oh, nevermind, sorry. Just a second too late i guess. Here are my suggestions:
The first line was fine before. If you want you can change it to "I was in the pool, face down, and a knife was embedded in my back.", which works grammatically. What you have now doesn't make grammatical sense. I think you should keep the first sentence as it was before.
also instead of "My friend John, who was now Prince Fortinbras, finished his last line", may I suggest "My friend John finished his last line as Prince Fortinbras"
And the third line just needs a slight tune up:
"I mopped the water off my face, smiled, and bowed, enjoying the applause and the smiles I received from my special audience."
Other than that it's great. Really an exceptional essay. My feedback is no reason for a mod not to give it a glance just in case i missed something, but I think that for the most part it's fine as it is (with the changes I'm proposing, that is).
EDIT:
my feedback applies to reply # 11, by the way, I hadn't read the other draft you posted while typing my response
Jonathan S. Flash