Sometimes you find yourself in a position where you have to volunteer to do something. I was in that position right now. What happened was that the Drama department needed some new backdrops for a couple of plays they were putting on. They raised this at the PTA meeting, hoping for the PTA to spend some money buying them. Fat chance. The PTA made Scrooge look like a spendthrift.
Unfortunately for me, my mother was on the PTA board. She had a brilliant idea.
"Why don't we just repaint the old back drops?" she asked. "They're pretty much worn and a coat of new paint would make them look much better. If the Drama department can decide what they want on them we can get some volunteers from the Art department. I know Michael would be happy to help."
That's me, Michael, the first Arts student to put up his hand to volunteer to spend an entertaining Saturday afternoon painting backdrops for the Drama department, courtesy of my Mother, who let me know this a couple of days later.
"Great," I said, with a certain lack of enthusiasm. "Who else volunteered?"
"Three of the Drama students," said my mother, happy to see this example of school spirit.
"Ah, that's nice," I said, "but I meant who from the Arts department. You'll find that the Drama queens can dance and prance and put on airs, but I doubt if they even know how to hold a paintbrush."
"Yes, well we haven't got anyone else yet, but I'm sure someone will. Don't worry about it. It will all work out."
In other word, I was going to be stuck with doing the lot. Not that the backdrops took a lot of artistic skill or effort. Great works of art they were not. All I had to do was slap on enough paint to give the impression we wanted to form. People's imagination would tend to do the rest. The biggest catch that I could see was that I would probably have three people telling me what to do.
I turned up in good time on the Saturday and went back stage to the props room. They had about a dozen backdrops. While waiting for the other volunteers to arrive I sorted through the backdrops, selecting the four worst for repainting. Well, not really the worst. Just the worst ones that would survive a repaint.
Shortly after that the other volunteers arrives. First there was Gabriel, nineteen, an aspiring actor, quite handsome, I guess, and looking reasonably fit. Next was Vanessa, eighteen, a dancer, a fairly pretty brunette who was very fit. I quite liked her, even if she was only a B cup. Apparently big boobs are a hazard for dancers. Last, but not least, because she insisted on it, was Rochelle. She was also a brunette, also eighteen, but a grade ahead of Vanessa in the looks department, and didn't she know it. I'm not sure what she aspired to be but from the size of her breasts a dancer wasn't it.
The first thing I discovered was that I'd selected the wrong backdrops. There were others that were in worse condition than the ones I'd selected. The Drama students wanted me to repaint those. When I pointed out that the ones they'd selected were so moth-eaten and fragile that they'd crumble under the weight of a fresh coat of paint they reluctantly agreed to use my selection.
"Exactly what do you want painted on each backdrop?" I asked, assuming that they had some idea. I mean, just saying we want new backdrops wasn't very meaningful. They each had different ideas about which new backdrops were required.
I finished up insisting they call the Drama coach and asking her what her preferences were. No problems. She'd left a sketchbook on the lectern by the stage with rough drafts of what she wanted. She thought that her students had known that.
"Oh, yes," said Rochelle, "that's right. She told me about those."
Thank you, you scatter-brained twit, I thought, but manly refrained from saying.
The first item was easy. A country scene, meadows and river and bushes. I basically just ran a roller of green paint over the backdrop and slathered on a broad streak of blue. Some blobs of a darker green and then little slashes of other colours and you had your meadow.
The three Drama students were in complete accord for once.
"That's appalling," was the general cry. "That doesn't look at all real."
"Look," I said with a sigh, "go and put it up at the back of the stage and then go and look at it from the audience's seats. Then tell me what you think of it."
They did so and reluctantly returned and admitted that I was right. It did look a lot more realistic from a distance.
I persuaded them to grab a roller and some white paint and do a quick coating on the remaining backdrops while I planned how I would tackle them. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake on my part. They were eager enough, lying the backdrops flat in the rather limited area we had, and running rollers over them. Where was the mistake, you ask?
It was the way the girls were dressed. Loose tops and short skirts. If they faced one way I was looking down their tops, especially Rochelle's, who had a lot of top to look down. If they faced the other way then I was looking up their dresses to their Khyber Pass, and neither girl had seen fit to wear granny pants under those skirts. It was quite an interesting view. I wasn't the only one who thought so, with Gabriel doing his best to hide his rather blatant staring.
I was quite sure both girls noticed us staring, but they managed to ignore it. Well, Rochelle may have found the opportunity to bend even lower and show off even more, and Vanessa may have had a faint blush, but that was probably pure coincidence. I'm sure if they'd known the display they were putting on they'd have changed their style.
Did I mention that Vanessa apparently though a b-cup didn't rate a bra while she was out doing volunteer work. Rochelle, of course, with her much greater cup size found a bra a necessity. Perhaps she might have benefited by wearing a larger bra, because her breasts seemed to be escaping the one she had on when she bend down. Not that I was complaining.
Once the backdrops were painted white there was nothing we could really do for a while. We'd have to give the white twenty minutes to be touch-dry. Then I could start slapping new paint on it to set up the scenes.
