By Mister-X/Spartan
Our college was putting on a play to mark the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination. Most people knew about John Wilkes Booth’s role in it. But few people knew about the others who helped him, and what their fate was. I was to play the role of one of the co-conspirators.
I made no pretext of the fact that I was gay. I also wanted acting to be my career. When it came time to pick the one who would be put into prison in those horribly difficult cuffs that the co-conspirators where put in, our director asked for volunteers. He normally would pick people for the roles, but he didn’t want to assign someone who would have difficulty playing this role. After no one seemed to want this role, I volunteered for it. Our director thanked me. He said I would need a backup, but no one else wanted to even be the backup. I was going to have to make sure that I would always be available. That was my first warning that this was going to be a difficult role to play.
Now that the director had someone to play the role, the next problem was getting the cuffs made. They had to fit the person who was portraying the role, and I was sent to the metal workshop to be fitted. Due to the fragility of the original cuffs, the director decided to make a modification. He also figured that I would prefer being placed in this modified version. He knew something about my interests, since he was also gay, and we’d played some.
At the metal workshop, the director told the workshop teacher what was required. He was surprised, but said that he’d be able to produce them. The director told him that I would be the one playing the part, and told him to make them to fit me. He said everything needed to be tight fitting, since that was the way they had it done at the time. The workshop teacher said “if that’s what you want, that’s what you’ll get. But if you don’t like it, don’t blame me. Your man here will have to be the one to be put into them.” That was my second warning that this was going to be a difficult role to play.