Chapter 99 - Audition

"Hello Ma'am, I am here" Jimmy announced.

Amanda then turned to her right and looked at Jimmy who was well dressed in a suit and looked like a true businessman, his looks were damn good but what this woman wanted was good acting skills and not great looks.

"Why are you so overly dressed up?" she looked annoyed and rolled her eyes.

"To add a natural element to the role" Jimmy was unaffected by her attitude as he knew this is mostly how everyone in this industry behaves, he answered her confidently.

"Do you need the script for reciting dialogues?" She ignored his answer, without waiting for his reply she handed over the script in her hands to him as she knew everyone coming for auditions are never prepared in advance as they are not sure if they will bag the role or not but she still asks them in the hope that someday someone would say they won't need it. She didn't expect the very next moment her past wish was going to be fulfilled. 

"I don't need it, I have memorized all the dialogues" Jimmy politely refused the script and confidently answered her, she was surprised at his answer and properly took a look at him, she was very happy that he came prepared but then she told herself not to get too excited and first see his acting before building her hopes and expectations on him. 

"Oh then enact the scene where you discuss your feelings and frustration with the first male lead." She didn't waste any more time and just ordered him to enact a scene.

"Sure" 

Jimmy then climbed the stage and prepared himself to enact the scene.

..

The Plot of the Play (summary):

The male lead in this novel hails from a poor background, then he marries the rich female lead for her money and once he wins her trust, he gets her to transfer all her assets to him and then he gets her murdered. 

The second lead (the role Jimmy is auditioning for) is a rich businessman and best friend of the male lead, he is a gay and doesn't want the society to know this truth, so as a coverup he marries a woman from a poor family, her father is in deep debts and she has three siblings who are her responsibility, the second lead clears her family debts and promises good education to her siblings and asks her to marry him in exchange of it, assuming he is in love with her she happily accepts the proposal as she has always been in love with him and when she got to know her friend loves her too she couldn't contain the excitement and married him.

It has been one year to their marriage and they never had any kind of intimate relationship, she had been longing for her husband but never vocally shared her feelings with him. The second lead on the other hand has multiple affairs with other men and he ignores his wife in spite of knowing of her desires. 

One day she finds out the true face of her husband and not able to face the reality, she decides to end her life but just then the main female lead comes to her rescue and stops her from taking such a big step and it is revealed that the female lead survived the murder attempt and has come back for revenge, she wants to take back everything that rightfully belonged to her, the two women then unite and ensure the downfall of these two men.

...

The scene Jimmy was asked to audition for was when he explains why he married the second female lead to his friend.

"The male lead is not here so use your imagination" the assistant informed Jimmy and he nodded his head as he knows how this industry works.

Jimmy took a long deep breath and then turned very serious, suddenly the cute, friendly, good looking man turned into a cold, devilious man. Seeing this change in Jimmy, Amanda subconsciously narrowed her eyes and observed him with full attention.

....

Scene 1: [The male lead is not present so Jimmy is supposed to pause between his dialogues and pretend having a conversation with the male lead]

Male lead: ...

"What? Why did I marry a poor woman when I could have gotten anyone I wanted?" Jimmy chuckled at his imaginary friend and pretended as if he was holding a glass of whisky, this was a bar scene, so he paid attention to the minute details too which didn't go unnoticed by Amanda.

Male lead: ...

"I thought you are a smart man but it doesn't seem so, let me explain my stance" Jimmy condescendingly looked at his imaginary friend, he belittled him with his expressions.

"As you know I like men but I can't be with them because of our so called society, my parents don't know about it and they can't handle this news, now I need to have a trophy wife to show off to the society"

Male lead: ...

Jimmy then loudly laughed hearing the male lead's question, it was evident he was making fun of him.

Amanda really liked how Jimmy was expressing every emotion of the character he was playing.

"If I marry a rich girl, what do you think she will do when she will find out of my sexual preference?"

Male lead: …

"Exactly and that's why my friend I married a poor helpless but a beautiful woman who is in dire need of money, even if she will ever know the truth she would not leave me or reveal the truth to the society as she would have been burdened by my favors" he had a sinister look on his face.

...

The scene was completed and Jimmy returned back to his cute, charming self.

Amanda was really surprised and she thoroughly enjoyed the scene, Jimmy was looking perfect for this role and out of all the people who auditioned for this character, he was the best till now.

Jimmy was still standing on the stage waiting for some reaction, he was glancing at everyone in the room and then his sight fell on one person and he got surprised, it was the young woman he fought over the parking spot with, he wondered what is she doing here, he also assumed she was here to fight with him, he hoped she doesn't create a scene in front of Amanda.

After some thought, Amanda finally spoke, "Mr. Morrison I must say you were brilliant, it seems you understood Rick's character very well and therefore you showed all his expressions perfectly, can you enact another scene for us so that we could be more sure of you"

"Sure Ma'am. Which scene would you prefer?" Inside his heart Jimmy was jumping in joy but on the outside he looked composed. It was a good sign if a person is asked to enact another scene.

"The emotional outburst" These were the only words Amanda told him and he understood which scene it was.

...

It was the climax scene of the play where Rick is almost destroyed by his wife and then he apologizes to her for what he did but he also explains his stand, for the first time he breaks all the walls around his heart and shares the pain and confusion he went through when he realized he prefers men, the fear of his family and society broke him and apart and he turned into a cold man who let go of his humanity and turned into a monster, it was the most difficult scene of this play as the actor playing Rick had to convince the audience that he is not that bad and the heart wrenching circumstances he went through is what made him into the despicable man he currently is. 

The scene is supposed to be deeply emotional and has the impact that can move the audience.

Jimmy again took a deep breath and the next moment he loosened the tie around his neck and he enacted the emotionally heavy scene exactly the way Amanda visioned, it was a 10 minutes long monologue and Jimmy perfectly nailed the entire sequence with his dialogue delivery and emotions, almost everyone in the room had tears seeing his acting, they all could feel the emotions he described.

...

Jimmy was overwhelmed seeing everyone in tears, he too cried when he was enacting this scene as he got into the skin of Rick's character and tried to empathize with him, his week long practice didn't go into waste.

Amanda wiped the tears from her eyes and wore the thick black glasses. She looked to her right towards the young woman who was wiping the tears away from her face, "Megan, what do you think?" 

Jimmy then looked towards Megan, she was the same woman he earlier had a fight with, he first thought she came to this theater to fight with me and was surprised to know that she too was part of this theater group. 'I hope she doesn't let our previous encounter blur her judgement and she gives an honest opinion.' he crossed his fingers and stood in anticipation.