The drama. The romance. The beauty that is... Toscano. High in the lush hills of the Italian countryside, a young man (a young ROGER even) makes his way to the home of Enzo, the aging Italian lothario who swept Roger's bride-to-be off her feet at the train station, interrupting her trip to the altar, leaving the young Roger with a broken heart and lost dreams that he hopes he can find here among the verdant hillsides of... Toscano.
And so there I stand in the offices of Slater/Brooksbank in the now-familiar 12' x 12' room with bright lights and a Hi-8mm camera pointed at me. It seems about as far from Toscano as you can get, and I have to take us all there.
The scene is between my beloved and me as the aging lothario looks on. It is emotional. It is dramatic. It is heart-wrenching. The last two-thirds are basically a Roger monologue. And I'm all over it! From what I can tell, it all goes over very well. I deliver the last line, "Marry me," my eyes looking deep into Bruce Newberg's, searching for an answer. And searching. And searching. And all is quiet. And I finally look down at my sides and Bruce says, very quietly, "Scene," to bring the moment to an end.
And yet all is still quite silent. And I look into Bruce Newberg's eyes, again searching, but now feeling a little unsure what exactly to do. No one is saying anything. Is it the dramatic tension that I filled the room with that keeps us all shrouded in silence? Or are they just waiting for me to get out? I guess I need a good way to handle that situation, or at least a better way than blurting out, "Is that it?!" which is what unfortunately happened.
The response came from Linda Gray (of Dallas fame), the director/producer of this project. It went something like, "Is that it? Oh God, you just... oh... ah... that was so touching. Is that it? What are you...?" And Bruce Newberg mouthed a 'very nice' in my direction and then that really was it.