This play is usually performed on a mostly bare stage. In some ways, it made it more challenging for us, because the actors were forced to use their acting skills to get points across instead of relying on props.
Act I was about the daily life of the townspeople in a small New Hampshire hamlet in 1901. The stage manager sets up the story, and then Professor Willard speaks to the audience about the history of the town. The audience was then introduced to the different actors. Joe Crowell delivers the newspaper to Doc Gibbs, Howie Newsome delivers milk, and the Webb and Gibbs households send their children, Emily and George, off to school.
Act II was set three years into the future and was centered on the marriage of Emily and George, played by Halle and myself. It was a stressful day. George was faced with the prospect of squandering his baseball talents in exchange for marrying Emily. He visits his future in-laws and was told he couldn’t see his bride-to-be since it would be bad luck.
The stage manager then takes the audience back a year to a point where Emily had confronted George about his cocky attitude. They had then talked about how they felt about each other. George decided not to go to college, as he’d planned, but to work and eventually take over his uncle’s farm.
The play is then brought back to the present where George and Emily get cold feet. They talk to their parents, are talked off the ledge, and are happily married.
Act III was nine years further into the future. It began with the stage manager in a cemetery, telling the audience about all the people who’ve died since the wedding. The town’s undertaker takes the stage and talks to a young man who’s come to town for his cousin’s funeral. It turns out that it was Emily’s funeral they’re talking about. She died giving birth to her second child.
After the funeral, other dead people from the town join Emily and urge her to move on. She ignores their advice and relives a day when she was twelve. She comes to realize that every moment of life should be treasured.
Emily talks to the stage manager and asks if people realize what a gift life is. He tells her only poets and saints do. She goes back to her grave to find George kneeling over it as he weeps for her. The stage manager then wishes the audience a good night to end the play.
We did a read-through of Act I, and Mr. Dutton wanted to work with us all to be better. I was quite surprised that Halle and I were the only ones who knew most of our lines. Maybe Hollywood had done more for me than just make me money. I might actually be getting professional about it all! No matter. I knew every girl I’d ever been around for any length of time would be more than happy to smack me down if I got a big head.
Mr. Dutton asked if I could come the next two nights after baseball and we’d walk through Acts II and III. Cassidy wouldn’t be happy, but something had to give.
◊◊◊ Thursday March 366
After several rounds of negotiations, my dad won the trip to London with me. I would test for the Han Solo role in the yet-to-be-titled Star Wars prequel. They were doing the casting now because the new movie, Rogue One, was currently filming, and the Han Solo character would make an appearance as a cameo. Marvel used the same strategy for their new Spider-Man by casting Tom Holland early so he could cameo in Captain America: Civil War before appearing in his own film.
The young Han Solo movie’s release date was at least two years out. Early buzz had Chris Pratt as a shoo-in for the role with his recent successes in Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, and his upcoming movie Passengers. Even I thought he would be perfect. He was funny and came across as a likable cad, precisely what you would want for Han Solo. The only—but ultimately insuperable—problem with him was that he was already two years older than Harrison Ford was when he did the first Star Wars movie.
Saul told me that thousands of actors tested for the role. Once Chris Pratt was out, Disney and Lucasfilm seemed to target actors between the ages of 20 to 25. The only exceptions were Scott Eastwood at 29 and me at 17. The studio execs had cut the list down to about a dozen actors. They released names of those who had made the cut with me, including Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Dave Franco, Adam Trimble, Scott Eastwood, Logan Lerman, Emory Cohen, Micah Phelps, and Blake Jenner.
We had to sign an NDA (NonDisclosure Agreement) and test deals before we could be flown to London for the second round of auditions. Saul told me I was one of the last to meet with the producers. He said they would probably cut the list to a final three or four.
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I think this was an adventure for Dad because he seemed to take it all in. Though when we boarded the plane, I was the wide-eyed one. I’d flown domestic first class where it was two seats to a side, instead of the three seats in coach. This was a completely different experience. We were on a Boeing 777 that American Airlines had configured to their international first class. Instead of side-by-side seating, you had what can best be described as a cubicle. They’d laid it out so there were single mini-suites on the outside rows and two in the center. Dad and I had seats a couple of rows back and next to each other.
The seats were designed so they would actually lie flat and turn into a bed, which was good because we were taking the red-eye to London. Our flight would take eight hours. We were scheduled to take off from Chicago at 10 p.m. (4 a.m. London time), and we would land in London around noon the next day with the six-hour time difference.
I would miss a day of school, but Lincoln High was supportive of my acting. Moose wasn’t as forgiving, but he understood that this was important to me.
I’d been on the run all week and hadn’t had a chance to talk to my dad about the NCAA letter. I knew that Caryn, Kendal, Ms. Dixon, and he had had several calls with Mr. Morris. After we were airborne and settled in, I asked him about it.
“What did the NCAA have a problem with?” I asked.
“A lot of the things Mr. Morris warned us about. The big ones were the booster flight to Kentucky, which you paid for, and the car Devin gave you. Mr. Morris had the information ready and sent it over. They’re going to review it, but it sounded like they would be okay.
“Their principal hang-ups seem to be your acting and some of the interviews you gave. They specifically pointed to your appearance on Jillian and Brian Live. There you talked about both football and your movie. In particular, how you met Lori Winnick while on a recruiting trip to Kentucky, and that was how you eventually got your role in Star Academy.
“Mr. Morris said that the NCAA can’t really deny you your amateurism status for something like that. The distinction is you’re not currently in college. They could cause you problems if you received pay based on football or baseball. He said you dodged a bullet when you didn’t get the role as the baseball player in The Secret Circle. Mr. Morris said that it would have been fine for you to talk about baseball. But as soon as they had a scene where you were shown on the field doing anything baseball-related, you would have had a problem.
“He said that because you pose a unique situation for them, they want to look at everything. We talked more about our strategy in dealing with the NCAA. First, we want to get you certified so you can play ball, then we’ll go after them about you doing advertising and movies in college. We don’t want you to not be able to promote the movies. Saul said it would be a problem if that happened. They might even have to remove your name from the credits while you’re playing ball in college,” Dad said.