Autobiography of a Maquoketa Boy-2.pdf - Microelectronics ...

Autobiography of a Maquoketa Boy
Richard B. Wells
thing a football player should do. “There’s girls there,” Larry said. Oh. Well, in that case . . .
The Thespians club was run by our English teacher, Mr. Railsbach. He was an interesting character.
I’d never had another teacher quite like him. Prim and a bit prissy, he was a very small man and always
kind of seemed like he never thought you measured up to some standard. At first I got the idea he was a
pretty unfriendly guy. But it turned out he had kind of a subtle sense of dead-pan humor. He could make
me laugh at the most unexpected times, and when he did there’d be this ghost of a smile on his face and
his eyes would twinkle. As different as he was from anyone else I knew, I came to like and respect him
quite a bit. Mr. Railsbach was the producer and director of the spring play the Thespians would put on
every year. That night he was casting director.
There were a lot of kids there that night at the ‘tryouts’ – as I thought of it – and, just like Larry had
promised, there were a lot of girls. Most of the kids were juniors and seniors, but I wasn’t the only
sophomore there. I hadn’t had any idea the Thespians was such a popular activity. Not all the kids were
there looking for a spot as one of the actors. I found out in talking to some of the girls that there were a lot
of ways to participate besides acting. They needed kids to design and build sets, make costumes, be
makeup artists, manage the set, run the stage lights and curtains – all kinds of stuff. Apparently Mr.
Railsbach’s productions rivaled Broadway. The Thespians were an excited, happy group.
I didn’t know it, but I’d happened to sit down with the group who were there specifically to audition
for the cast. I’d just basically followed Larry and sat down where the prettiest girls were sitting. I didn’t
even know what the play was going to be. We were told the play was going to be a Peter Ustinov comedy
called Romanov and Juliet, which I’d never heard of. I found out I was auditioning when Mr. Railsbach
handed me something to read.
I’d just been watching the auditions after the meeting started. Kids would stand up one by one in front
of the room and read whatever Mr. Railsbach had handed them. They were given a couple minutes to look
over whatever it was and then they’d act out whatever it said. I thought most of them were pretty good,
too. In Mr. Railsbach’s English class he made us read stuff out loud a lot and always made how we read it
a big point. It was pretty obvious these kids had soaked up his lessons well when they had been in his
class. He had the older kids audition first, so when, to my surprise, he handed me something to read I had
a pretty good idea of what I supposed to do. I don’t remember any more exactly what I was asked to read,
but whatever it was I got up and gamely did my best to imitate what the other kids had been doing. I
wasn’t actually expecting or even particularly looking to be cast for the play but I didn’t want to
embarrass myself, especially in front of the girls.
After everyone who wanted to audition had auditioned, Mr. Railsbach announced, one by one, who
had gotten which part. Each time a kid’s name was announced there was a happy buzz and he or she
would be congratulated by the other kids. The Thespians, I decided, had pretty good team spirit. Then, to
my amazement, Mr. Railsbach announced my name. I was to be ‘the Archbishop,’ a speaking part. I was
the only sophomore there to get a speaking part.
Before I could get over being flabbergasted, I found myself being hugged and congratulated by all the
girls sitting around me. They thought it was just wonderful a little sophomore had been picked for one of
the cast. I was so surprised at being hugged that even though I was grinning, my face turned all red. The
girls thought that was so adorable and they kind of adopted me right then and there. That made me forget
about any idea of turning down the part. The senior who had been cast in the lead role of Juliet was the
prettiest girl in high school, and if she wanted to make me her pet boy – well, that was A-Okay with me.
For her I’d gladly brave getting up on a stage in front of a whole auditorium of strangers.
After the cast had been selected the remaining kids signed up for doing the many and various other
jobs that were essential to putting on one of Mr. Railsbach’s productions. Not surprisingly, the boys
tended to want to build sets and manage the stage, while the girls tended to want to be the makeup artists
or design and create the costumes. Some of the kids were ‘understudies’ – backup actors who could step
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