Kismet Interrupted
Don Shook
©
Copyright 2020 by Don Shook
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“Huh?” I responded.
“Just
listen to them!”
In
the background I heard the sounds of what seemed like a rollicking
good party. “Huh?” I repeated.
“They
just looked at your tape. We’ll have to get you up here soon.”
“But
I just sent it to you.”
“Yea,”
Mari Lynn replied, “it came this morning. We just looked at it. You’re
on your way, Mister.”
Suddenly
it struck home. ABC was going to produce a Movie of the Week based
on the life of the famous entertainer Liberace. During our last
Dallas casting workshop, Mari Lynn had left a script for me. She
thought I was right for the lead role. Surprised but delighted, I
watched several of the pianist’s old movies, practiced his
voice and mannerisms, put together a video tape, and it now appeared
that the movie’s producers liked what they saw. “My God.”
I sighed as I hung up. Could this be it, after all these
years?
Having
struggled for what seemed ages to be a successful actor, I had
discovered that particular goal, coveted by all performers, was as
often reached by fortuitous circumstance as it was anything else. I
had done numerous roles in various theatre and film productions both
locally and across the nation including New York, but never one that
had the potential of catapulting me into the upper echelon of acting
success. That appeared about to change. A lead role in a television
network movie of the week offered a fantastic opportunity. So, as
one might expect, I was thrilled.
I
told Mari Lynn I was preparing for that night’s show and I’d
call her back the next day. Literally floating on air, I helped get
ready for our production of the Neil Simon comedy “Last of the
Red Hot Lovers” at a country club in Tyler, Texas. It was a
great play in which I had the lead role, but for the rest of our
preparation time all I could think of was my conversation and the
prospects it presented. I couldn’t wait until the show was
over, the night passed, and tomorrow dawned. It was going to be a
great day. And would have been too except for….
Kathryn
was a talented actress and my business partner. Upon first meeting
her, I thought she was one of the most striking girls I had ever
seen. Wheeling the audiovisual equipment into my classroom, she
blithely tossed soft brown hair, clasped in a headband, over her
shoulder and away from her face. A loosely fitting sweatshirt
subtlety suggested a full, but not exaggerated, figure, breasts
heaving heavily under the fabric - an invitation to further visual
examination. Her long legs, encased in tight blue jeans, accentuated
a five-foot-nine-inch frame which seemed to glide into the room. I
stood inaudibly transfixed, mouth agape, eyes unwavering. Finally
looking up, she asked, "Where do you want it?" Quickly
dismissing an obvious retort, I surveyed the rest of her.
If
I had been attracted to her body I was overwhelmed by her face. No
classic beauty, her high cheekbones were all but lost in the glow of
the palest green eyes ever seen. How could they radiate such mystery?
How could they express such a perfect contradiction of indifference
and scalding sensuality?
Her
solid jaw-line
detracted not one whit from full lips and a perfectly formed nose,
straight and symmetrical. Such features I usually found
uninteresting, not unique, not really pretty. But then she was not
pretty. She was beyond pretty. For, in spite of an array of
attractive features, her appearance was overridden by a deep
depressive sadness, a reflection, mainly in the eyes, of some
forbidden secret held captive behind that face, furrowed in the inner
recesses of a troubled soul. At that moment, she was the most
fascinatingly pretty person I had ever seen...
A
month or so after that encounter in the classroom, I saw her again.
Recovering from some of the worst monologues my Tuesday Evening
Acting Class had ever presented, I huffily dismissed my students
early and was making my way to the college parking lot. There had
been no reason to pass by the Security Office but, by some strange
twist of fate, on that night I changed my usual route.
Coincidentally, Kathryn was seated there at the desk. Surprised, I
stopped, looked hard at her through the glass wall, and walked in.
"Hi!"
I blurted cheerfully.
Slowly
she raised her eyes. Again, I was stunned. She was stunning. "Yes?"
she asked softly.
"Remember
me?"
"Yes."
Her voice was flat. She appeared unimpressed.
"What
are you doing here?"
"I
work here."
"Oh? What happened to audio visual?"
"I
couldn't handle it."
"Too
difficult?" I was making small talk.
"Too
boring." Her's was smaller.
Nevertheless,
I saw an opening. "You know you really should become an actress.
You'd never be bored."
"Really?"
Was there a hint of interest?
"You
know you look like an actress." Did that sound phony?
"Oh?
How does an actress look?"
I
smiled, she had taken the bait…"Like you."
Slowly
she leaned back in the chair, reached into the pocket of her blue
flannel shirt and withdrew a pack of cigarettes. I noticed the
swelling of the fabric, the soft swaying of flesh beneath the
material as she pressed her hand into the pocket. A drop of cold
sweat trickled down my spine. She reached into her jeans pocket,
arching her back, purposely jutting her breasts forward, driving me
the short trip to distraction. From the pocket she pulled a silver
lighter which sprouted flame at the snap of her thumb. Lighting the
cigarette, she puffed sensuously, drawing the smoke into her mouth
and very slowly exhaling – pushing a stream of white smoke in
my direction. I coughed, squinted, and blinked several times.
"My
father was an actor." She said, matter-of-factly.
"Really?"
Another opening. Or was she toying with me?
"Yes.
He always discouraged me."
"Well,
if you can be discouraged, you should be." I responded quickly,
not wanting to lose the moment. "Although I can't understand why
anyone would want to discourage you. Such a wonderful look."
She
eyed me suspiciously, then, for the first time since we had met,
offered the suggestion of a smile. "Thank you," she said.
"I
mean it. Why don't you take my class?"
"Acting
class?"
"That's
what I teach."
"I
can't."
"Why
not?"
She
drug deeply on the cigarette. The pungent odor offended my senses,
but I didn't want her to know that. As she exhaled, my nostrils
contracted, eyes watered, and I almost coughed again. A deeper smile
prowled across her face. She almost seemed to be enjoying my
discomfort. Then she spoke, "I don't have the money."
I
coughed. "I ...(cough) ... I'll ... (cough) ... pay ... (cough,
cough) ... for it." What had I said?
"You're
kidding?" She seemed truly amazed.
"No,
I mean it." Hell, it’s only fifty-four dollars.
"You
do, don't you?"
It
was my time to smile. And smugly. She was impressed. I was on the
verge of saying something clever when she continued, "I'll think
about it."
"Good." I had made my point, my offer, and the possibility of nurturing
a
relationship with her. Not one to press the issue, I smiled most
genuinely and said, "Good, let me know."
"I
will," she smiled in return.
"Well,
got to scoot. Nice to meet you ... er, ah ..."
"Kathryn.
Kathryn Johnson."
"Nice
to meet you, Kathryn. I'm Don."
"Right."
It
was time to go. "Right," I replied and did. I hoped to see
her again soon. That happened a month later when she showed up for
class. Within a year she was performing in my Actors Company shows. Six
months later she became my business partner. Soon thereafter we
were lovers. Even sooner thereafter we were ex-lovers, but remained
good friends and partners. She continued performing in the shows. That
was my first mistake.
Kathryn
was a fine actress. The problem was we had some very different
philosophical ideas that bled over into our acting techniques.
Consequently, frequent heated discussions were the order of the day.
Sensing my attitude, she had become recalcitrant to the point of it
affecting our scenes together on stage.
During
the performance that night there was a scene where she had
intentionally drawn focus away from me, upstaging my monologue. This
was the source of my ensuing anger and frustration which, when
elaborated to Kathryn during intermission, elicited a sarcastic
response. As I thought about it I compounded my mistake by making
several others; the first of which was to go back on stage still
fuming. This was a cardinal violation of "good acting." Leave your
personal problems off stage, off camera, and off-load (I
hated that trendy computer technology word) them on someone
other
than your fellow actors or your own characterization. This I didn't
do. I went on stage mad, forgetting my character and thinking only
about how furious I was with her.
The
script called for me to seize her, kiss her awkwardly, and then lose
balance and fall on top of her on the sofa. The seize and the kiss
worked wonderfully. The fall didn't. I pushed her past the staged
"falling point" and as we began our desent I realized that
instead of her head hitting the targeted arm of the sofa, that the
back of her skull was headed straight for the mahogany endtable.
Immediately, my mind went into high gear…
There
was no time to think, for although the whole sequence of events
seemed to be moving in slow motion, my brain wasn’t. There
was no time to act; only react. Of course, this was a basic premise
of “acting” stressed over and over in my classes. "Don't
act ... react. Don't act ... react." What I couldn't stress
then was that it worked only "most" not "all" of
the time.
Sometimes, if you had your own
agenda you didn't even
listen to, much less react to, what the other actors were saying. But
you were always reacting to the situation, the sequence of
events, the moment. This is what I did as Kathryn’s head
accelerated toward the endtable.
As
I fell with her, one hand was still on her waist, the other behind
her neck. In the next mini second, with reflexes approximating
C-squared, my hand moved to the back of her head and jerked it over
the space between my shoulder and neck, protectively cradling her as
though burping a baby. In the same instant, I felt my nose smash
into the endtable.
I
knew it was broken. Although dazed and literally out on my feet,
cognizance of collapsed structure swept over me and, as usual in
times of extreme stress, I reacted objectively, almost detached. "My
God, I'm sorry." I heard himself say. Obviously, instincts had
taken over as I had repeated lines from the script. "Oh!" Was Kathryn’s
tentative
response beneath a look of horror.
I
immediately pulled myself up from the sofa. Through a curtain of pain
I heard the words from the script somehow coming through lips on
which I also felt a warm, wet stickiness.
Despite
the pain, dizziness, and blood belching from my proboscis, I
continued the scene until, finally, I turned to the audience and
apologized for the amount of blood on the stage. I called for an
early intermission, made a quick trip to the emergency room of a
local clinic, and returned, stitched and anesthetized, to finish the
show. And, miracle of miracles, at least half of the audience stayed
through the extended 45 minute intermission to witness my struggle to
the final curtain.
As
I thought about it, I knew that it doesn't really matter what the
circumstances are: pain, fear, danger, or unexpected turn of events.
Sometimes you just have to suck it up and fight it out. It isn't
courage, or intestinal fortitude, or any other such noble attribute
that drives you to do what has to be done. It's just a matter of
doing it. Regardless (as trite as it sounds), "the show must go
on."
Three
days later Mari Lynn called me wondering why I hadn’t contacted
her. My explanation was simple: The day after the show my doctor
repaired and reset my nose. Still swollen, I asked if it would look
the same when healed.
“What?” Mari Lynn squealed. “Your nose is crooked?”
Although
plastic surgery might help, for the time being my nose would remain
somewhat less than straight. Mari Lynn was flabbergasted. The ABC
producers wanted some immediate headshots and a New York audition. The
short of the long of it was: Production was to begin in less
than a month. Liberace possessed a prominent straight nose. I
didn’t. Plastic surgery healing would require time, makeup
wouldn’t cut it, and I was no longer right for the part. C’est
la vie.
Sometime
later Kathryn told me she was terrified that night, not necessarily
because of my injury, but because she was freaked that we wouldn’t
be able to finish the show and she wouldn’t be paid. I
laughed. She is still a good friend, although we rarely see one
another. The days of country club shows are long since over too, as
is my involvement with ABC Daytime Casting and Mari Lynn Henry. I
never opted for reconstructive surgery.
My
slightly crooked nose I see as a character trait of which I can
concoct fabulous tales of fierce battles. I still perform and
occasionally lose emotional control, but I seldom, if ever, resent or
regret what happened on stage that night. I made my bed. Fortuitous
circumstance more often than preordained luck determines our fate;
much of this due to the choices we make. I’ve laid in mine. And
one fateful moment in time often determines what happens during our
time remaining. Kismet interrupted is still Kismet.
(Unless
you
type
the
author's name
in
the subject
line
of the message
we
won't know where to send it.)
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