M3: I'm an Actress!

     As soon as I arrived in medieval Europe, I noticed the troop of actors meandering along the dirt road. One held up a sign saying "Actors Wanted". Interested, I approached the group of unique individuals. "Hello." I said to a fat bald man in a robe.
"Are you, by any chance, an actress?" He asked hopefully. I decided to take a chance.
"Uhhhh, not exactly," I started, "but I was a tree in our fifth grade production of A Midsummer Nights Dream." He looked quite puzzled, but he must have realized that a crazy actress was better than no actress, because he handed me a paper full of scribbled text. I accepted the script and followed the group along.
     After seeing that I was at least literate enough read a my lines, the actors had promptly given me a lead role in their mystery play. A mystery play, in case you didn't know, is a play about a story from the Bible. This particular play was about the story of Noah's Ark. The leader of the troop had explained to me  that there were many theatre groups, and so one needed to be unexpected to gain notice.That was why, instead of the men playing the male and female roles, they wanted a women to play the main male role. Noah. I was not very thrilled, because just the mention of an audience had me sweating through my tunic.
    The next two weeks were full of rehearsing, rehearsing, and more rehearsing. The play was an hour long, and we were going to perform it at a merchants festival in a nearby village. I had 123 lines, and so far I had memorized 23. Basically, in the play, Noah hears god telling him to build a boat with two of every animal to save all the species from a big flood. I was sure some other stuff happened, but I had only read that far into the script. The director was acting really peevish, because we had only successfully ran through the first scene. We were so busy that I almost forgot to be nervous about the actual play. Once and a while though, I remembered the thousands of people that were going to see me make a fool out of everyone. Even though I was terrified, I stuck it out, and eventually, opening night came.
     It was one hour until curtain, and the butterflies in my stomach had turned into a herd of elephants. After I paced backstage and chugged 2 gallons of water, the play started. There was an introduction, and then finally my cue. A few uncomfortable seconds passed, until someone used a cane as a goad. I said my lines without a hitch. In fact, everything ran smoothly. Well, except for someones robe slipping, but that wasn't my fault. At the end of the performance, I took a final bow while loud cheers assaulted my ears, then I removed my beard. The crowd was completely silent, and I was quickly pulled out of the limelight.
     No one seemed to like our controversial casting, but at least they had liked me when they thought I was a man.The rest of the night was a blur of congratulations from fellow actors. It seemed that I hadn't crashed or burned. Although I only got payed about enough to buy a subway pass, I had faced my fear, and that was what mattered. The theatre troop had also asked me to continue on with them. Considering I had to get back to college, that wasn't an option. It was good to know I had a career to fall back on though.