An Outstanding Offer
Originally posted on May 30, 2008
Gideon: Come on, Gerri, you know I don’t want to move away from live theater.
Gerri: This is an outstanding offer, Gideon. Not too many like this around. You’ll think it over, and seriously, or you’re not the driven, talented and smart thespian I thought I was representing.
Gideon: Oh, I’ll definitely think it over. The company will need to find a new property in any case, won’t they? And that puts me out of a job for a while. How can the writer just cancel his contract like this? The play showed major promise. Is he demented or what?
Gerri: Very unusual circumstances there. The producers had doubts about the commercial success of the play, so they hedged their bets. Wrote a reciprocal Right to Terminate into the contract so that they could cut their losses in the event the play didn’t take off. Only no one expected it to be the relatively unknown writer who would exercise his right to end production. And you’re pretty much to blame for that - your opening night performance made him sit up and take notice. Not to mention how much you impressed the studio guys who came to the show with him.
Gideon: Well thanks, but really – I would feel a whole lot more flattered if I could continue in the role. You know how it goes – the first performance is rarely the best you can achieve with any part.
Gerri: You’ve got three more performances left, so you’d better think pretty fast. You can’t blame Marlowe for grabbing the chance for bigger bucks. And you stand to reap the rewards as well, if you’d only get your head on straight and your butt over to that studio for their audition and screen test.
Gideon: That reminds me - I did an open-call audition for a TV spot a couple weeks ago. Don’t really know why I went to that, but it was right after I heard the rumor that the show might be closing…… It ended up being one of those pointless situations where they knew who they wanted to cast from the get-go, and they were just going through the motions. Waste of everybody’s time.
Gerri: This one won’t be like that, Gideon. You’re a shoo-in if you’ll only turn on a tenth of that charm of yours. You never know – you might like film.
Gideon: You just want your twenty percent.
Gerri: *laughs* Yes, there’s that, too. A gal’s gotta make a living, Handsome.
Gideon: And you make one hell of one, don’t you? From me and everyone else you represent. Not that I’m complaining. You’ve managed to keep me working most of the time.
Gerri: Your talent is what’s kept you working, and you know it. False modesty doesn’t work coming from you, and it doesn’t flatter me. You want to make me happy? Go. Talk. Act your sweet ass off for the cameras. Show ‘em all you got, and you’ll for sure end up paying for my trip to Cannes this year.
Gideon: *after disconnecting* Dammit, Gerri, you’d better be right.