CHAPTER TEN L: THE REHEARSAL THAT STOPPED
Imani had scheduled a rehearsal in the public library because the theater remained closed to performers.
The library offered a room with low ceilings, uneven lighting, and chairs that squeaked whenever anyone shifted.
Tomas, the youngest sound technician, arrived carrying a wooden box filled with harmless effects equipment.
He wanted to demonstrate how a crowd could be represented without recording actual people.
Leona planned to read a monologue about a woman returning to her childhood neighborhood.
Peter sat near the door with his coat folded over his knees.
He had agreed to observe because the company had proposed using an imitation of the old falling scenery wall.
Imani had rejected the imitation, but Peter wanted to hear what replaced it.
Tomas began by tapping a spoon against different sizes of glass.
The tones sounded like distant bells drifting across water.
Leona read the opening paragraph while another volunteer moved a wooden board beneath a cloth.
The room filled with the convincing sound of footsteps on an empty pier.
Peter listened without expression until Tomas lifted a metal sheet to imitate a passing storm.
The first low rumble made Peter straighten in his chair.
The second caused him to stand abruptly.
His coat fell to the floor as he reached for the door handle.
Imani stopped the rehearsal before anyone could produce another sound.
Peter apologized and tried to pick up the coat.
Nora reached it first but waited until he nodded before handing it back.
He said that the noise resembled the moment before the scenery wall collapsed.
Tomas looked horrified and began explaining how the sound had been made.
Peter told him that the explanation was not necessary.
He said that his reaction was his own, and the rehearsal had not been intended to hurt him.
Imani asked whether he wanted the metal sheet removed from the program.
Peter looked at the young technician,
who was trying to make himself invisible behind the equipment box.
He said that the sound could remain if everyone knew when it would happen.
He asked for a clear cue before each rehearsal and a way to leave without disrupting the performance.
Tomas immediately offered to write the cue into the script.
Leona suggested that they make a second version of the scene without thunder.
Peter said that giving performers a choice was sensible even when no one had been injured.
The rehearsal resumed after a short break.
This time, Tomas raised his hand before moving the metal sheet.
Peter stayed in his chair through the sound.
Afterward, he asked Tomas whether the instrument could create the softer noise of wind moving through a narrow street.
Tomas demonstrated three possibilities.
Peter selected the quietest and asked whether he might try it himself.
The technician passed him the sheet with both hands.
Peter moved it carefully, and the room heard a gentle whisper instead of a crash.
He smiled for the first time that afternoon.
Nora understood that the performance was changing in ways the original committee had never imagined.
The injured man was no longer merely a problem to be acknowledged during a speech.
He was helping decide what the audience would hear.
