Roxy arrived in New York with nothing planned, deciding to relax and enjoy being in limbo. She speculated she could always become a hooker if she came up empty handed over movie, TV or theatre opportunities. She wondered if becoming a hooker required training or was wide-ranging experience sufficient to build such a business.
Instead of dwelling on such speculation, Roxy found a pleasant room in an affordable hotel and set about being a tourist because this was her first time in New York and it was true what they say: the city really buzzed.
A week later she began thinking about sex. God what a time to start feeling horny. She decided to register for work and went to a couple of theatrical agencies and was aghast neither was interesting in adding her to the books because she had no reputation.
"Get a job for me and I'll establish my reputation."
"Yes and that's what they all say. Off you go," said the rude bitch who had the job of weeding out cranks, no-hoppers and actors they'd never heard of and who weren't on their databases.
Roxy had told them she'd taken the lead in the very successful TV blockbuster, 'The Amazing Miss Young' and both interviewers said dismissively they'd never heard of it."
Roxy went off angrily both times, thinking the interviewer needed to be slapped around a bit to wake up to her responsibility to assess the applicant properly instead of adopting the attitude of 'You're not on our database and so you are scum, get out of my office'.
She bought one of New York's famous hotdogs and sat on a street seat, opened the bag, looked at it and groaned oh god and tossed it in the trash can.
The overweight woman sitting at the other even of the seat and obviously resting her feet laughed and said, "Young lady you should eat Italian food."
Yeah well she looked Italian.
Roxy spoke rapidly in Italian, "You are correct ma'am and I often eat Italian food out of preference."
The woman looked quite stunned and said, "You speak Italian and yet you look very American-American."
"Oh is that how I look? I guessed by your noble nose and reference to Italian food you might be Italian."
"My noble nose," the woman laughed almost hysterically. "You are a very funny young lady."
They introduced themselves and chatted for a while.
"So you are new to New York,"" said Mrs Renata Ricci. "Well come on, I invite you to come with me to my sister's restaurant that's not far from here. Although I call it my sister's restaurant it is owned by her husband's family and she runs it during the day. We'll eat with her; she's expecting me today."
"Oh darling your noble nose looks very majestic today," Renata said to her look-alike sister Dona De Luca, who touched her nose and asked had Renata been drinking.
"I'm sorry for speaking Italian, Dona said, speaking in English and introduced herself.
"I'm not offended," Roxy said in Italian. "Italian is my preferred restaurant language when I'm with Italian people or people of Italian descent.
"You see, my new friend is not one of us and yet so is one of us."
Roxy's mind stretched to comprehend what Renata was saying but Dona obviously was used to her sister and said yes that was very true.
Dona kissed Roxy warmly and seated them and sped off and returned with a bottle of red wine and three glasses.
"We must celebrate my sister finding such an interesting person, yes?"
"Yes," cried Renata and Roxy almost in unison.
It was late and most of the lunch guests were drifting off. The three women drank, ate, chatted and laughed and for the first time Roxy felt at home in New York.
At one stage Dona made a phone call and twenty minutes a guy the sister's called Uncle Vincenzo arrived. He kissed his two nieces flamboyantly and then eyed Roxy and said, in Italian, "So this pretty young woman is the out-of-work actress."
"Pretty? She's so beautiful your knees should be knocking," said Dona.
"Well they would knock if they were to slip between her thighs."
"Careful Uncle Vincenzo, our friend is fluent in Italian."
"Renata to joke you have to be believable."
He looked at Roxy who said, "Non parlo italiano."
He said in Italian how did she know he was about to ask that question and she replied in Italian she wasn't stupid."
He laughed and slapped his thigh and said in impeccable English, "Dona, a bottle of wine please. This conversation is becoming very dry."
An hour later, when Uncle Vincenzo was leaving, he gave Roxy his card and said, "You come and see me at 11:00 in the morning and well see what we can do with you Roxy. Please bring your CV and any DVDs you have showing you performing."
The three women kissed him and the portly guy left.
Roxy looked at the business card and blinked hard and read it again: Uncle Vincenzo was general manager of a theatrical management company that operated four theatres off-Broadway.
She burst into tears and Dona and Renata hugged her, delighted that Roxy was obviously pleased they had given her a good connection into movies or theatre in New York.
Uncle Vincenzo who Roxy addressed formerly as Mr Rossi, introduced Roxy to the two women he had with him and they chatted for a while and then one of the woman put on the CD and it was projected on a big screen. Roxy had chosen the fully edited scene of almost five minutes from 'The Amazing Miss Young' which showed the young child being lifted from the vehicle inspection pit and then pronounced dead and women crying, the bereaved mother collapsing and everyone looking mournful. It then switched to Miss Young (Roxy) marching resolutely into the Mayor's office and then launching into her relentless attack on the mayor and his council and her call to have the council vehicle depot to be securely fenced and the entry/exit to be guarded by an attendant during working hours when the gates were open.
"Oh you certainly can act," said Uncle Vincenzo.
"Yes and so can many other out-of-work actors," said one of the women dryly.
"Lillian please take down and file Roxy's details," said Uncle Vincenzo. "Roxy we will be in touch."
Yeah right, thought Roxy. That's unlikely. But four days later Lillian called her and asked if she could come in as soon as possible.
"I'm on my way," said Roxy. "I'm only wasting my time shopping and amusing myself by attempting not to buy anything."
"That's the professional attitude producers and directors like," Lillian laughed.
The second female lead in a whodunit, "Who's Killing Our Female Cops' had been rushed to hospital an hour earlier and was confirmed to be suffering from appendicitis and was awaiting surgery.
The director of the Earl Larch Theatre greeted Roxy warmly.
"We don't expect a problem. The third female lead has gone into second lead and the second lead's understudy has gone into third lead and my assistant is rehearsing them now. Your CV we were given shows are have an enormous capacity to memorize an entire script. When I say we don't expect a problem I could be jumping the gun. The third lead appears nervous in making the switch. So to secure the ramparts I wish to recruit you to learn the second lead part. If Susan finds the switch too much I'll place her back in third lead and ask you to take second. This is asking a lot Roxy and please say..."
"Not a problem Jacki. Give me the script and give me a quiet room."
"Omigod, you're not over-confident are you?"
"What has to be done has to be done Jacki. If I'm needed I'll be ready but not ready in time for tonight's production."
"Right, go girl. This could be a panic over nothing but we have an audience who pay good money to see a good performance. You know my feeling Susan will have enough gas in the tank to scrape through the one performance with prompting and then her bubble will burst."
"Well let's hope it become no worse than that. I'll watch tonight's performance and make note. What's the stage name of the second lead?"
"Captain Nancy Willow."
"Oooh, sexy."
"Actually she's a hard-nose cop and saves Lieutenant's Kim Ryan's life and together they nail the murdering bastard."
"Ooooh, very dramatic. I like the sound of it."
"And I like the sound of you and your enthusiasm Roxy."
As it happened the temporary second lead proved to have enough gas in the tank to pull through.
Three days later after becoming involved when Roxy was word-perfect in the under-study role, she had lunch with the director and producer and was told about the company's next production, a bitter-sweet love story and the producer said they were unhappy with the actress who was being trialed. She unfortunately was excellent at being bitter because that fitted her natural unhappy disposition but she played the part of the woman at last finding love 'like a teething baby teething'.
Oh dear.
Roxy agreed to audition and won the part and became involved in rehearsals during the day and being on hand at night waiting in the wings of the show in case she was needed to go on. She reveled in her long working day as she found it so interesting. At night she talked to and watched the back-stage crew at work and increased her knowledge about theatre.
The play 'Uneasy about Love' by an obscure Canadian began in half-filled theatres and never drew crowds larger than that and the decision was made to terminate its run. An assistant director of another theatrical company spoke to Roxy at the second to last night of the show to congratulate her and to ask about her contract.
"Alas it ends this week."
"Hooray for that," Rosalind said, giving Roxy her phone number and asking her to call next day. Roxy, who's not been called on stage for the murder of policewomen play, had been advised the company had no ongoing work in mind for her.
The director of the company Rosalind worked for after reading Roxy's CV said they were not hiring at the moment. He noted Roxy was fluent in Italian and joked, "You should call my sister Adeline. They are soon to do a play about a dysfunctional New York family of Italians.
The play opened with Roxy playing the third lead Christina who at twenty-four was the youngest in the family headed by the tongue-lashing matriarch Severina, aged seventy, who played the lead while her eldest son was second-lead and his wife Bianca was the only one who dared to stand up to Severina, that is until Christina returned home after completing college in Italy.
The dialogue was in English but when granddaughter and grandmother tore into each other with hilarious results, they lapsed into 'gutter Italian' and their expressions and gestures had even the non-Italian speakers in the audience screaming in laughter.
An Italian-language newspaper review of the show next morning claimed the great and robust performance of newcomer Roxy Reeves signaled a new star in theatre was emerging.
Roxy was knocked awake by Severina at 9:30 (who in fact was aged only 42), and yelling 'leave your phone switched on your stupid bitch'.
