The Glow of the Spotlight: My Journey with Rebecca

Back from Bubbie’s, I catch Rebecca the moment she puts away her schoolbooks and pitch the play. Cinderella, I tell her, and I already know who should play the prince. Benny, hunched over his drawing at the kitchen table, puffs up at the idea, joking that he is obviously handsome enough for the part. Rebecca laughs and warns him he is a little short for a prince, though she supposes pretending he stands six feet tall is half the fun anyway. Then her eyes take on a mischievous glint: she already knows exactly who should play the mean stepsisters.

We track down the twins in the parlor, surrounded by movie magazines and deep in conversation about a serial called The Perils of Pauline and its star, Pearl White. I ask if they would play the stepsisters, carefully skipping the word “mean.” Sophie agrees at once, glad for any excuse to escape crocheting, and Sadie is even happier to abandon the tablecloth she has been working on for what feels like forever. Rebecca beams at the news, and the four of us head up to the roof to start rehearsing.

Sadie wastes no time pitching her real agenda. She wants the play to borrow from The Perils of Pauline instead of sticking to the old fairy tale. When I admit I have never seen the serial, she teases that Rebecca and I are probably too young for moving pictures, then explains how each weekly episode ends on a cliffhanger. Sophie chimes in about last week’s installment, where a cruel landlord ties poor Pauline to the railroad tracks until her mother can scrape together the rent. Sadie wants that same suspense woven into our Cinderella: a scullery escape, a mad dash from the ball before the gown turns back to rags, a last-minute rescue by the prince.

Rebecca cuts in, insisting that is not how the story goes. Cinderella is not in danger, she argues; she is only sad because she cannot go to the ball. Sadie waves that off, certain a helpless heroine in peril would make the play more modern and exciting, and Rebecca digs in, reminding her sisters whose play this actually is. Privately, I am not so sure Sadie is wrong, though I keep that thought to myself for now.

Undeterred, Sadie reworks the ball itself, suggesting the prince host the first motion-picture screening in the land instead, with Cinderella left home while her stepsisters attend, disappointed in a way that sounds pointedly close to Rebecca’s own situation. Rebecca flares at the comparison, insisting there were no motion pictures anywhere in the original story, and turns to me for backup. I hesitate, caught between loyalty to my friend and a growing sense that some of the twins’ ideas might actually make for a better show.