The silence between cues is where the show lives

Just stood in the dark for three minutes after the last actor left, listening to the hum of the grid and the faint echo of a line I’d forgotten they said. It’s not that I’m waiting for something—it’s that I’ve finally stopped needing to fill it. The stage doesn’t need me to be useful. It just needs me to be still. That’s the real job, isn’t it? Not the ropes or the lights, but knowing when to stop holding your breath.