Katie prepares for a callback (comedy)

"It's right in here, Greg. We'll work in my bedroom. It'll help keep us from being distracted by my noisy housemates!" She shouted the last two words through the door before closing it. Katie knew it wasn't the quietest house ... and she knew she often contributed to a lot of the noise herself.

Greg was one of her acting teachers and sometimes private acting coach. He was dressed conservatively, in a button-down shirt and corduroys. Greg was in his 50s. He had gray hair that he wore back with a little oil, and a tight gray mustache and beard. He had rugged, tanned skin, and looked like he could be a soap opera star. In fact, he had done a lot of television work over the years, and supplemented his time on set with part-time work as an acting teacher.

Katie was wearing jeans and a red, billowy, strapless shirt with elastic bunching up the material over her chest and at her stomach. She had her hair loose.

"Thank you so much for coming over to do this coaching, Greg." Katie smiled. "The callback is tomorrow morning, and I really just want to be as ready as I can."

Greg nodded. "Happy to help, Katie. I've always enjoyed seeing your work in my acting class, and the last show I saw you do was really quite good."

Katie giggled and jumped up and down a bit. "Oh, I'm so glad you liked it! It was such a silly show." She dramatically presented the ridiculous title. "The Zebra Tamer No One Needed. What a weird play. But I think it was my work in that that got me this audition. It's a similar character."

Greg smiled, and his heart fluttered a bit. The character Katie had played in Zebra Tamer was a high school senior who was both a little bit ditzy and slutty. She had one scene in which she was covered in slimy, wet food, yet she had to make a convincing argument for why she needed money for a safari trip ... or something like that. There was another scene where a guy and girl were playing sexual mind games with each other, but using Katie's character to make the other one jealous.

Katie was great at this kind of character. She had a real knack for comedy, plus she was incredibly attractive. With her wide blue eyes and bubble gum energy, she could easily slip into several of the familiar teen comedy tropes. Today was no different.

"So I play Alicia. The other character is Brad -- except in this scene, Brad is in a disguise, and everyone thinks he's Andrew from New York City, and that he's Brad's cousin."

Greg looked confused. "Why?"

Katie shrugged. "I don't know. But Alicia likes Brad. Brad is too nervous to ask her out. The disguise is some weird thing he's doing -- it's the plot. I don't know."

"So Alicia and 'Andrew' are together. Does she know it's Brad?"

"She does, but he doesn't think she does. So that's her advantage in the scene."

"Okay. And what's your objective?"

Katie thought for a minute. "Well, ultimately, she wants Brad to just reveal who he is so the two of them can get together. But she knows that if she just calls him out, he'll freak and probably never talk to her again. Plus, she likes to mess around, and this scene is her kind of toying with him, taking advantage of the fact that she knows who he is, but he doesn't realize she knows."

"Sounds like a silly comedy."

"Exactly!" She looked around her room. "Now you know me, Greg. I need to be dressed for the part. Can you give me a sec to find the right look?"