Read 13 - Knock'em Dead for Free Online

the sons as opposites, the older son, Jerry, a brooding, physically imposing character who tended to solve problems with force rather than finesse; the younger son, Joshua, frail, pale, and sensitive, an introvert who loved books as much as his brother enjoyed pumping up his muscles on gym equipment in his room.
    “Isn’t he wonderful?” Linda said as the actor playing Jerry read. “There’s a brute force quality to him, a young Brando-like sensuality.”
    “Yes, I see that,” I said. He had a square, rugged face framed by a helmet of black curls. He wore tight jeans and a black T-shirt that showed off his impressive physique. His name was Brett Burton.
    Linda’s choice of actor to play Josh, the younger brother, was David Potts, not an especially theatrical name and probably the one with which he was born. He had almost a mystical quality about him, a dreamer, ethereal and introspective. I thought of Montgomery Clift and James Dean. He read a particularly wrenching scene between him and the father that brought tears to my eyes.
    The daughter, eighteen years old and named Waldine, “Wally” (I have a close friend, Waldine Peckham, and named the character after her) was bubbly and full of life, at least as I’d envisioned her when creating the role. Hanna Shawn, the actress preselected to play her, was certainly older than eighteen, although she did have a youthful quality.
    “Isn’t she a little old to play Wally?” I asked.
    “No,” Linda replied. “Cy and Aaron have never been comfortable having the character in her teens. They want her in her midtwenties.”
    “Oh? No one mentioned that to me.”
    “I agree with them.”
    “But the way I wrote her, she brings a teenager’s spark of life into what’s become a heavy, ominous household.”
    “You’ll have to discuss that with Cy and Aaron.”
    With that, the director and playwright arrived and slipped into seats next to us. It occurred to me that the reason they hadn’t bothered showing up earlier was because the talent for the show had been preordained.
    “What do you think?” Walpole asked in a whisper as Ms. Shawn read from the script.
    “It’s an impressive array of talent,” I whispered back. “When did you decide to make Wally older?”
    “When Harry told us to.”
    “Harry? Harry Schrumm?”
    “Yes, quite. It’s called rewriting the character to fit the talent.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Harry wants Hanna Shawn in the show.”
    “Even if she isn’t right for the part?”
    His chuckle was muffled. “I don’t mean to be crass, Jessica, but she’s part of Harry’s stable.”
    “Stable? A girlfriend?”
    “A genteel way of putting it.”
    “I see.” The proverbial casting couch at work? Obviously Broadway, like Hollywood, was no place for the naive.
    There were two other roles to fill. They, too, had been determined earlier by Linda Amsted in concert with Walpole and Manley.
    The younger brother’s girlfriend, Marcia, was to be played by an intense young actress, Jenny Forrest. As I watched her audition—or go through the motions of auditioning—I realized she was perfect for the part. The character I’d created was as introverted as Joshua, a perfect match. She’d dressed appropriately for the audition, a loose, simple, black dress that reached her ankles, hair pulled back into a severe chignon, no makeup, and wearing large, round glasses. Marcia was, as I saw her, a mousy, unpopular young woman who never turned a male head until meeting Josh, and who saw him as her salvation, her proverbial knight in shining armor, a sensitive boy who matched her insecurity and who saw beyond her looks into a good and decent soul.
    “She’s wonderful,” I said to Aaron Manley. “Is she that way in person?”
    “No. In real life she’s a conniving, ambitious young woman who skirts with being vicious.”
    “Really? Then she’s quite an actress.”
    “Yeah.”
    He fell silent as Linda thanked Ms. Forrest for coming, told her