AllMovie

After twenty years spent literally waiting in the wings, perpetual off-Broadway understudy Ann (Andrea Powell) has reached the end of her emotional tether. If her professional existence is headed down the fast track to nowhere, her private life teeters on the verge of destruction, given her decision to nurture an ill-fated marital engagement to thesp Guy (Jonathan Marc Sherman). Ann's current stage work posits her as an understudy to diva-hopeful K.C. (Melissa Leo of Henry Jaglom's Always), and the former spends most of her days in the green room, killing time with understudies Shelly (Richard Vetere) and Russell (Zack Griffiths). The production takes an unusual and unanticipated twist, however, when Russell is thrown into the production to replace one of the actors, and must perform a scene that requires him to simulate the rape of K.C.'s character. The confused K.C. simultaneously believes she's falling in love with Russell, and believes that he is actually sexually abusing her during the sequence; the combined effect rips her apart emotionally and ultimately requires Ann to replace her in the production - which moves Ann's multilayered relationship with Russell center stage. Debra Eisenstadt (Daydream) directs, and co-authored the original screenplay with Jill Eisenstadt.