Part 14: Applause for Olive…

Applause for Olive

One time, Olive recalled, a well-rehearsed play suddenly encountered a problem. She was both the star and the stage manager. Someone wanted her advice about the colour of a curtain in a stage window. Someone else fussed about a spotlight that was out of order. Others worried about an actor’s role of only two lines, played by a silly young girl who couldn’t remember her words properly. And a violent squabble between two members of the play-reading committee erupted.

Olive calmed them, sorted out the other problems, and called for a last rehearsal. She wore hot pants and a skin-tight blouse; but she was not Olive; she was the Madam Dupong, a scornful, refined, gorgeous old woman in her twenties, easy of gesture, calm of voice, evil of intent.

“I wish I had a few more actors like you!” said the professional coach.
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The Community Theatre play premiered on the following Wednesday. Applause for Olive: the audience gave her a standing ovation. Later, at a party at the Chipwick Country Club, she danced with the most handsome boys in town. She spoke little, concentrated on the rhythm, and bathed in a halo of artistic success that glowed around her.

No wonder she’d made such a profitable career as a con woman!
 
To be continued… 

The real world:
 
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Like to know more about Alf, Bert and the rest of the gang? You can read their chaotic history in What on Earth.
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Image by Orna Wachman from Pixabay