“You got it,” he said. “You all picked a good night, it’s been quiet.” He gave her ankle a pat. “Think you’re set here.” He winked.
“That looks legit,” she said, stretching out her leg to admire her bandaged foot.
“That’s because it is,” he said. “I don’t know how to fake it.”
“If this place stays open, you all have some free tickets coming your way.” She hopped down from the back of the ambulance, set to limp to Nick’s side.
Nick was supposed to be standing along the periphery of the Quad closest to the street where she was. But she couldn’t find him. This was, so far, the only thing that had not gone according to plan tonight. She couldn’t walk too far or too fast or risk being seen by the entire audience, so she hobbled, lurking along the edges in search of him. Whispering to anyone who asked, “Just a sprain, it turns out. I’m just fine, thank you, enjoy the show.” She returned to the street just as the ambulance was ready to roll out.
“Can I bum a ride?” she asked, to keep up appearances. “It’s on the way.”
63
ARE YOU ACTING RIGHT NOW?
The ambulance dropped Charlie off as close to the log cabin as any vehicle could get, situated as it was in the center of a grassy expanse set back from the main road. But it was dark enough, save for the nearby hotel and the fireflies, that she felt confident walking the rest of the way without being seen. For some reason she thought to come here first: not his office or his place or even the lake.
As she walked to the cabin, she felt soft raindrops against her skin and hoped the show would wrap in time. Their plan, roughly sketched that night after their walk from the football field and brought to life with Mason’s technical wizardry, played out exactly as they had dreamed. Three perfect acts, a fake electrical malfunction to clear the place out, and the show completed outside with no special effects, nothing expensive, everything completely low-tech, back to basics but just as affecting, even more so.
The great hope now was that tonight’s show might score them some attention once they cut together their behind-the-scenes segment—thanks to the added drama of the “explosion,” Charlie’s “injury,” the show continuing outside and having one of the greatest Shakespearean actresses of all time, Sarah, there too. If all that didn’t bring new eyes and fresh clicks and page views and excitement and ultimately investors, nothing would. Meanwhile, tonight’s electrical wiring “incident” would “shut down” the theater for the remainder of the season and they would be “forced” to perform the show outside every night. After all, even the Globe Theatre itself was partially open air.
Sure, they would risk having ticket holders demand refunds, but the show would absolutely go on, for a fraction of the overhead costs, in the Quad every night, where there was plenty of room for everyone on the lawn. If need be, there would even be space enough to add seats, sell even more tickets. And if any theatergoer needed reassurance of just how special this could be, there would be that web series, where Nick and Charlie would be laying out just how touch and go things were at the Chamberlain and what a struggle it had become to keep the theater afloat. And then continue to shed only the slimmest slivers of light on their own relationship, just enough backstage drama and intrigue.
The rain picking up, she began to run, her chiffon cloak—Prospero’s cloak—billowing behind her until it became too soaked and clung to her like her dress beneath. They had told as few people as possible of the details. There were easily a million different ways they could be sued if anything went wrong, and it was safer that way. It had been Charlie’s idea to give Sierra this moment at the end of the show. She had earned it.
The first behind-the-scenes segment—featuring her and Nick, and Sierra and Ethan, all coyly dishing on each other—had gone live just this morning and already racked up hundreds of thousands of views. She wondered if Nick had watched it yet.
The door to the log cabin had been left open. She knocked anyway, just twice, her hand trembling. No response. Her nerves more intense than any she had ever had onstage, she poked her head inside the shadowy room. The lights from the hotel in the distance cast a honey glow, and she made out Nick leaning against the ladder, gazing out the window.
“You missed your mark, you know,” she said in greeting. He looked over, not surprised to see her, not moving. She walked toward him anyway. “This is way off from where you’re supposed to be.”
“Yeah,” he said, darkly. “That’s why I’m not an actor.”
“You haven’t been brooding again, have you?” she asked, leaning beside him now, too close to be ignored—though he was doing a fairly good job of it.
“Maybe,” he said, still so heavy, that voice.
“In case you didn’t notice, this has all gone pretty perfectly. Tonight. There’s a chance this will actually work.”
“I know,” he said, angry, eyes set above her.
“Then what’s your problem?” She raised her voice too, matched his tone.
“My problem is it doesn’t. Change. Anything.”
“It could literally change everything—”
“It won’t change the most basic thing—the season will end, you’ll leave, everyone will, it’s a summer theater, but you’ll leave and—even if the Chamberlain manages to open again next summer, it almost doesn’t matter now because I don’t know if I can do this next summer and the summer after that, without you...here...fighting with me,” he said, as though it was being beaten out of him. “How fucking crazy is that?”
“Not crazy at all,” she said. “Maybe I feel the same way.” She felt him take in those words. They had focused only on the show these past weeks. She had been too proud, desperate to play it cool—and she suspected, he had been too wary of her walking away from everything.
“Your video—” he started, quieter now. “Was that true? What you said about me? About that night in the harbor?”
“Yeah.” She softened, had to look away from his piercing eyes. She gave him a moment to absorb it, then nodded slowly as she looked in his eyes to be sure he got it. “And you, did you mean what you said?”
“Of course,” he said, serious. “This couldn’t have happened without you—”
“Then ask me to stay,” she said with a shrug.
“How?” He sounded defeated. “This place doesn’t even operate most of the year, so I don’t understand...the logistics...of what it would encompass to—”
“Ask me to stay,” she said again. “Like in the overall, metaphysical sense.”
“Stay,” he said, barely looking at her.
“Ask me like you mean it,” she said, annoyed. “Why do I always have to do so much directing for you?” She lunged for the door.
“Please.” He reached for her, catching her wrist. “Will you?” He stepped closer, said it again, sweeping her damp hair to the side. His hand resting gently on her neck, her pulse beating beneath the lark’s wing, he said softly into her ear, “Stay.”
In the background, she swore she could hear the lines she knew, her lines, the final words of the show, and she nodded her head toward the lawn. “‘Please, you, draw near,’” she quoted. She could hear the applause now too, enough to know the audience had remained until the end. A victory.
“That’s the last line of our show,” she whispered.
“That’s not what I asked,” he whispered back.
Instead of answering, she pulled him close, kissed him. They would miss tonight’s curtain call but there would be plenty more.
EPILOGUE
The climb here hadn’t been what Charlie had expected, but nothing ever was. The path had been well marked, the map accurate, and she had given herself plenty of time to hike the steep trails to the top of Mount Greylock, the range she was used to watching from the confines of Chamberlain. All in all, an orderly, organized endeavor; not the way she generally operated.
<
br /> She found the perfect spot, a fine view of the surrounding peaks, and took a seat amid the rocks. The day was still warm, though the end of summer neared. This, in so many ways, was not where she thought she would be now—and she was glad for it.
Tonight was their final Tempest performance of the season. The show had moved from the Quad to the college’s football field. They set up folding chairs for ticket holders close-in surrounding the stage, turning it into a theater-in-the-round for the duration of the play. The regular theater crowd was game for the change of scenery, eager to find their seats out in the warm night air.
Sarah had gone home for now (with the promise of returning next season), and she’d left only after they began hearing from a series of other luminaries offering their services—Kenneth Branagh had taken over the role for a few days, Judi Dench, Idris Elba, Hugh Grant—which kept the box office phones ringing. New audience members showed up on a whim. Others stopped by multiple times a week to sit in the field’s bleachers for a fraction of the cost of a standard ticket. It had rained every night at that same time for days on end, just before the bows, but no one seemed bothered by it.
Just as Nick had almost, almost, stopped minding that Charlie breezed in so late every night before showtime. He still paced, but he seemed to know she would make it in time. Even if barely.
Charlie breathed deep, the cool mountain air, took one last look, then was back onto her feet, dusting the dirt off. The curtain would rise at 8 p.m.—figuratively, at least—and she would be there among the fireflies, with her favorite lark.
* * *
IMDB.COM
Charlie Savoy - ACTRESS
Charlotte “Charlie” Savoy is a stage and screen actress and coartistic director of the Chamberlain Summer Theater. She is also a star and producer of the Emmy-winning reality series Backstage at the Chamberlain. Daughter of famed Shakespearean actress Dame Sarah Rose Kingsbury and jazz trumpeter Reggie Fairfield, she was born in New York, New York, but grew up primarily in London with her mother after her father left to pursue his music career. She won a host of supporting actress awards (British Independent Film Award, Independent Spirit, Critics’ Choice) and even more nominations (Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe) for her plucky Ariel in Nicholas Blunt’s The Tempest, but took a hiatus (“a self-imposed exile,” she later said) after creative differences caused her to drop out of Blunt’s psychological action film Dawn of the Super Id. The indie Midnight Daydream, in which she starred, has since gone on to achieve cult status. Her next film is Nicholas Blunt’s as-yet-untitled, highly anticipated return to the big screen, a project shrouded in secrecy and scheduled for release in time for awards season.
TRIVIA:
In a longtime relationship with director Nicholas Blunt, coartistic director of the Chamberlain Summer Theater
Best friend of Emmy winner Marlena Andes-Embers and served as maid of honor in Marlena Andes-Embers’s wedding to actor Chase Embers
Mentor to Backstage at the Chamberlain costars Sierra Suarez and Ethan Summit
Survived near drowning in Boston Harbor
Reputation for being a wild child (arrested after jumping off of London’s Tower Bridge on a dare as a teen)
Legally changed surname to Savoy at age eighteen
Owns North End Cinema movie theater in Boston, Massachusetts
FILMOGRAPHY:
Untitled Nicholas Blunt Film (in postproduction)
Backstage at the Chamberlain, Season 2 (self; reality TV series; in production)
Netflix Presents: Live from the Chamberlain Theater, Much Ado about Nothing (Benedick)
Netflix Presents: Live from the Chamberlain Theater, Hamlet (Hamlet)
Netflix Presents: Live from the Chamberlain Theater, Macbeth (Macbeth)
Backstage at the Chamberlain, Season 1 (self, 13 episodes, reality TV series)
Netflix Presents: Live from the Chamberlain Theater, The Tempest (Prospero)
Netflix Presents: Live from the Chamberlain Theater, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Puck)
Netflix Presents: Live from the Chamberlain Theater, Romeo and Juliet—A Four-Part Special Event (Romeo, Juliet, Tybalt, Paris)
Midnight Daydream (Charlotte)
Nicholas Blunt’s The Tempest (Ariel)
Illuminate (Haven)
Law & Order (Stacy; 2 episodes)
A BBC Presentation: Live from the Globe Theatre, Macbeth (Lady Macbeth)
A BBC Presentation: Live from the Globe Theatre, Hamlet (Ophelia)
A BBC Presentation: Live from the Globe Theatre, Romeo and Juliet (Juliet)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’m so lucky to have the most wonderful cast of characters shining their light on this book. Thank you, thank you, thank you:
To Stéphanie Abou. If my life were a play, you would be that actor who shows up on stage in a million different roles, all brilliant (agent, friend, reader, therapist!). You’re fantastic and I’m so grateful for you! And a huge thank-you to the team at Massie & McQuilkin.
To Melanie Fried, the most patient of editors! Thank you so very much for your guidance, laser-sharp eye and encouragement over so many reads. And an extra thank-you to the lovely Justine Sha, Lia Ferrone and Pam Osti, and the whole gang at Graydon House, Harlequin and HarperCollins. I so appreciate all you’ve done for this book!
To Margo Lipschultz for your early support before this book was even a book!
To Richard Ford for always telling me to keep writing.
To the theaters that inspired me. I loved quietly skulking around the incredible Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts, seeing shows, touring backstage, getting a feel for how a legendary summer theater operates. And to the Olney Theatre Center in Maryland, where I spent my high school years volunteering (offstage, way offstage) and going to a lot of free plays. And a shout-out to Bill Evans for casting me in those musicals at Sherwood High, where I had so much fun (despite being extremely pitchy).
To my squad of pals and moms, with an extra thank-you to Rachel Paula Abrahamson, Jami Bjellos, Jenny Laws, Jessica Lucas, Ryan Lynch, Poornima Ravishankar, Anna Siri, Jennie Teitelbaum and Kate Ackley Zeller.
To my truly amazing family and cheering section, fabulous parents, Bill and Risa; awesome sis (and beloved first reader!), Karen. And supersupportive in-laws Steve, Ilene, Jill, Lauren, David, Gabrielle and Alexander.
To Brian, of course, for the love and endless encouragement and for corralling our wild guys while I wrote. And to sweet Sawyer and Hardy for your excellent writing tips and beautiful artwork for my office!
And, finally, thank you, dear reader, for taking some time to peek behind the curtain of the Chamberlain. I so hope you enjoyed the show!
THE
SUMMER
SET
AIMEE AGRESTI
Reader’s Guide
Questions for Discussion
In what ways are many of the characters (Charlie, Nick, Chase, Sierra, Ethan) “acting” in their real lives? What are they trying to project about themselves and how does it differ from how they feel on the inside? Can you think of times in your own life when you’ve tried to appear a certain way to hide your true emotions?
Which characters are reinventing themselves and embarking on a “second act”? How do they feel about their journeys? How successful are they? What does
The Summer Set reveal about failure, second chances and reinvention? Have you ever made a major life change? How did it feel?
Charlie talks about “returning to her roots” as a metaphor for returning to theater work. Matteo mentions water as a symbol of life and rebirth. What role does the natural world play in the novel? How are certain characters reinvigorated by their landscape and inspired by the world around them? (Or in Jasmine’s case, perhaps just the opposite!)
Charlie and Nick have so much history—good and
bad. Why do you think they still have sparks when they meet again? Do you think it ever works to get back with an ex? Can people change?
What does The Summer Set have to say about the passage of time? What role does time play in the relationships in the book?
How do the three Shakespeare plays staged at the theater—Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest—reflect what’s going on offstage at the theater?
Charlie had an unconventional childhood. How does her upbringing shape her interactions with Danica’s young son, Gianni? How does Charlie’s friendship with Gianni help her understand her relationship with her own mother?
How do the characters’ opinions about fame differ? For characters not as interested in fame, what motivates them instead? What is the book’s message about fame and stardom?
In what ways do Ethan and Sierra remind Charlie and Nick of their younger selves? Though Charlie and Nick should be the mentors, how do Ethan and Sierra perhaps help them? Do you have a mentor? How have they helped you navigate different times in your life?
Do you think Charlie and Nick stay together after this summer? Why or why not? If so, what do you think their first creative project together might be?
Keep reading for an excerpt from Campaign Widows by Aimee Agresti.
“Campaign behavior for wives: Always be on time.
Do as little talking as humanly possible. Lean back
in the parade car so everybody can see the president.”
—ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
CAMPAIGN SEASON KICKS OFF AS RUMOR MILL CHURNS:
IS GRAMMY WINNER HAZE MULLING PRESIDENTIAL BID?
By Sky Vasquez, Staff Writer, The Queue
The Iowa Caucus—the official start to the presidential campaign season—is just days away with no fewer than two dozen candidates already in the race.
The Summer Set Page 30