Familiar Faces – a true encounter
“Hi Craig.” she said as we passed in the hallway, “remember me?” It isn’t that I didn’t recognize her, it’s just that I didn’t expect to ever run into her again. Hilary had graduated from the university some four or five years earlier, and it is pretty unusual for former students to return to visit beyond a year or two after graduation.
“Well hello Hilary, what are you doing here?” I replied, a little surprised, since I didn’t remember her being overly friendly with me, especially since I was merely on the staff at this university, and not one of the faculty.
Hilary explained that she had been invited back to give a guest lecture to the current students on the life of a working actress on the road with bus and truck musicals.
These are revivals of old standard musicals, usual a performing vehicle for some fading variety star of twenty years ago, like Robert Goulet or Debbie Reynolds. They go from city to city playing anywhere from one day to a couple of weeks. It can mean being on the road for months at a time. The name comes from the fact that the scenery travels in a truck, and the performers in a bus. The hours are long and the work grueling, and the hotel rooms are all the same. However, the pay can be excellent, and competition for the roles is tough. If you can last it out on the road for any length of time, you are good, and you are tough.
And Hilary was tough. When she was a theatre student, she was not one your stars-in-the-eyes innocent acting students. Quite the contrary, as the daughter of professional performers, she knew what it took to succeed, and because of that she worked hard at her craft. After four years of intense study, she had developed into a talented singer, actress and dancer.
Her biggest drawback as a performer was that she was small. Petite is perhaps a better word. Standing barely five feet tall, Hilary was not the standard show girl type. All the more need for talent and sheer will to get ahead in the business.
Her small stature was never a drawback in my book. Being on the short side of average height myself, I always had a preference for small women. And Hilary fit my ideal almost to a ‘T’. At five foot, she may have weighted ninety five pounds or so, but her small body was exquisitely shaped and well packed to boot, her shape reminded me of Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing. When she was still a student I can remember watching her rehearse, and being fascinated with her small taut round thighs and her pert tits, that jiggled so nicely when she danced. My pulse would quicken rise whenever she was dancing on stage and an actor would lift her so that her costume would rise to reveal her high round butt encased in lycra and lace. She was the kind of vision that would occupy both my sleeping and waking dreams. I spent much of my time back stage watching her great little ass.
