A Midsummer Night's Scream

getting married,’ and I’d be well enough educated to know it.“
    Imry pretended he hadn’t heard. “Continue. It’s Edward’s line next.“
    Edward, who was really Jake, had it memorized. He played a sort of comic-relief younger brother. Somehow he managed to make Imry’s stiff writing light and almost amusing. Jane thought of all of them, he might be the best actor, except for Ms. Bunting.
    The next bit of script was spoken by someone Jane hadn’t even noticed before. He hadn’t been introduced. Glancing at the script, she saw that he had the role of the butler, Cecil, and that his real name was Bill Denk.
    “Madam and sir, Cook says luncheon will be served in ten minutes.“ He was a young man, but spoke in the cracked voice of an elderly retainer.
    Jane and Shelley both glanced at their watches. Enduring this wrangling wasn’t exactly fun. “Could we slip out now?“ Jane whispered.
    “Why not. Nobody needs us here,“ Shelley admitted.
    They went outside and Shelley found them a place to sit on a wall in the shade of a small tree. She gestured at the building and said, “Paul found out that this theater has a long and interesting history. At the beginning, this was a pricey neighborhood, and the building was a nice theater with live actors--this was before radio and television. Then the neighborhood started going to pot, several patrons were robbed on the way to their carriages, and another, nicer theater was built elsewhere.
    “Over the years,“ she went on, “it sat vacant for long periods, then was turned into a movie theater. Was closed again. Then a developer bought it and rented it to a church. The church bought two of the small houses next to it to tear down and make parking places.“
    “How did Paul learn all this?“ Jane asked.
    “You can hire people who research old papers and do title searches. Anyway, the older people in the church started moving to Florida or dying off, and the church couldn’t make the payments, so the building was empty again. For a short while it was used as a soup kitchen. Half the dressing rooms were made into that little kitchen, and the room where they’re meeting now was where the people ate. Then for a while groups could rent out the kitchen and eating room for craft groups. And the final use was for A.A. meetings in the audience seating area. In one of the intervals, urban renewal made the neighborhood a lot better.“
    “Quite an interesting background,“ Jane said. “Somebody should save that information and post it somewhere in the building. How did it come into Paul’s possession?“
    “The old guy who’d owned it forever died. His grandchildren didn’t want to be responsible for keeping it up, and were going to demolish it and sell the land,“ Shelley explained. “Paul, as I told you, bought it, and donated it to the college when he realized he couldn’t use it for storing food, because it couldn’t be brought up to code. So he had it cleaned up, had a few repairs done to the roof and brickwork, and donated it to the college.“
    “So he managed to save it. That was good of him.“
    “I’m sort of sorry I dragged us into this,“ Shelley admitted. “Let’s make a deal here. We’re not part of the cast. We can call the actors by their real names, okay?“
    Jane sighed with relief. “That was going to be my suggestion, too. I’m not good at remembering names anyway, and especially not two sets of names for the same person. I’m curious as to why these rehearsals aren’t done during the day“
    “It’s because the students are on what’s called Fast Track Summer, which means they can do a whole semester’s work in seven weeks. But they have to take every class every day, with one-hour breaks for studying for exams. That’s why they can’t get here until six.“
    “Oh, yes. Imry said something like that but I wasn’t paying enough attention.“
    “That’s an interesting concept. I’m going to ask Mike if his college does that.“
    “I’m going to hide this script in my briefcase and take it home to read tonight,“ Shelley said. “So far I’m not much impressed with it.“
    “I don’t like the director,“ Jane said. “I think it’s unfortunate he’s also the writer of the script. Too much ego bundled in one person. It’s odd about the casting, don’t you think?“
    “In what way?“ Shelley asked.
    “With the proper makeup and clothing, the Weston family will look like they’re all related. Imry did