‘I still haven’t decided if I want to be a part of all this.’
‘OK, how about this?’ she says. ‘If you don’t get the part, we don’t show it.’
‘Well—’
‘Amazing, thank you so much. I’m going to get Anand to set this up now.’ She calls him over. ‘Nettie’s going to do a little pre-audition chat for us,’ she says.
Anand smiles at me. The twinkle in his eyes seems genuine, like he’s rooting for me, rather than the one in Sam’s, which I’m half convinced is all for show. ‘Great! Nettie, if you’d like to come over here with me.’ He ushers me over to a chair with a massive camera pointing towards it and two oversized plants either side. ‘The hot seat. Make yourself comfy. Sam’s just going to ask you a few questions.’
‘OK, Dave, can we get this rolling, please?’ says Sam. Dave does a thumbs-up from behind his camera. ‘Thanks. Nettie, which part are you going for today?’
‘Um, Roxie, maybe?’
‘And who are you hoping will be your leading man?’
‘Er . . .’ I look quickly at Anand, who shrugs apologetically.
‘I mean, didn’t you find him last year at Duke’s?’ continues Sam. ‘During the Summer Showcase?’
‘What?’
‘Fletch. Isn’t he your boyfriend now?’
‘I—’
The cameras are still rolling, but Sam steps in the way of them. ‘So, what we’re going to do here, Nettie, is cut to the footage of last term when you sang in the booth for that other girl – Jade, was it? The clip that went viral – you know, when you reclaimed your rightful position centre stage.’
My rightful position centre stage?
She doesn’t wait for a response. ‘We most likely won’t see your face at this point, but we’d love to have your comments to run as a VO on the VT.’ Seeing my blank look, she adds, ‘Voice-over on the videotape.’
‘Oh.’
She steps to the side again. ‘What was it like to finally find your voice? That life-changing moment.’
‘Well, er, I’d found it difficult to sing ever since – since . . .’
‘Yes, you lost your voice through grief. Can you tell us about that?’
I don’t want to tell her about that. I don’t really want to talk to her at all. But the camera’s rolling, and she’s smiling at me, and my friends think I’d be wasting an opportunity if I didn’t. So I put my doubts aside, and try to answer professionally.
‘It was hard, but, er . . . I had some brilliant friends supporting me through it,’ I say, looking around for my water. My mouth has gone dry.
She nods. ‘And what about the girl who betrayed you . . . Jade Upton? You must be arch-enemies now.’
‘I . . .’ This is bizarre. ‘No, we’re—’
‘We spoke to Jade,’ says Sam. ‘She says you’ll never forgive her for what she did. Do you have anything you want to say to her?’
What is she talking about? What has Jade been blabbing to her? This is spiralling out of control. ‘No—’
‘I guess you wouldn’t want to talk to her, after everything she did.’
‘No – I just meant, we haven’t spoken about it.’
Sam finally seems to sense my unease. She comes out from behind the camera. ‘Hey, Nettie, it’s a lot to take in, I know. Don’t worry – it’s all weighted in your favour. You’ll come off as the good guy.’
‘And Jade’s OK with that?’ I say sceptically.
‘Totally on board,’ says Sam, winking. She watches a third-year come out of their Chicago audition. ‘Can we get Nettie in, please?’ She waves to Anand, who’s hovering politely behind her, over to the studio theatre. I follow him reluctantly.
‘Ready, Nettie?’ Michael’s sitting at a large table with sheets of paper spread across it.
‘I . . . Now?’ I say, panicking. Since when did Sam control audition schedules?
Michael waits until Anand has left before he speaks. ‘Nettie, are you OK? You look a little . . . flappy.’ He pushes his chair back and comes to stand next to me, a concerned expression in his eyes.
‘Sam wants to pit me against Jade,’ I blurt out, watching the door to make sure I’m not overheard. ‘Make a storyline out of something that’s done and dusted. I don’t know what to do.’
Michael sighs through his nose. ‘I warned Miss Duke about this.’ He pushes his thick mop of hair back. ‘There’s a fine line between keeping these people happy so we get the right kind of exposure, and not compromising our integrity.’ He pats me on the arm and heads back over to his table.
My mind wanders to the interview I just gave while a procession of people and equipment comes through into the studio to set up. Is that what I’m doing – compromising my integrity? All that stuff about Fletch and Mum – that was private. Sam had no right to ask me about it. But then, I didn’t have to answer. I feel weird, like I’ve done something shameful, or bad.
‘OK, we’re ready,’ says Sam. ‘We’re rolling. Just ignore us.’
Not that easy to ignore seven people, two cameras, a boom and a couple of huge square lights pointing at me.
I take my folder over to the piano, scrabbling around to try and find the song at the back. After handing it to the pianist and giving him an idea of tempo, I walk back to the middle of the room, thinking about the last time I stood and sang on this spot. It was at my disastrous attempt to get into Duke’s, when I ran out without finishing my song. Second only to Mum dying, it was probably the worst day of my life. Hopefully today I can reset myself. I just need to focus.
But every time I take in a breath, I get a great big flashing image of Jade and Sam, heads together, scheming to manipulate me. I mentally shake them out of my head and try to channel my anger into the song – which is, disastrously, meant to be a comedy. But some of the crew give me thumbs-up signs at the end, so it can’t have been that bad.
Michael clears his throat. ‘Thank you, Nettie. Dance call is tomorrow.’
I’m through? I thank him and pass around the mass of crew members gathered by the door. Sam pats my shoulder heartily. ‘Good one, Nettie. Thank you.’ If it had come from anyone else, I wouldn’t have minded.
God, I want this so much. If only I didn’t have to get through several rounds of dance calls to get it.
22:32
Luca:
How did your audition go?
OK, thanks. Did you have your interview for assistant MD?
Yeah. But then the woman in charge told me I had to sing a song?
WTF?
I know. Weird.
To be IN it?
Haha, I know. Must have been my compelling performance as Harry the Horse in Guys and Dolls last year.
SHUT UP YOU WERE EXCELLENT
Dance Like No One's Watching Page 7