In the dark backward

Drama club is getting weirder every day. I felt kind of embarrassed about the hair colour change, so I wore one of my mother's old hats to school. She said it was a bad idea, and she was right. Zapata and Zenia pointed at me when I walked into English class, and that was the least of the ridicule. I wanted somewhere to hide, or something, so I went to the rehearsal room early. Mirabell was on his cell phone, really loud. I wasn't really noticable with the hat on (the room was dark) and I guess I'd learned something from doing "surveillance" with Arne last week, so I just listened to Mirabell. He was getting really emotional.
"I tell you," he said, "I know this is just a group of high school miscreants, but it's my first step back into theatre, my first step without HIM. You know how he ruined my first leading role: I was set to play Falstaff in the Piecrust Players production of Henry IV, but at the last minute the craven fool of a director came up to me and said he'd had a writer go over the script, "modernize" it, and as a result Falstaff was out! "Kids can't relate to loud drunken men," the writer told the director. Next, after I got out of rehab, I was set to direct a dinner theatre production of Romeo and Juliet. Next thing I know, the theatre manager's got a new "updated" script, and I'm walking! I hate that man! Every time I go into a seedy tacky bar, there he is! I went to a hotel bar on St. Patrick's Day--there he was! Michael Patterson is not going to ruin my last chance at restarting my career-- I don't care if I have to kill my entire cast, crew, and audience!" He sounded even more crazed than usual.
After that, the rehearsal itself was pretty calm. Dirne made faces at me when I took my hat off (I thought black went with red, anyway) and Mirabell decided that Duncan's dead body would get dragged onto the stage after Macduff finds him, so it'll be my job to get him all bloody. I think I've gotten used to having red hair.