#myharperweek

Harper McIntyre Appreciation Week ♡ Day Five: AU

When Harper steps onto the eastbound Trailways bus the day after her high school graduation, she’s sure of two things: one, she’s finally gonna make it out of Iowa; and two, she’s gonna make it on Broadway.

Three years and endless hours of waitressing later, she knows it’s not that easy—but nothing’s going to stop her from trying to succeed. She memorizes new repertoire as she temps, practices battements while washing customers’ dishes. She performs in summer stock to get herself out there; she gets a bit part in a short film that never makes it past the indie circuit; she even nabs the role of a dead body on SVU.

She finally breaks through when she’s twenty-one. It’s three-thirty in the afternoon, and she put her name on the list just before five this morning in case the casting directors had time to see non-Equity actors, and she’s exhausted, but she goes in and sings and smiles. Nothing’s gonna come from it, she figures; she’s done these before. She knows now that the acting industry is indifferent and callous. But she gets a callback, and another, and soon she’s on the road, playing Wendla Bergmann eight times a week in the national tour of Spring Awakening.

It doesn’t instantly get easier. Once the tour is over, she goes back to the same old life of working and auditioning and working. But soon, she’s part of a real Broadway chorus, and then she gets a supporting role, and years later, her name on a marquee. She gets a boyfriend who loves her; she gets a Tony nomination. She gets a wedding ring.