You went out onto the unlit stage. The Queen took a seat. You stood behind her whilst the woman in green stood nearby. The director called action and the stage lit up.
You examined the queen’s hair. It was braided similarly to your own. She wore a beaded hair net over it. The beads were actually pearls or at least fake pearls. You pretended to fiddle with the pearls. Whilst the Queen was talking to the woman in green. The conversation was about rebels. The woman in green was urging the Queen to flee while she could.
The queen said ‘Lady Winter fetch me that mirror‘
I looked at the woman in green. With her eyes she indicated that this was my cue. I replied ‘Yes Madam’ my voice sounded tiny.
Suddenly the director called out ‘Cut! Christine project your voice. Be loud. You are not a mouse’
Chastised they repeated the conversation. This time after the cue you called out ‘Yes Madam’ loudly and immediately and fetched the mirror the queen had indicated. You were relieved when the director stayed silent.
The rest of the scene went well. The Queen and the woman in green had a lot of lines to remember. The joke was obvious, a derogatory joke about some Baron. You giggled loudly.
It was not much later before you heard a recorded sound of running horses. You called out feigning alarm ‘Someone is coming’
The woman in green said ‘We have left it too late. Quick we must hide’ You helped the queen from her chair and left the room. The whole scene had taken about 5 minutes.
It was quite a wait until your next scene. You stayed with the woman in green. All the other actors went back and forth. There were 3 scenes until you needed to reappear.
This time you and the Queen were placed in a large wardrobe. The wardrobe, with you inside it was wheeled onto the stage. You could here other actors talking on stage. The maids and the woman in green then some soldiers yelling and some female screams.
Suddenly the wardrobe opened and a soldier called out ‘We have found her your lordship. And hand reached in and grabbed you physically lifting you out. You knew you had to struggle. You lashed out at the soldier and slapped him on the face.
He grabbed you harder and literally dragged you to the centre of the stage and said ‘We have a fiery one. She was hiding the queen’ You slapped him again and ran back to the wardrobe where a second soldier was extracting the queen. You grabbed this soldier and tried to tug him away but realised how weak you now were. The first soldier the one you had slapped took hold of you again. He slapped you and said quietly ‘Stay down’ You collapsed onto the floor in what you hoped resembled a state of unconsciousness.
You stayed on the floor immobile for what seemed forever. The Queen gave a long speech about never surrendering. Whilst the soldiers held her and waited for the Baron to come. Eventually the man in black appeared. He ordered the soldiers to ‘Take them to my carriage’
One of the soldiers picked you up and swung you over his shoulders. Only then hanging upside down did you realise your corset had come undone and your breasts were hanging out for all to see.
‘Cut!’ cried the director.
The soldier put you down. The director glared at you. ‘What the hell was that! This is not an R rated production. No nudity!’
‘I didn’t mean it to happen. The strings must have snapped’ you defended yourself, whilst covering up as much as you could.
‘See that this doesn’t happen again’ he said to no one in particular. ‘We will move onto the next scene’