Sixteen, Sixty-One by Sixteen Sixty-One- A Memoir (epub)

Author:Sixteen, Sixty-One- A Memoir (epub)
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins UK, Digital
Published: 2013-05-21T04:00:00+00:00

16

‘Hey, Greg! Are you gonna invite us for dinner again?’

I gaped at Jess who was standing in her ‘Don’t Mess With Texas’ T-shirt as if she hadn’t just asked a senior faculty member to feed us for the second time in a week.

‘Shut up, you asshole.’ Greg glanced around. ‘I’m not having the whole campus over.’

Jess shrugged and slumped into one of the red chairs on the end of a row, throwing her green sneakered feet onto the one in front.

‘BEE! WHERE’S BEE?’ hollered Mel and a skinny girl bounced onto the stage, still swallowing the remains of a bag of chips.

Rehearsals lasted another hour and a half, after which Jess and I dawdled in the lobby while the cast said goodnight.

Finally, Greg plodded out of the auditorium.

‘Lucas, how old are you?’ he demanded.

‘Nineteen,’ I replied sheepishly.

‘You creep. I want to go to a bar.’ He paused to look at me. ‘You seem kind of like an adult.’

At that, he stalked past us and headed in the direction of the parking lot.

‘Are you coming?’ he yelled over his shoulder. ‘I have an eggplant.’

Jess and I gathered our backpacks and scurried after him, childishly vying for shotgun.

‘I’m reading a lot of Art History at the moment – T. J. Clark on Courbet, Kirk Varnedoe on American art after Pollock, the theorist Michael Fried.’ As usual, Greg had refused to let us help and was crushing garlic with the side of a knife. ‘I think my next play will be an Ionesco. Have you read The Bald Soprano?’

I shook my head dumbly as I always did when he asked me if I’d read something and he muttered what sounded like, ‘Of course you haven’t.’

‘Where do you find time to read all this, Greg?’ Jess was reclined on a dining chair, munching olives. I was still swilling my first stone, unsure what to do with it in the absence of a visible bin.

‘I get up at five and read. It’s the only thing that makes being here bearable.’

‘What about us?’ Jess spluttered. ‘’Twas is good,’ she added.

‘It’s very good only because I’m a very patient and skilful director.’ He winked. ‘No, there are some good actors and I like having you two. I’m not sure about this dramaturg business, but it’s good to have a number of assistants.’

I smiled to myself, remembering Jess and Jackie’s rant in the green room earlier about how Greg just wants a scribe and won’t let you do anything as an assistant director. The two of them were smug that they had dramaturg work to do as well and I was the one stuck making his rehearsal notes. I’d nodded in the appropriate places but felt rather guilty agreeing with them when I was still simply grateful Greg had chosen to give me a chance.

‘Some of the others are a little shy, though,’ Greg continued, adding things to a skillet. ‘They don’t know how to be with adults. There’s something about this campus; it’s very sheltered.’

Jess snorted but Greg ignored her, turning his iguana eyes on me.

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