“Call me Monty, please. You’re no longer my student, and most of my students call me Monty. Come back to the seats, please.”
They went through curtains that he feared contained spiders or worse, but once he got through, he saw workmen were renovating the place.
The stage was completely gone, and the seats in front were being taken out one by one. They sat in the back, and Monty waved a hand over the scene. “They’re converting this place into a nightclub. They’re keeping most of the scrollwork on the walls, the original woodwork, but…it’ll never be the same. This is where I came for my very first play, the one that got me itching to be on the stage.”
As touching as Luke thought the story was, he was more interested in the part, and happy it wasn’t in the dingy little theater.
Waxing reminiscent of the place still, Monty said, “When the stage was lit, you didn’t notice the carpet, how lumpy the seats were. All you saw was the big stage, the actors, the props and backdrops. It was magic.”
“I’m sure it was,” he said, lacking anything else to say.
“I found a play that I would have loved to have here. I have backing, have the writer speaking with the financial team now. I also, from my time at school, know who all the front runners for parts will be, if they want it, of course. You, Luka, were at the top of that very short list.”
That got his attention. “Really? I’m flattered. I’d have to read the script, of course, and know more details, but of course, I’m interested.”
“Good,” he said as he turned and grabbed a briefcase from the floor beside him. “I just so happen to have the script and the details here for you. I know you, at least a little, and I know your ambition much better. I think above all, you’ll want the leading role.”
“Only if I deserve it,” he said sincerely. His hard veneer nearly cracked, but he couldn’t allow that. He’d taken years to craft it,knowing a thin skin in the profession he loved would cut him to ribbons the first time he tried to get a part. Any part.
“You do, Luka. That’s what I said. I knew who would be in this play the moment I read it. Call it my dream cast, and maybe I won’t get you all, but even if only you come on board, then I’ll be happy.”
He wondered if Monty was hitting on him, but Luka remembered a handsome man coming to get Monty a lot for lunches in the cafeteria on campus. Besides, Luka wouldn’t know if someone was hitting on him or not. He found that he was terrible at recognizing flirting.
“Monty…is it still okay I call you that?”
“Yes, Luka, it is.”
The guy had a smile that could light Manhattan. “Your…your number is on here, if I decide to take it?”
“Or if you don’t. Please let me know, but I encourage you to think it through. This play is going to be held beginning right after the first of the year, in February, and it will run for the first six months…on Broadway. In fact, so far, we have a penciled year contract for the Winter Garden.”
Luka’s eyes must have bugged out of his head, the way Monty chuckled at him, and that was how it felt.
“The Winter Garden? Really?”
“I have a big investor. Big. He’s very excited about this production.”
“Who…I mean, may I ask, who?”
“Sure. His name is Benson Carter. He owns Bright Gate.”
“Bright Gate? That new super protection for computers?”
“Yes,” he said with another chuckle.
“Wow. Okay, well, I’ll read this, and I’ll have an answer for you tomorrow.”
“Good. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.”
Leaving in a daze, the folder in his hands, Luka immediately started reading it as he sat on the subway, surrounded by others who had no idea he was about to become a star. If only his own words could get into the hands of someone like Monty…
Not that he wanted the part if it was bad, but to play in the Winter Garden…he’d do anything. That was the big time in theater, that old stage that held the greatest actors of all time, and he could walk in their footsteps…
The script wasn’t terrible. In fact, it was good. It was very good.
And he was being given the lead, if he wanted it.
The second he got home, he started memorizing the lines, going over every single one in his mind, getting more and more pissed at himself for any missteps.
