Actual Princess

Natasha Farris (Ensemble, u/s Christine) is elated to go on tour with Phantom! In her fifth touring production, she's convinced that she has become "the go-to person to ask about acting on the road." [ A 1x1 OC RP blog. ]

[therealtalent]

complaints.

[stephanie-ramsey]

Stephanie wanted to chuckle at what Natasha added, she could see right through the girl. She had been there, feeling nervous before the opening show. She knew exactly what it felt like and she also knew she had hated to admit she was feeling nervous. It was a sign of weakness. And nobody wanted to show weakness when it came to theatre, people could take advantage of you. Although, that was exactly what Stephanie let happen during her theatre period. She had spent nights with a man, the only person she had showed her weakness too. And he had taken full advantage of her, leaving her when she was pregnant with his child. It had been hard, but Stephanie had gotten out stronger than ever and determined not to show weakness.

As her mind wandered off, the brunette had a hard time keeping her emotions under control, but she managed to do so. “Okay, I will have finished these dresses by the time you arrive tomorrow and you can try them on once again and see if it’s okay.” Stephanie stood up from her spot and took the previous dress off the rack, holding it in her arms as she waited for Natasha to get out of the dress. “Are there any other dresses that you will need tomorrow that need some adjustments?” She asked, just to be sure. A costume fail on opening night would be the worst thing to happen.

[therealtalent]

“Well, good.” She stepped out of the Masquerade dress with a sense of real loss. The dress she had to wear as an ensemble member made her feel like a wrapped piece of candy -- and the mask! It was taller than she was, probably. Dancing around, banging on that stupid little triangle, she felt like an absolute idiot. She wasn’t sure who wrote in that part, but whoever it was deserved to be fired. Well, at least she didn’t have to dress up as the monkey. That was one ensemble member she didn’t envy, at least ... although come to think of it, audience members probably did remember the monkey more.

She snapped out of her thoughts as the other asked if there was anything else she needed to do. “No, that’s it,” she snipped, rolling her eyes. “I have to get ready for the second act.” She turned her back before the other even left, a clear dismissal, and set about pulling on the ridiculous multi-colored dress -- and the even more ridiculous bright red wig she had to wear for the scene. Every once in awhile, she’d glance over at the Star Princess dress longingly. Maybe Brooklyn will twist her ankle and you’ll have to go on tonight, she thought to herself, only really half-joking.

[therealtalent]

complaints.

[stephanie-ramsey]

Stephanie smiled to herself when she noted how Natasha seemed to change the second she had mentioned Christine. She had known she would, but for some reason it was still amusing. Not that she could blame her. The brunette picked up the dress from the floor and hung it onto the empty rack she would take to the costume department later. She would have to fix it right away, since Natasha had to wear it tonight for the big opening show. It was probably not giving Natasha any nerves, she always seemed quite certain of herself but Stephanie couldn’t help but ask. “Are you nervous? Not that you seem nervous, but you know just a question.” The tall brunette said, nodding in agreement as the other proposed to start with the Masquerade dress.

“We don’t have time to try on the other dresses, so we can do that tomorrow if you’re willing to come like half an hour earlier?” She asked, helping the other with pulling on the dress which was indeed a tiny bit too big. “This is going to need some work as well,” Stephanie muttured quietly, placing her fingers on the part that she would need to work on before sticking a needle in it. “Is this better?” A strand of brown hair was pushed back against her ear as she looked at the other. In some way, Stephanie did admire the self-confidence of Natasha, but it definitely got in the way of her attitude as well.

[therealtalent]

The question took Natasha off-guard, and she had to take a moment to realize what the other was asking. She was unprepared enough that she wound up giving an honest answer. “Well ... Of course.” The truth was, she was pretty sure that every actor got nervous. Even if you were only playing a bit part, you got nervous. Even the most famous of actors got nervous, they all said so in interviews. But somehow, admitting it here felt somehow vulnerable, especially when she was in between costumes. “After all, at this rate I’ll wind up losing my costume in the middle of the scene, and that would be a disaster,” she snipped, mostly trying to fix her confession somehow. If she could blame it on someone else, then it wasn’t her being weak, it was just other people being incompetent.

“I guess,” she replied to the other’s question. Honestly, this should have been done months ago. She had expected the costuming team to be more on top of things, but now it was clear that she would have to hound them in order to get anything done. It was a good mental note to have. She looked down on the pretense of watching the other work, but really she just wanted an excuse to look at herself in the Masquerade gown. Oh, what she wouldn’t give to be the one going out in this gown for Act 2! “Better,” she agreed, a note of smugness to her tone. Yes, it certainly was better for her to be in this dress. Brooklyn couldn’t wear it -- or the role -- half as well.

[therealtalent]

complaints.

[stephanie-ramsey]

Stephanie raised her eyebrows as Natasha tossed her previous dress to the side. That was not how you were supposed to treat the dresses. As soon as Natasha had taken over the other dress, Stephanie picked the dress up and hung it back carefully. She didn’t dare to say anything about it, knowing she would get a death glare from Natasha, so instead she just remained quiet and waited for the woman to pull on the dress. She had gotten used to all the complaining and most of the time she would just roll her eyes when Natasha wasn’t looking in her direction.

“The dance is probably to give the audience the feeling that they’re in a real opera. It must look like they’re really in the opera itself, like they’re part of what is happening on stage.” Stephanie told the other, standing next to her and using two fingers to try out how tight it should be. “Is this alright?” She asked her, getting a needle from her pocket, sticking it into the part she wanted to make tighter. Just to show Natasha what it would look and feel like, but also to make herself remember what would have to happen to the dress. “I think you have to try on your Christine costumes again. It looks like you’ve lost some weight, no offense.” She quickly added the last bit, afraid Natasha might get offended by what she just said, but it was true. It seemed like she had lost weight, that was entirely up to Natasha, but that would explain why the dress was too big. And if that was indeed the case, she would have to fix all the dresses, including the Christine ones. Stephanie didn’t think Natasha would really mind trying on her Christine costumes again. It was like something switched inside of her the minute her being Christine was mentioned. She would turn happier and Stephanie understood. When you’re the understudy it always gives a special feeling if you actually get to play the role you understudy for.

[therealtalent]

Natasha rolled her eyes. “I guess,” she said, “But I think it’s a dreadful bore. And it’s not like it moves the plot along any, which is the really important thing.” She supposed it was just like the other to defend the ballerinas. She had seen her hanging around Astrid enough to assume that they were probably friends, which didn’t make a lot of sense to Natasha. Actors and set people just weren’t friends, a lot of the time. They got along okay, of course, but their personalities were just too different. Actors soaked up the limelight while set people hid away in the shadows. Of course, there were the rumors about the make-up girl being a former actress, but even if those were true, she was still comfortable being behind the scenes. A real actress, an actress at heart, would never be comfortable with such a role. If she gave it up, she must not have been really cut out for it.

“That’s how it should have been all along, yes,” she snapped. At the mention of trying on her Christine outfits, however, she perked up considerably. Enough so that she didn’t even have it in her to make a snarky comment at the insinuation that this costume ridiculousness was her fault. “Well, alright then.” She hurried out of the princess costume quickly and walked over to the rack that held her Christine dresses. “We can start with ... The Masquerade dress, I suppose.” It probably would have made more sense to let Stephanie pick, but she wasn’t about to do that.

[therealtalent]

complaints.

[stephanie-ramsey]

Stephanie chose to stay quiet at Natasha’s comment, not wanting to make her mood even worse. The other young woman was obviously not in a good mood, actually it seemed like she never was. Except that one time she had to rehearse her Christine scenes since she was the understudy. And since Christine was the female lead, Stephanie had to provide her make up. Natasha had been all happy and even joking to Stephanie, which obviously surprised her because normally all she did was complain and gossip about others. The older woman wouldn’t question it, she was probably jealous that she wasn’t the first choice for the role of Christine, but at least she was the understudy. Being part of the costume and make-up department, Stephanie got to watch the show every night. And she was geniunely impressed by Brooklyn’s belting, which was better than Natasha’s if you’d ask her.

The woman rolled her eyes and followed Natasha to her dressing room. When they passed Astrid’s and Brooklyn’s dressing room, Stephanie couldn’t help but turn her head. An immediate blush crept onto her cheeks when she noticed they were both in their bras. That was not what she was expecting. When Astrid waved, Stephanie waved back quickly walking after Natasha in case she’d make a fool of herself. Stephanie defined herself as bi-sexual, being into both women and men. Blonde women to be exact and since both Astrid and Brooklyn were blonde, seeing them in a bra only made things worse. “Alright, Lets take a look.” She spoke softly, getting a hold of the dress and offering it to Natasha once she had gotten out of the previous dress she was wearing. “I think, we need to make it tighter. But try it on and I can see how much tighter it has to be.”

[therealtalent]

Natasha gladly took the heavy wig off her head, stripping out of her dress and tossing it aside carelessly. It wasn’t her job to go hanging up costumes, after all. Her job was to give a flawless performance, no matter how ridiculously small the role she was given was. It took a gifted actress to be able to draw attention to herself even in such a small part, and Natasha tried her best to fill her nameless chorus girl with as much personality as the role she deserved had. She thought through every move she mad, carefully exhibiting a complex persona with only a few moves and facial expressions. Or, at least, that’s what she told herself she was doing. It was martyrdom, really, letting her talents waste away in such a small role just to keep the production from sinking. She deserved so much more credit, but instead she just got an overworked make-up-artist offering her a dress.

“Of course,” she said, stepping into the dress and pulling it up. “I was practically falling out of it at rehearsal today. I guess it would have made for a more interesting production, especially if it had happened during the ballet sequence. Can you believe how long it is? It’s like, okay, you got to introduce Meg and Christine, we don’t need a five minute dance to accompany it.” She rolled her eyes, giving a long-suffering sigh. Of course, she mostly didn’t like the scene because she just had to sit there and watch, and in fact the director had once scolded her for being “distracting” when she tried to put more emotion into it by trying to figure out what her character was thinking when watching, or even by having her eavesdrop on the managers and react to what they were saying.

[therealtalent]

complaints.

[stephanie-ramsey]

Brown eyes scanned the stage as the company went through their last dress rehearsal before opening night. Years ago, Stephanie was the one on that stage. Not in Phantom though, Les Misérables was her show and Eponine was her role. But after getting pregnant, she was forced to step down from her role and take a break from everything. She had never gone back to acting and singing, instead she had focused on costume design and make up. Her 3-year-old daughter travelled along wherever her mother went. Her father hadn’t been in the picture ever since the little girl was born. Of course, being part of costume design and the make up department, meant that she still was gone full evenings. But she could arrive later and go home earlier than most of the cast. The only make up she had to help with were the main roles, the ensemble were able to apply it themselves. The costumes, however, were a different story. She had worked weeks, if not months on making sure they fit on the right actor. And even though she was just an assistant of the head costume design, she still got busy.

After Act 1 was finished, everyone was allowed to take a longer break than normally was the case with the intermission. Stephanie was just getting lost in her thought of being on that stage herself when a voice interrupted her. She could have known it was Natasha, she did nothing else than complaining about everyone and everything. “I swear I did do something about it,” the brunette muttured. “Anyway, since we’re on a long break. Why don’t you take me to your dressing room and put on the dress so I can see what needs to happen?” She really had gotten sick from all the complaints, most of them coming from Natasha, but she was always ready to help. Stephanie looked around her to see if the head of costume design was near but when the older woman was nowhere in sight, a soft sigh escaped her lips, knowing it was her turn to help.

[therealtalent]

Natasha gave a little huff. “Well, if you did something, it clearly didn’t fix it,” she said. It didn’t surprise her, honestly. The other was clearly more suited to make up work than costuming. Plus, she was probably distracted by that kid that she sometimes brought to rehearsal. Honestly, if you were going to be in this business, you should know better than to go around getting pregnant. She even heard rumors that the woman used to be an actress before she had the kid, which was honestly just pathetic. Natasha wouldn’t dream of giving up her dreams for some snot-nosed brat. It was why she and Anton were always so careful. Neither of them were ready for their lives to be over yet, thank you very much.

“Thank you,” she said, although her tone made it come out more exasperated than grateful. And, honestly, she was exasperated. If it wasn’t for the fact that this production was a foot in the door, she probably would have considered turning down the role. A single solo line in the Countess scene was not enough for her. Of course, she’d be able to play Christine if and when Brooklyn flaked, but honestly, she couldn’t believe she was playing second fiddle to her. She remembered her from the academy. She was a horrible dancer and a mediocre actress at best. She scowled as they passed her dressing room, where she was sprawled half-naked with the little ballerina she was probably screwing. Along with the director, if her role was any indication. She walked down the hall to her own dressing room, ignoring the ballerina’s (Astrid, and what an idiotic name that was) wave. “Here,” she huffed, pulling her wig off and setting to getting out of her ridiculous costume.

[therealtalent]

complaints.

“Excuse me.” When the other ensemble member, deep in conversation with the production’s Piangi, didn’t move, Natasha gave a little huff. Natasha Farris, actress once featured on Playbill and broadway.com, was not in the business of being ignored. She nudged the tiny ballerina out of her way. “Excuse me,” she said again, with a bit more force this time. While others were going to spend their break chatting or grabbing coffee or doing pointless things, Natasha was the consummate professional. She was going to get things done. She adjusted the ridiculous wig she wore for this scene and made her way across the stage.

She stomped right up to the woman in black, crossing her arms over her chest. “Hello, yes, hi. Is there a reason that my costume for the Hannibal scene still doesn’t fit right? Even though I told you lot weeks ago?” Honestly, it was bad enough that she had been robbed of the role she really deserved, but now this? In truth, she wasn’t even sure if the woman before her was in costuming. She thought her name was Sarah or Stacey or something, but past that, she had no idea who she was. Well, it didn’t really matter. All of the backstage people probably knew each other, and they were all basically in the same category in Natasha’s mind.