Sarah

It was charity season again. Last year, my best friend Rachel and I had played a central role in our community's special play for charitable causes, and we had both done a lot more than we intended too. Rachel and I had both gone naked on stage, and I had even helped her sort out a few 'issues' with her boyfriend Kyle - a yummy dish if I ever saw one.

Now, I had played a central role in what happened last year, in part because Michael, our director, had called on me for ideas and I blurted out a lot of stuff before I really knew what I was saying. It got me in some interesting situations, for sure, and honestly made me jealous of Rachel - she had Kyle's cock to come home to after our performances, and I had nothing.

I had plenty of guys interested in me over the next year, but I discovered most thought I was more like the girl I was in the play - sexually adventurous and an easy lay, which wasn't true. Well, mostly not true. I did some things that made me wonder if I was as...normal...as I used to think. I know Rachel has told her version of events about how things went, and it made me seem like the more adventurous one, but let me tell you - every bit of nervousness that she felt, I felt it ten times worse, and it was NEVER my intention to end up completely naked by the end! I guess you never know what someone is thinking unless they tell you.

It was an interesting year, nonetheless, and with the new charity season coming round, I found myself wanting to audition again for the play. Since Michael and the other theater people knew me, I suspected I had a good shot, and I really wanted to get a fun part - even if it wasn't a main role. Rachel and I had both agreed to go together, but Rachel had privately told me that she wasn't going to do anything like what we did last year. In the moment she got caught up in it, but she wasn't going to be stripping on stage again. I felt the same way, and told her so.

Anyway, I got her to come with me, and I invited another friend of mine as well - Melanie, who I had gotten to know in college and who turned out to have recently moved here. She and her cousin Alice had heard about our plays being the talk of the town, and were excited to be part of a good cause. I wasn't sure if they knew exactly how far things had gone with our play last year, but I decided not to say anything. The plays for charity were usually risque, but nudity wasn't actually normal. Plus, last year's was a special above-and-beyond effort to raise extra money, and that wasn't the case this year. So why worry them over something that wouldn't happen?

Auditions went great - we all tried out, right after each other, and I could tell Melanie was a natural. Alice was a little stiff, but she said she would be happy with just a background role - the real fun was in getting to do something fun together. And the guys could be cute, too. Kyle wasn't auditioning this year, which was a shame, but I had hopes there would be other guys, perhaps more eligible ones.

The auditions themselves didn't give much of an idea about the actual play - the guy who wrote them for our community was apparently still putting the finishing touches on. It was at callbacks that we finally got a clear idea of what they were looking for in casting.

"It will be like one of those old summer beach movies, you know, like those old Frankie Avalon flicks?" Mike told us. "Lots of laughs, great oldies, dancing, and all that stuff. So we're looking for some youngish female leads, and lots of roles for people in the background doing party stuff. Now for those of you willing to appear in a bikini, please note that on your forms."

Just a bikini? I normally wouldn't be too wild about prancing around on a stage in my bikini, but what they hell - after last year, I could manage something like that, couldn't I? I checked 'yes' on my form, and leaned over to see what Melanie, Alice, and Rachel were doing. Rachel had checked yes, but only after having checked no and then erased it. Melanie and Alice had checked no, so I gave them a pleading look, and whispered, "Come on, don't leave me to do it alone. There will be lots of girls up there, not just us! Strength in numbers, right?"

Melanie giggled, and Alice frowned. Sure enough, Melanie checked yes, and Alice didn't switch her answer at all. I shrugged. I didn't know Alice that well, so if she ended up in a different part of the crowd scenes, that was her problem.

By the end of auditions, it was pretty clear that Rachel was going to get the lead. She had been amazing last year, and I knew the director really liked how much work she put into getting the scenes right. I was just hoping for something fun and small that would give me a chance to flirt with cute guys in the party scenes.

Sure enough, it ended up about like I thought - Rachel was going to be the romantic interest for the male lead, and I was mostly in the background. I had a few lines, but my main role was to make it look like I was having tons of fun at a beach party. Easy peasy! I was thrilled to see Melanie get a part, but Alice missed out, which was too bad. She signed on to help as part of the stage crew, so she still got to hang out with us. Also, some of the girls I had met last year, Annie and Claire, were also going to be part of the 'party crew' as we started to refer to ourselves.

The male side of the party crew was a bit thinner - some new guy named Adam got the lead role, and his friend Tom was part of our crowd. There was also Nate, who I knew from last year's play, and three other guys I only know from a distance - John, Jimmy, and Ralph. John and Jimmy would be part of our 'party crowd' along with the other cast members that had actual lines (about 8 of those), and Ralph was the 'boy'. I was surprised, honestly, when I met him - he looked like he was about 14, but apparently he was 18 - the same age as his friends. His role was a bit of a mystery to us, until we got the script.

So, the basic story was pretty simple - beach parties, boy meets girl, lots of dancing, simple misunderstandings get blown out of proportion, boy has to get girl back, all that stuff. The most unusual role was Ralph's - he was always a background character, but Mike expected him to steal the show. He only had one line - "I didn't do it!" - but he said it about a dozen times throughout the play. He was basically a prankster, always pulling a fast one in the background of whatever scene he was in, and then shouting his line when he got caught.

Now, given how last year went, this all might sound a little tame. And it was! It wasn't until we were well into rehearsals that Mike got us together with Cindy, our costume lady and choreographer, to discuss costumes. "Costumes" in this case meant how small of a bikini we were willing to wear. I guess this was the eye candy part of the play - an essential part of every charity performance. Cindy gave us a pretty big range to choose from, from pretty modest two pieces, to little string bikinis that seemed hardly enough to cover essentials. None of us were bold enough to choose the really skimpy ones, but there was a range of pretty attractive, fairly normal bikinis that seemed harmless enough. String tops, mostly with bottoms that covered at least as much as panties, if not a little more. After we all made our choices, Mike ran through some questions with us.

"Now, as those of you who have been part of these before, you know we like to have a little eye candy in the show. It helps the tickets sell better, and that's what it is really about, you know? So I have to ask this every year, and just so you know - it is perfectly alright to say no, okay?"

We all nodded to show we understood.

"Okay, so you have all picked out some very lovely costumes. Now, how many of you are willing to go a little farther?"

It was nothing but nervous glances all around from us.

"Right, sure," Mike said, "let me just give examples. This hardly ever happens, but would any of you be fine with full nudity?"

No takers. He just nodded.

"Seriously, that's fine. We only want people to do what they are comfortable with. How about topless?"

Long pause. He nodded again.

"No problem, no problem. How about nude from behind? No? Topless from behind? No? Fine, fine. Lying down with the string of your top undone?"

Finally a couple hands went up - Melanie's and Annie's. I was caught by surprise, as I hadn't expected Melanie to offer! Before I could put my hand up to show solidarity with her, Mike moved on.

"Great! No worries from all of you, really it's great - you all will be lovely and I think we've got a smash hit on our hands. Just have to check all the boxes as a director, you understand."

And that was that! It was looking like this year was going to be a lot tamer than last year's. Last year we had needed to add some 'adult's only' warnings to the posters, but this year Mike didn't even bother.

Meanwhile, it was turning out that Ralph really was stealing the show. He had all kinds of little pranks he was pulling - swiping bags and towels and sunglasses, rigging sunscreen bottles to squirt all over, water balloons, plastic crabs on beach blankets, you name it. He was even key in the plot, as he steals the main girl (Rachel's) sunglasses, and Adam (the male lead) gets blamed for it, kicking off the will they/won't they tension part of the plot. And then at the end of the play, Ralph is supposed to get caught by several of the people he pranked, as part of the big finish.

To facilitate Ralph's pranking activities there was a big row of changing booths at the back of the stage - you know, those little wooden shacks with doors like old western saloons that give you just enough coverage to change into your swimsuit right at the beach? They were perfect for Ralph and his little hands to snitch things from people's bags right beneath the doors. During almost every seen, there were a few people supposedly 'changing' in the background, although none of us ever wore anything other than our bathing suit costumes.

The whole thing came together great, and it was so much fun hanging out and cracking jokes during the downtimes at rehearsals, and since half the acting was just having fun at a party, the whole thing felt like a real party! Until the opening night, that is.

These plays were always scheduled for 4 nights, but the opening night and final night were supposed to be the two biggest ones. And, frankly, the crowd that first night sucked. The theater was only a little over half full, and they just didn't seem into it. There were laughs in most of the right spots, sure, and some cheers at a few of the bigger moments, mostly involving Ralph or the romantic scenes between Adam and Rachel, but it honestly was entirely underwhelming. It seemed like MIke thought so too, because he was holding his head in his hands backstage during most of the performance.

After the play he called some of us around for a little impromptu meeting. It was mostly us girls, and Ralph.

"I apologize for having to call you girls around like this," Mike started out, "but tonight was over 20% under our projections for ticket sales, and it really didn't sound like an audience that was going to go out and tell their friends they had to see this show."

We all nodded. The lack of energy was really obvious whenever we were onstage.

"Now, I know I asked you girls about eye candy related things earlier, and I want to reiterate that you are absolutely welcome to say no. I'm just asking if you'll reconsider, that's all."

"What kind of things were you thinking about?" asked Annie.

"Well, to start with - I don't think anyone could even tell that you were 'sunning' with the strings undone, Annie. If we had a sloped portion of the stage or something, maybe, but as it was, I'm not sure the audience noticed."

"Yeah," she agreed. "But like you said, without a slope we can't change that much."

"No," agreed Mike. "And even then, it is fairly tame. What I'm hoping for is something - anything - that will let us put out a new poster that claims this one is a little more risque. Like those movies with 'unrated' editions. It doesn't have to be a ton, just something a little bolder than we've done until now."

"I'm game," said Annie. "And I'm sure Melanie is, too, right?"

She and Melanie had been thick as thieves during rehearsals, and since Melanie had also undone the string while she was lying down in one scene, Annie seemed to think she was her co-conspirator or something.

"I can help out, too!" I offered. I didn't want to leave two good friends out there on their own on this one - the same as I had done with Rachel last year. Melanie gave me a relieved smile, and grabbed my hand as if to say 'thank you.'

"Great, great" Mike said. "Now what I was thinking was having something with Ralph and his pranks, maybe using the changing stalls. So the stalls are in a line like this at the back of the stage, right?"

He was using his hands to do most of the explaining. You'll have to imagine it.

"So five stalls, all together, and the doors open out toward the audience. Ralph and I experimented, and the way the magnets hold them in place, a good bang right on the latch and they pop open."

"I get it!" I burst in. "So one of us girls is in the changing rooms, and Ralph runs past and bangs on the door, it pops open, and she is like, holding her top in her hands with her back to the audience?"

"Exactly!" exclaimed Mike. "Just real quick, then you pop your top back on and go on with things."

"Well I can definitely do that," Melanie said, with surprising confidence. I guess Annie had been helping her work up her courage. Annie and I both agreed it would be no problem, and we were set!

The rest of the meeting was spent picking the right time when one or the other of us could be changing and Ralph could run by and pop the door. Mike didn't want to do it all at once, but rather have it kind of as a running gag through the play. We eventually settled on an order of Annie, then Melanie, then me. Claire looked pretty relieved that she hadn't needed to volunteer.

When the time for the performance came, the crowd was still somewhat small. Mike had slapped a "PG-13!" sticker on some of the posters and mentioned the change on the Facebook page, but that didn't seem to have made enough of a difference. I asked him quietly about it about 5 minutes before the start of the show, and he looked pretty down about it.

"We'll just have to make it up with the performance, won't we?" he said, but I could tell he was discouraged.

Well, it was slightly better. I watched carefully whenever I was backstage on the feeds we had set up, and things were improved. More laughs overall, for example. I was watching when Ralph popped the door on Annie, and when it flew open she had her back to the audience, and it was clear she had her top in her hand. She gave a scream and the audience laughed, but it wasn't huge. When she immediately put the top and and then closed the door, it seemed even deader than before. There was a line right after that normally brought a huge laugh, and it just landed on dead air.

Before Melanie went on stage for her 'moment' in the next act, I grabbed her.

"Listen, Melanie, I think I know what the play is missing."

"Really?" She looked at me with those big, brown, doe eyes of hers, brown as her long hair.

"Yeah! Look, half the audience is guys, right? And guys get horny, and if they are horny they laugh easier."

"Really?" she said again, this time looking a little more doubtful.

"Yes! Listen, I think the crowd was hoping for something more than a bare back for a couple seconds - after all, we basically had that last night and it didn't do much."

"True," Melanie admitted, still looking cautiously at me.

"Well, what if they had a hope for a little more? Not actually showing anything," I hastened to add, as Melanie's big brown eyes got even bigger, "just holding out the possibility of more. Like, when Annie was in the booth, she stayed with her back to the audience the entire time. What if we turned to close the door first, then got our tops back on?

"I can't go topless!" Melanie hissed quietly.

"No!" I said. "Not topless! We can still cover with an arm, right? Or, hell, you could even drape your hair down in front - it's long enough, and plenty thick! They wouldn't see anything, but it would give them hope, right?"

She considered this for a minute. I showed her how to hold an arm across her breasts to hide everything important, and we experimented with her hair. It was thick enough that you could hardly see her bikini top when it was on, let alone her breasts when it was off. That convinced her, and we agreed to our little plan. I was fortunate enough to be backstage when she had her turn in the changing room, and saw how it went on the feed.

Ralph popped the door just like before, and I noticed it got a slightly bigger laugh this time. Melanie looked hot in just bikini bottoms, and her hair being all in front meant they got a good view of her back. She yelped and turned around quickly. And THAT got the crowd excited. I couldn't tell for sure, but it almost looked like her hair swung out a little from her body as she turned, and since she didn't bother with her arm since her hair was so thick, some of the audience might have gotten the tiniest glimpse of dark brown nipple and the curves of her breasts. When she grabbed the door and whipped it closed with a good glare in the direction Ralph had disappeared she got possibly the biggest laugh of the night.

When Melanie came back stage, she was glowing with excitement. Annie and I met her to congratulate her on her success.

"Omigod, you guys! That was intense!" she breathed, almost under her breath.

"You were great, Mel!" I said. "The audience was eating out of your hand for a second there."

"Yeah!" agreed Annie. "Now what about you, Sarah? Got something up your 'sleeve?' I saw you two conspiring earlier."

I quickly explained what Melanie and I had talked about, and Annie quickly realized we were right.

"You've got to do at least as much as Melanie here, right?" Annie asked me. "What's your plan? Your hair isn't long enough to copy her."

She was right. My blonde locks only came down to my shoulders, so I would have to rely on my arms to cover the goods.

"Well, I think I can mostly cover with my arms like this," I said, and crossed my arms over my chest to demonstrate. Mike came by as I was doing that.

"Planning a big finale for the running gag?" he said. "Fantastic! I hope you can top Melanie's. A good gag has a setup, build, and punchline, and that's you! What are you planning?"

"We were just discussing that," I said. "My hair isn't as long as Melanie's, so I was going to use my arms like this," as I demonstrated again. Mike nodded and stayed silent. Nervously, I kept going, not sure if I had something that would really work as a good punchline for the gag.

"And...um...I guess I could be facing a little to the side at first, right? So there's a little boob in profile, but nothing really R rated yet...and I guess I have to cover with just one arm since I have to reach to close the door."

Mike flashed a grin. "Brilliant! Sounds great. I leave you to it, then!"

Damn. I had gotten myself in a little deeper than I had planned. I had promised myself it wouldn't be like last year. I was hardly myself, then, and had gotten carried away with things. Still, a little sideboob never hurt anyone, right?

I had to take some deep breaths to get myself in the zone. Sure, I had done this before, but I hadn't planned on making it a habit! But now that I was in this boat again, it was important to do a good job. It was for a good cause, after all.