What If... All the Rumors Were True by Liz Ruckdeschel Page A

try out for
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
"ON A ROLE" . If you think Haley shouldn’t make any more decisions before she straightens out her wardrobe for fall, send her to "THE BAG LADY" .
    Junior year is crammed with activity, but no one can do it all. Choose carefully, or Haley could find herself falling down a rabbit hole.

TOTAL DRAMA

    Good acting takes a lot of effort, but sometimes it’s harder just being yourself.
    â€œW e’ll show Xavier,” Shaun shouted, his voice muffled by the huge papier-mâché donkey’s head that was covering him from the shoulders up. “We’re all gonna get huge parts, and take over the drama program from the inside out. No one’s gonna believe how crazy delicious we are onstage. The theater crowd is gonna love us.” Devon had to keep pointing Shaun in the right direction as they walked toward the auditorium. In full costume, Shaun couldn’t exactly see straight.
    â€œWell, no one can say we lack commitment,” Irene said, lifting up the skirts of her long ivory antique satin gown to step over a puddle. Irene’s gold crown completed an ensemble that was most definitely fit for a fairy queen. She looked regal enough for the part.
    Devon, who worked at a vintage clothing store called Jack’s, had helped them all scrounge up appropriate Shakespearean costumes for their
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
auditions. Haley was surprised at how committed Devon himself had become to landing a role in the production. An artist and photographer, he’d always been the stern, quiet type, preferring to observe the Hillsdale High circus through a lens rather than draw attention to himself and actively participate. Now here he stood, in gym bloomers tricked up to look like Elizabethan breeches, yellow tights and a purple ruffled shirt.
Maybe he’s finally coming around,
Haley thought, admiring her beau in his period getup. He’d even dug up the perfect dress for Haley to wear, a navy velvet gown with gold trim and mutton sleeves.
    Shaun topped them all, of course, with the donkey’s head he’d made in Mr. Von’s art class—unfortunately built without working eyeholes—worn over a green makeshift leotard covered in leaves, crafted out of three discarded Peter Pan costumes. The leotard was a tad small for Shaun, but somehow that protruding Willkommen belly crammed into spandex seemed a good touch for the character of Nick Bottom.
    â€œI understand the ways of the ass,” Shaun chanted under his mask. “I feel the ass growing within. I am becoming the ass!”
    â€œNo surprises there,” Devon joked.
    â€œCut the Method crap, Shaun,” Irene said. “I can’t take any more chanting.”
    Xavier, Shaun’s cousin and their new after-school tutor, had told them all about Stanislavsky’s famous acting method, used by Marlon Brando, James Dean and other legends of stage and screen. “The actor mutht find the character heth playing inthide himthelf,” Xavier had said. “Digging deep, deep, deep inthide and living the life of that character in every detail until he BECOMETH the part. He doethn’t PLAY the character; he ITH the character. They are ONE. Intheparable.”
    â€œIt’s all about technique, Rini,” Shaun said. “I was born to play Bottom, and I’ll do whatever it takes. And you shall be my queen.” He took Irene’s hand and kissed it with his papier-mâché donkey lips.
    â€œWell, I hope this isn’t all for nothing,” Irene said. It was a bold move for someone who’d never been in a play before to go out for the part of Titania, queen of the fairies and Bottom’s love interest. Titania was one of the female leads, a star of the show, and potentially the best part for a girl in the play.
    The play’s characters came from two different worlds, the human world and the fairy world. Haley planned to audition for a major