“Let Ashley’s stare linger a moment before she recesses into her thoughts again. Notice something about Mandy. You choose what that is. Oh, and I love the action of you blowing your hair off your forehead. You did it earlier.”

“Great. I’ll keep it.” She studied Evelyn, who sat waiting on the floor of the faux airport for them to pick up again. Evelyn, Carly had decided, was a decent enough actress, but certainly not very giving within their scene work. Carly didn’t have a lot to play off emotionally. They were supposed to be constructing this deep, destined-to-be relationship a little at a time, but with Evelyn as her counterpart, they were falling flat. Surely Ethan felt that. Hopefully, they still had time.

This whole process was a trip. Carly had never been allotted this much rehearsal on any one project or character. With screen work, there was rehearsal, sure, but it was short, and then you shot the scene, moved forward to the next, and never looked back. The rehearsal process for the play, however, came with a never before experienced intensity for her. It blew Carly’s mind how deep they were going with each nuanced moment, how much time they invested in just two minutes of the play. The technique allowed her to sink her teeth into this role like she’d never done before. The jury was still out on whether this had been a good move, career-wise, but on the plus side, she was learning a lot from working with Ethan Moore. He damn well knew his stuff. They’d gone over objectives, tactics, line-by-line intentions, all of it, and they still had over three quarters of the play ahead of them. Mind-boggling.

“You good, Evelyn?” Carly asked before beginning. Evelyn nodded politely and looked away as if choosing not to engage further. “Before we start, do you need anything more from me in the scene? Or less, for that matter? I’m open.”

“I’m good,” Evelyn said coolly.

Inside, Carly sighed. The two of them definitely had different processes. Carly liked finding the moments in the rehearsal room, taking a more organic approach. Evelyn showed up with every choice already made in advance. What you saw on the first run-through of the day with Evelyn was often the same set of choices she ended with. Didn’t allow for a ton of collaboration.