The Silent Appeal #5
This is to confirm that on Thursday I will be pacing the pavement outside the church hall from 7 p.m. onward and from the moment you arrive, I will be your constant companion.
The group has been working hard for six months to make this play a stand-out entry to the NADAs and Thursday will be the moment of truth.
Very best wishes,
Kevin MacDonald, Committee cochair and director
To: Kevin MacDonald
From: Bella Moretti
Date: June 2, 2025
Subject: Re: The Hollow
Well, of course I don’t expect to speak with Agatha Christie! I send the same email to all participating groups and some write their own plays.
I should have made clear that the officer cannot be someone who is in line for an award. As director you are banned from communicating with any NADA judge, including me. You will need to appoint a different officer.
Bella Moretti
Judge, National Amateur Drama Awards
Message exchange between Kevin and Sarah-Jane MacDonald on June 2, 2025:
9:49 a.m. Kevin wrote:
What are you doing on Thursday night?
9:49 a.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
Front of house. Sammy permitting. Then babysitting in the office.
9:50 a.m. Kevin wrote:
I hereby specially appoint you as officer in charge of accompanying the NADA judge.
9:52 a.m. Kevin wrote:
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to ensure she has dairy- and gluten-free refreshments, a cushion on her front row seat, and that she basks in the warm glow of winning vibes all night.
9:54 a.m. Kevin wrote:
I’d do it, but I’m “in line for an award” and she’s obviously a stickler for rules.
9:55 a.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
Fine. If you’re babysitting, then I can look after the judge.
9:59 a.m. Kevin wrote:
Brilliant! But don’t tell anyone they’re here Thursday—not until after the show. If anyone asks who she is, tell them a long-lost relative has popped up out of the blue. Again.
To: The Fairway Players mailing list
From: Kevin MacDonald
Date: June 2, 2025
Subject: This is it!
Dear all,
As director of The Hollow I am excited and delighted to say: Here we are!
Play week has dawned and I have received a lovely email from our NADA judge, confirming her attendance on one of the nights.
As the cast voted to keep their presence a secret, in case nerves get the better of anyone, I won’t say which.
All I can tell about her is that she is dairy- and gluten-intolerant, does not have a sweet tooth, and is unwilling or unable to walk very far. Knowledge is power, folks!
May I confirm that ticket sales are healthy, the backstage and front-of-house teams are healthy, and that everything is in place and ready to go for the rest of play week.
Our rehearsals yesterday may not have been the best, but today is a new day—and the day of our tech rehearsal when we finally address the issue of the gunshot.
Denise, Joel, Marianne, and I will be running through that scene tonight so that the crux of this play goes off with a BANG!
Thank you all, and I’ll see those in the cast and crew this evening.
Kevin MacDonald, Committee cochair and director
Message exchange between Amelia and Lucas Stibson on June 2, 2025:
10:21 a.m. Amelia wrote:
Feel like shit.
10:44 a.m. Amelia wrote:
Finished at the gym?
10:56 a.m. Lucas wrote:
Just got out of shower. Home soon, babe. Love you.
10:57 a.m. Amelia wrote:
Love you too.
10:58 a.m. Lucas wrote:
G ok?
10:59 a.m. Amelia wrote:
Still in bed I think. Not answering texts anyway, lazy cow. Needed breakfast so knocked on her door, but no answer. She knows I can’t stand for long.
11:03 a.m. Lucas wrote:
I’ll take you out for lunch, babe.
11:03 a.m. Amelia wrote:
Come home soon xxx
Message exchange between Georgia Taccuso and Lucas Stibson on June 2, 2025:
11:05 a.m. Georgia wrote:
Fed up. Where you?
11:05 a.m. Lucas wrote:
Gym. You?
11:05 a.m. Georgia wrote:
SO TIRED after last night. Too late and boring.
11:06 a.m. Lucas wrote:
Thought you were feeling better?
11:06 a.m. Georgia wrote:
Yeah, but tired and hungry
11:07 a.m. Lucas wrote:
I’ll take you to lunch. Ams coming too.
11:07 a.m. Georgia wrote:
We should go out just you and me. Cousins together
11:08 a.m. Lucas wrote:
We will. Promise.
11:08 a.m. Georgia wrote:
How’s the gym?
11:10 a.m. Lucas wrote:
Tough workout but what I needed after yesterday. Got a week of the play and Lunar, too, so need to bring A game, babe.
11:11 a.m. Georgia wrote:
Yeah? Which workout?
11:15 a.m. Lucas wrote:
Leg day. Tough as FUCK but banging. PT upped my reps and weights so gonna feel it tomorrow, but lactic acid ain’t gonna make itself, right?
11:18 a.m. Georgia wrote:
Fuck off, Lucas, you lying shit. Look out the window at the bus shelter. I’m waving at you. Been watching you for half an hour.
11:19 a.m. Georgia wrote:
You’re sitting in Mirage having breakfast with fucking Nicky-Rose. Hope she’s paying.
11:19 a.m. Georgia wrote:
Knew you were up to something. She your cougar?
11:21 a.m. Georgia wrote:
When you’re done, give me a lift home and you can think of an excuse for Ams. You’re the fucking expert after all.
To: Carol Dearing
From: Sarah-Jane MacDonald
Date: June 2, 2025
Subject: Hello
Hi Mum,
I know we’re not talking, but just wonder how you are. Don’t know if Nicky-Rose told you about Big Sunday, but the rehearsals didn’t go well. On top of that, Celia got her rallying email in before Kevin. His steaming reply accidentally went to the whole mailing list, as you probably saw.
The NADA judge wants a cushion and an interview with Agatha Christie, which are both suitably surreal for him to find moderately amusing.
How are your rehearsals going? Do Mendhams have a Big Sunday like we do? Your director must’ve received an email from the judge too. If it’s the same judge then they won’t be at your play on Thursday.
Alexandre Dumas died on December 5, 1870 (source: Wikipedia), so he’s going to be even harder to track down than Agatha Christie.
Sarah-Jane MacDonald
Independent Retail Marketing Consultant
To: Sarah-Jane MacDonald
From: Carol Dearing
Date: June 2, 2025
Subject: Re: Hello
What’s wrong? Something’s wrong. Tell me.
To: Carol Dearing
From: Sarah-Jane MacDonald
Date: June 2, 2025
Subject: Re: Hello
It’s probably nothing. You can read too much into things. But my role in this play has been to babysit Sammy, do chores no one else wants to do, and now, finally, babysit the NADA judge. I only qualify because I’m so thoroughly out of the loop.
In the past I’ve always been there, even when I didn’t have a role, because I was at the helm of the crew, always at rehearsals, in charge or, if I wasn’t in charge, always doing something. But now it’s as if I’ve left and the space where I was has closed up. I’m not needed anymore.
Yesterday, at Big Sunday, as the stage was being cleared after set-building, I was with Nicky-Rose and Kevin. I suggested moving the telephone table away from the door to make it more central. The final scene would be more impactful that way.
They both ignored me and continued their conversation as if I wasn’t there.
I repeated the suggestion. They ignored me again.
They’d tuned me out. I said it for a third time and stepped in front of them so there was no ignoring me, and do you know what they did, Mum?
Nicky-Rose said, with that cool dispassionate stare she has: “We heard you, but we tried the table there months ago and it doesn’t work. ”
She then turned back to Kevin who, I might add, didn’t say a word. I’ve not felt this excluded since school.
Sarah-Jane MacDonald
Independent Retail Marketing Consultant
To: Sarah-Jane MacDonald
From: Carol Dearing
Date: June 2, 2025
Subject: Re: Hello
Is that all? Well, as a veteran babysitter and common drudge for the group, you’re right.
The hierarchy shifts and changes. Sometimes you’re on top, sometimes you’re not.
The cast is the immediate family, the crew are extended family, and you, the remote worker, unsung and unappreciated, end up like a distant second cousin at a wedding, sitting on their own at the disco.
Everything changes, Sarah-Jane. It’ll be Kevin’s turn to babysit Sammy for the next play.
Then she’ll be past the toddler stage before you know it and you’ll both be back.
In the meantime, you’ve got a lovely family and work is taking off again.
If being sidelined at Fairways is all you have to worry about, you’re a lucky woman. Mum
To: Carol Dearing
From: Sarah-Jane MacDonald
Date: June 2, 2025
Subject: Re: Hello
But it’s not all, Mum. Kevin is having an affair with Fran and I don’t know what to do.
Sarah-Jane MacDonald
Independent Retail Marketing Consultant
To: Nicky-Rose Dearing
From: Isla Coole
Date: June 2, 2025
Subject: Warning
Dear Nicky-Rose,
You hired me for the Voyager Eclipse summer tour of the Caribbean last year. I’m sure you remember it, as I was thrown off the ship in St. Lucia. I still have fond memories of you and Stuart.
Getting back to Vancouver from St. Lucia when I hadn’t been paid was no joke and you were kind enough to send me money for the flight from your own account when Katrina Neale refused.
I believe what goes around comes around, so want to pay you back with a word of warning.
A Barbadian police inspector called David Lascelles interviewed me this morning about the girl I shared a room with on the Eclipse.
I explained I wasn’t on the ship long but liked Tiffany from the first conversation we had.
Her parents were both dead, like mine (it’s what my stand-up act is about), so we bonded, I guess.
She was a confident girl and really ambitious to act, only she’d discovered her cruise contract didn’t come under Equity jurisdiction and was annoyed.
That was all. I had such a bad experience on that job, I got home and put the whole thing behind me—so hadn’t heard the sad news that she’d disappeared not long after.