Yeah, okay.” Jeremy looked so disappointed Max wanted to take it back, but then he grinned widely and said, “We can have a little celebration here! You get settled. I’ll put on some real pants and run to the liquor store and buy us some bubbly. How does that sound?”
Resistance was futile when Jeremy was this ebullient. “That sounds good, Jer. See if they have that bubbly rosé we had last week.”