theater gothic
The lighting designer passes you the gobo you need, and you focus three more lights before you meet her eyes, and you both realize that the two of you are alone. Who has been turning on and off the lights for you? Neither of you ask. There are questions that should not be asked during dark time.
The actors are going through their warm-up. From the outside, it sounds like the eery mating ritual of eldritch beasts. You know the actors are human, though. You're pretty sure, anyway. Sometimes you think the shadows through the door of the green room have tentacles. You have never opened the door to check. It is a human voice that calls back, "Thank you, 15 to house!" and that's good enough for you.
Sometimes, during the dream sequence scene change halfway through Act II, there's a voice you don't recognize on the headsets. No one else has ever mentioned it to you, so you say nothing either. But you obey when the voice that isn't the stage manager calls out warning. Just in case.
The sound board picks up radio stations that you have never heard anywhere else. Mostly you don't mind. The music is odd, but it helps kill time after sound check and before curtain. Sometimes, though, you catch the beginning of a talk program in a language you have never heard before, and then you have to dive to kill the monitors. It's never more than five minutes before the screaming starts.
You distinctly remember leaving the ghost light stage left when you locked up last night. When you come in early the next day to fix a prop, it's stage right. You murmur a quiet benediction to the ghosts and leave a note to the ATD that the SL wards are weak.
The actors cannot see the glow tape. The director complains that the stage looks like an airport runway. You have always suspected that glowtape only appears to certain people.
The props designer has fake blood under her nails. You think it's fake. You hope so anyway, and try not to remember that Sweeney Todd closed almost a month ago.
You duck when someone calls out "Heads!" You duck even though it's 3AM and you know everyone else left hours ago. You don't look up.
