Tryst Six Venom by Penelope Douglas

for a Romeo and Juliet makeover, and really did hate the idea of a female
Mercutio.
But I know what I know. The problem isn’t my ideas. It’s me. I’ve been
the grunt backstage my entire high school career—paying my dues and
showing them that no matter how dissenting the piercings on my ears, or how
many times my family name is in the Police Beat section of the newspaper—
I want to be here. I will be here every day for as long as she needs me.
I love the theater. I want to be a part of that world on-stage. I’ve put in
my time—sewing costumes, building sets, being her right-hand during
auditions and rehearsals, and literally being the axis around which everything
else spins on performance nights.
You need something pinned? Come here.
You forgot a line? Okay, which part do you play? I know them all.
Dorothy’s almost up and she’s missing? I saw her making out with the
Tin Man in the wings. I’ll go grab her.
I’ve pushed a wheelbarrow around in the background of Fiddler on the
Roof and almost had actual lines as an understudy for North Winston when
she played Miss Scarlet in Clue, but I’m kind of glad that never panned out. I
wanted Mrs. White anyway.
Romeo and Juliet is my last chance—was my last chance—to prove what
I can do before I’m inevitably rejected by the theater department at
Dartmouth.
I hear the heavy stage door slam shut, the last few members of the crew
clearing out, the only sound in the entire theater being the ever-present
movement of the air conditioning in the ducts above.
My phone is in my bag. I should call Iron to pick me up, but I’m not
ready to go home yet.
Heading offstage, I wander down the hall, not really knowing where I’m
going until I see the racks of costumes pulled from storage that sit outside the
dressing rooms. Repairs need to be made, as well as some altered for the
actors wearing them this year, but I can’t help sifting through the clothes,
pushing each hanger to the left as I take in the same tired, old shit. It isn’t like
my ideas are all that new, either. Romeo and Juliet has been re-adapted
several times in West Side Story, China Girl…
Would Leonardo DiCaprio’s version have been number one at the box
office opening weekend if he’d been in tights?
Okay, perhaps, but the genius of that film was that it was revamped for a