Fiction · Level 3 · 191 words

The Understudy

Original passage © Studio AM, written for Fluency.

Nina had memorized every line of the play, though no one had asked her to. She was the understudy, the name printed in small type at the bottom of the program, the one who watched from the wings night after night while another actor took the bows. She told herself she did not mind, and most evenings she almost believed it.

Then, an hour before curtain on a cold Thursday, the lead actor twisted her ankle on the stairs behind the dressing rooms. Word spread fast through the cramped backstage halls. The director went looking for Nina and found her already in costume, standing before the empty mirror, mouthing the opening speech under her breath.

He stopped in the doorway. "You knew," he said, half a question. Nina only shrugged, but her hands were perfectly steady as she fixed her collar. She had been ready for months, ready in a way she had never let herself say out loud.

The waiting, she realized as she stepped toward the stage, had not been wasted after all. All those silent nights in the wings had not been a punishment. They had been practice.

Comprehension questions

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5 questions
1. What does Nina mean by realizing the waiting 'had not been wasted'?

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B. Her years of preparation made her ready for the chance
She had memorized every line and was already in costume; the waiting served as quiet preparation for this moment.

2. Why is the director's 'You knew' described as 'half a question'?

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B. He suspects she was secretly prepared but isn't certain
He finds her already in costume rehearsing, so he half-suspects she was ready, but isn't fully sure.

3. In the theater, 'the wings' are

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B. the areas at the sides of the stage out of view
Nina watches 'from the wings,' the offstage side areas where an understudy waits unseen.

4. What is this story mainly about?

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B. An understudy whose quiet preparation makes her ready when her chance comes
Nina memorized every line though no one asked her to, and when the lead is hurt she is already in costume. The story's point lands in her realization: the waiting "had been practice."

5. How did the lead actor get hurt?

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C. She twisted her ankle on the stairs behind the dressing rooms
The story states it plainly: an hour before curtain, "the lead actor twisted her ankle on the stairs behind the dressing rooms."

Source: Written for Fluency. Original passage © Studio AM, written for Fluency.