Young Writers Society

Sadie loved teaching theater. Mostly because she loved theater kids. They were such melodramatic drama queens, and she was absolutely here for it. Little weirdos. And some of the only kids in this whole building who were willing to let their weirdness show and just own it. It was wonderful.

"Alright, guys, here's the deal," Sadie said, gesturing to all the kids to join her at the area below the makeshift stage in the auditorium. "The next play is going to be Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. It was written in... uh... 18..." She glanced at her notes. "97. Here's the setting: France."

She gestured with her arm dramatically, like she was making invisible headlines. "1640. Cyrano is a nobleman serving as a cadet in the French Army. He's brash. Strong-willed. A man of many talents -- a legendary dualist, a gifted poet, and a musician to boot. The problem? His nose. He's one ugly son-of-a and he knows it, so he's too shy to express his love to his crush, the beautiful and intelligent Roxane."

Sadie sat down on the edge of the stage to get closer to eye-height with the students. "It's a fun play. My favorite, actually. Lots of sass and one-line zingers. You'll love it."

She looked around, trying to gauge the energy in the room.

Bean was seated beside her friend Hunter. She had been doodling Spider-Man battling a gigantic tree monster until Sadie started talking, at which point she had perked right up and listened. She already knew who she wanted to play. She raised her hand, looking over at Hunter excitedly. Hunter had his head down and was trying subtly to scribble out a note to someone, likely Olivia Hamilton, who sat behind him. That was not surprising, but it vexed her. She knew he didn't really take theater seriously, but that was no excuse for that kind of nonsense. She gave him a nudge.

"Bean! What's up?" Sadie called on her with a smile.

She put her hand down and sat up straighter. "Okay, I've got two questions. One: Can Cyrano be played by a girl? Two: This is a comedy, right?" Hunter had glanced up now and shoved the note into his pocket. He looked over at her quizzically.

Sadie hesitated for a long moment, feeling like her life was flashing before her eyes. It'd be an absolute shitstorm if she let a girl play the role that was supposed to go to a big tough boy. Not to mention the queer implications of her having a female love interest... and yet. Sadie couldn't seem to find it in her to crush Bean's enthusiasm... and she was a good actress. Sadie could see it being a good fit.

"Hmm... I've never seen that before, but I don't see why not. If Shakes-see-P can cast all his plays with all men playing female characters, I don't see why we can't have a female Cyrano... but if a girl gets Cyrano then you'll be cross-dressing for it and we're still gonna pretend he's a guy. I'm not dealing with your parents by turning this into a lesbian romance."

The town was very, very small. And she felt like they all knew exactly what she meant.

"But if you're chill with that, then audition away. You thinking about going for lead?" She asked. "And yeah, it's a comedy... well, I think it's technically classified as a romantic tragedy. But the scriptwriter called it a heroic comedy and he wrote it so he should know. And it is really funny."

(What decade are we working in again?)

(Early 2000s?)

"Definitely gonna try going for lead." Bean grinned. "I can play a boy, no worries! But if I'm gonna have to cut my hair I'll have to let Mom know so she can drive me up to Tipston. Is there kissing?" Her mom wouldn't like that, definitely. She was pushing it by even considering auditioning for a boy's part. Even so, she bet she could pull it off and make them proud.

(I think we said that but it might be better to have it closer to 2010 given how it's already going? lol like the kid playing on his phone felt very in character for a high schooler, but we didn't have those in the early 00s xD Or, I guess the rich kids might have, but they were bricks and not nearly as trendy as they are now -- you could basically only text and call and you had to pay-per-text/call on them. I don't think anyone was texting in class in 2000. Or cross-dressing to be Cyrano lol so if you wanna bump it to 2010 I'd be good for that ^^)

"Nah," Sadie said, shaking her head. "There's a fake-kiss but we'll hide it with a bouquet or something. And you absolutely don't need to cut your hair just for this part, unless you want to. We can totally get you a wig."

(Oh I changed that immediately after reading through Sadie's profile. He's writing a note instead)

"Okay, great! I'm definitely gonna audition then, if that's okay." Bean grinned. "Where are we gonna get costumes?"

(Ohh I didn't catch that edit ^^ nice. Well, up to you. I don't have a strong preference either way)

"For sure!" Sadie said with a grin and a nod, glancing at the other kids. "We'll spend the rest of this week watching some clips and reading through the script so you can get in character, then I'll have auditions on Friday -- come one, come all, come Cyrano de Bergerac!" At that, she stood up and walked over to the TV in the room, and turned it on, cringing at the static. She started prepping to show the recording of his iconic speech that she'd prepared. "Costumes will come later, once we've got the cast figured out. And props. We'll have to all pitch in and split our time between rehearsing and prepping the stage."

(Let's stick with early 2000s then

Also check out Marie D's update on her page!)

Bean leaned over and whispered to Hunter, "do you think she'd let us make our own costumes?"
"Probably," Hunter replied. "All the money goes to the football team anyway; she's gonna need all the help she can get."
"I'm gonna make mine out of that old velvet curtain we found in Claire Creek." Bean uncapped her pen and started writing in her notebook. "Maybe Mom'll let me borrow her sewing kit."

(Oo what do we call the football team)

(ooh I love that!!! Is that AI? I recently put the quads through an AI and it was slightly disappointing since they were *already* computer-generated art but I got some neat ones out of it!)

"So these aren't the greatest recordings," Sadie said as the screen flickered onto a poorly-recorded theater play. "I could only find VHS of them second-hand on eBay. But good enough for you to get a feel for it. This is my favorite monologue and really captures the entire essence of Cyrano's personality -- this is the chunk you'll be auditioning with if you want a shot at Cyrano."

(Are you familiar with Cyrano? It's the scene with his monologue about his nose where he's roasting the guy for not roasting him well lol)
(And hmmm I guess since it's Loon Hill it would make sense for it to be a loon? Or a bird mascot? Not sure lol)

(Yep! Midjourney. It's processing the other characters as well but it's taking forever. My first pass on Nicholas Aspen gave me a freaking nightmare creature)

(I've heard of Cyrano and I know Peter Dinklage plays him in a recent movie but that's all.)

(The Loon Hill Loons?)

(Or maybe they pull from a legend surrounding the town or something?)

Bean paused in her writing and looked up, pen poised to take notes even so. She loved when they showed videos at school; it was a useful waste of time and in this case it would give her inspiration for the character.

(Nice! I used the Lensa app. My facebook has been on a trend of doing yourself in AI and I caved and did that and actually really liked how it turned out so I tried the girls)



(And Cyrano is freaking fantastic it is *my* favorite play of all time lol here is the speech she's cueing up: https://instruction2.mtsac.edu/french/c ... ologue.htm and if you're able to watch a video my undergrad did this when I was a student and it is to date the best play I've seen in my life and I paid $200 to see Hamilton professionally done lol (tho granted it about ties. But it was that good) -- it starts here https://youtu.be/CzPgLYFnwD4?t=705 and goes idk 2 ish minutes? until 14:02)
(And ooh that'd be cool! hmm)

Sadie played the monologue, resisting the urge to quote along with it, though she caved in at 'a peninsula' and did a dramatic gesture and started chuckling to herself.

(Yo that's so cool!
And I'll give those a watch soon; I should be packing right now.)

Bean was nearly trembling with excitement by the end; she knew she'd be able to do that speech. She felt it in her bones, this was the character she was meant to play. It was hilarious! She glanced around at the other students. Hunter had passed his note to Olivia, who had in turn ignored it completely and was now whispering with her friends.

(aha that's valid. I *should* be working but I'm nooooot lol I'm going to resist the urge to watch the rest of that play but now that I'm thinking about it I definitely want to watch again
My undergrad is like the only school in the world that over funded the arts and underfunded science lol but like apparently there are competitions for colleges and universities in terms of qualities of their plays and our school was so good we were disqualified from competing in that league and instead had to compete against professional productions. I don't think this one in particular won any awards but others they produced did ^^
I was salty as a student because they would literally require us to go to the plays/musicals/operas and it was always really inconvenient timing and I never wanted to go but I'm glad for it now. I never would have discovered how much I love live theater otherwise)

Sadie was watching the students, thrilled that Bean was so clearly into it. Some of the others also seemed to be interested and she was excited to see all the auditions, though deep in her gut she figured Bean would be the one to blow it out of the water and get the role. Still, she was going to be fair.

"And now here's a bit of Roxane..." She fast-forwarded to a different part on the tape.

(I do not have a specific monologue in mind for this one lol)