As she pulled up to the The New Moon Playhouse, Linda felt the air of uncertainty coalesce around her. Auditions weren't new to her, goodness knows she's been to enough of them. This was different though. A different playhouse, a different city, different people. She wasn't going to know anyone. It wasn't like back home where you saw the same people audition with each season, where you could pretty much put on your magic genie hat and predict who was playing what part. Back home there was a good chance everyone who tried out would be cast in one role or another, even if it was just as "organic scenery." In musicals with big choruses like Oklahoma, The King and I, and Damn Yankees there was a definite need for bodies to fill up the stage as party guests, wives or angry crowds. It was pretty much a sure thing.

Not like here. Here at The New Moon Playhouse there were seven precious roles. Seven roles and at least twenty auditioners. Twenty doesn't sound like a lot, but the odds were still against her. To make it even worse, only four of the seven roles were for women. Fifteen out of the twenty auditioners were also women. It didn't seem fair. Men always seemed to have an easier time getting parts, at least at all the places Linda went to.

Well, here goes nothing. Linda stepped through the door and into the dim amber light of the lobby. All the other auditioners had come with friends, someone to talk to, someone for moral support so they wouldn't have to feel alone. Linda neglected to bring anyone. She kind of liked it that way. By herself, she could play the part of the broody, lonely actor who no one understands but still doesn't act like she's better than everyone else. A little shy, a little introverted, but once she stepped onstage, queen of all she surveyed with a commanding voice and a pliant face full of expression.

Quietly, she filled out her audition form being sure to include her tap and ballroom dancing experience. Her singing experience probably wouldn't be a deciding factor in her audition since this was a straight play, but Linda included that as well just in case.

As she turned in her audition form to the smiling, forty-something woman behind the little table in the front, Linda surveyed the room. Look at all these young kids. They all look like they're my age or younger. Linda knew looks could be deceiving though. She herself was knocking on her twenty-fourth birthday and she still got carded at bars. Linda amused herself by reading some of the scenes from the play, Brighton Beach Memoirs by Neil Simon, while she waited for slower, more talkative auditioners to finish their sheets.

Presently a man stood up and took his place in the center of the lobby. Obviously the director, he had that look about him...that artsy look. With ribbed sweater, scarf encircling his neck and wool hat barely capping his blond curls, the director addressed everyone.

"Hello. Hi. My name is Phillip John Title and I'm the director." He went on with the usual director spiel about how glad he was that everyone showed up, that he'd love to but he can't cast everyone and how if not cast, everyone should come back and try out again for the next show. He ended with,

"With that, let's all go into the theater."

Linda trooped along behind the rest of the auditioners and entered the auditorium. The building was old, she could tell from the large wooden rafters in the ceiling that supported a patchwork of lights and metal beams. It must have been remodeled in the last five years or so, because the seats were reupholstered and the aisles lined with new carpet. The area around the seats however, were bare, painted cement.

The stage was small, Linda had been on a bigger stage in college, but very quaint and appropriate for the small theater. Considering how many people were auditioning, Linda surmised that The New Moon Playhouse didn't get the draw the musicals back home and the plays at college did. Still, a play was a play and Linda was going to do her damndest to snag one of the four coveted parts.