“Goldie,”
She was one of the new hires. There had been like four of them at once – they were already down to three. All completely fresh recruits, with their own dreams of what stage work was like, high drop out rate.
No response.
The girl was shaking. At least she didn’t seem to be bawling. A good cry could patch up any number of ills, and admittedly Olivia hazily remembered a few times over the years she had broken down after a show before just dulling to the whole experience.
“Goldie?”
“Aurelia.”
Right. Right. She had actually had to look it up when she first had heard it. Latin. Not the greatest stage name, or – no, no, she didn’t want to think the sort of parents that would name a child that were like.
“Aurie…”
“Aurelia.” she lifted her head to look back. Her hair wasn’t exactly golden – but honestly her face looked a little ghoulish at the moment. Not crying goulish, goulish like… floppy. She rubbed her eyes – and was suddenly a lot better.
“Oh-rell-ee-ahhh.” Olivia enunciated, “What went wrong tonight. You were in two tricks, what went wrong tonight?”
“Nobody followed my lead.”
“Girl. Nobody is supposed to follow your lead in a show. You follow Dan’s lead. You assist HIM.” Olivia took a deep breath, “If you suggest something in practice, and he doesn’t say yes, that’s how we’re going to do it tonight, doesn’t make it extremely clear – you go by the dictated choreography.”
“He thought it was interesting.”
“I don’t know what her thought was interesting, but that means ‘let me think about how it could fit’. You are not the magician. Dan is the magician. It’s him that is going to be blamed if the show collapses. Even if what he’s blamed for is not training his assistants well enough.”
Aurelia seemed to sag in her chair.
“Listen to me,” Olivia resumed, “There are parts of the act you are allowed to improvise. There are parts where you get to your mark and you stay at your mark and let the show happen. You already know this, illusion is keeping-“
“Illusion is keeping the audience looking where it’s supposed to be looking.” Aurelia almost recited.
“- where it’s supposed to be looking. Yes. And there will be times you will need to improvise to keep the audience from looking a certain place. If you’re not seeing where those might be, ask during practice. We all know you’re learning.”
Aurelia held up two fingers like a pause sign – “I just…” she grit her teeth. “Ok, if Mr. … Dan never says, ‘Ok, let’s do it your way, what then.’”
“Then you try and figure out why he might not think it’s appropriate. He doesn’t have to tell you – consider his position, consider the other assistants, the stagehands, the audience. And you write it down to come back to later. You never-” Olivia held up a finger in exclamation – “depend on yourself to remember the details in your head. You write things down so you can come back to them. It lets you focus on what you’re supposed to be doing now.”
“Like a diary?” Aurelia gave the slightest frown.
“They can put ‘field journal’ on the cover and charge you 10 times as much, if you really need it. Or really, blog about it, as long as you aren’t trying to lose Dan’s professional secrets.”
Aurelia failed to disclose what, exactly, she was thinking about for a moment. “Do you care what I wanted to do?”
“You can show me in practice tomorrow if you still got to. Right now – clean yourself up, maybe go by the bar, get some sleep. Having patience and pacing yourself is important in this business.”
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