“She couldn’t be better,” Amy agreed. “I just hope that she comes out of this between-the-acts trance of hers when the play is over.”
“She’s still doing that?” Peggy asked, concerned.
“Good!” Greta said. “As long as she keeps it up, I have a feeling that the play will go. Don’t worry about it. It’s just an especially strong case of character identification. She’ll be herself again when she reads the reviews in the morning.”
The lights flickered on and off.
“Oh-oh!” Amy said. “I’d better get back out front. See you between the acts again!” With a wave of her hand she was gone.
“Let’s go, Greta,” Peggy said. “We’re on.”
Peggy felt calmer, somehow, in Act Two than she had before. The first feelings of stage fright had left her, and she fell into her lines with a practiced ease. No longer worrying about the words or about the stage directions, both of which had been so drilled into her as to become second nature, she became aware of the audience in a new and pleasant way.
The faceless crowd out front was suddenly transformed for her into a large group of friendly people. They were not hostile. They were warm and eager to be pleased, interested in the play and the players. For the first time, she felt a communication between herself and them, and as she felt it, she realized that she was acting better, playing the part as she had never done in rehearsals. Her confidence grew, and with it, her pleasure in her craft. Peggy was learning how it really feels to be an actress.
The second act went smoothly and well. The cast was sharp and alert; no cues were missed; no lines were muffed. The timing was sharp and professional, and remained so as the pace increased to build to the shattering second-act curtain.
Watching it from the wings, Peggy was entranced with Paula and all the supporting cast. If she had thought that this scene was already worked to perfection in rehearsals, she had been mistaken. Now, in the presence of the audience, a new life and vigor suffused Paula, and a new note of urgency was felt. At the climax of the scene, when Paula collapsed in tears and the actors standing round her seemed almost to flicker from one personality to the other, the silence in the theater was electric.