An extraordinarily good-looking and well-dressed young man had come into the roomwhile Imry finished speaking. He spotted the elderly pair and came over to introduce himself. "I'm Denny Roth," he said, patting them on the shoulders patronizingly. "You've probably heard of me. I've been in several independent films. One of them won several awards at Sundance."

Jake was still sitting near Jane and Shelley and made a small snorting noise and winked at them again. "As an extra, wasn't it, Denny?"

Denny ignored this and took a seat next to the director. Jake introduced Jane and Shelley. "Mrs. Jeffry and Mrs. Nowack are going to make sure that we get fed and watered. Be extra nice to them if you know what's good for you."

Steven Imry clearly didn't like someone else making the rules and introductions. He stood in front of the head chair and said, "Starting now, we're going to use your characters' names at all times, as I said before. I've—"

Gloria cut him off. "I'm Ms. Gloria Bunting and don't you forget it, young man."

"Gloria is right," her husband agreed. "That's simply not how it works in a real theater, Professor. You might wish to be trendy, but it's not professional."

It seemed as if Imry hadn't recognized that he had offended the actress and her husband. Or maybe he didn't care. "It's a technique I've used before with great success. It gets everyone into the spirit of the play sooner. You'll address me as

Professor Imry. Tonight is simply a first reading. No gestures, no movements. We'll get to those tomorrow. I just want to hear you emote."