the timboucher experience

At 7:15pm, the producer walks by and unlatches the stage door wordlessly, allowing it to swing shut. You’ve got to keep the magic in. From then on, I close the door myself by 7:10 every night without being told - usually taking my cue off the house manager firing up the A/C. House opens at 7:30, curtain is at 8:00. Actors are called at 7pm and begin getting into costume immediately. Never mind the props and set pieces laid out with careful precision, there is a lot of magic laying about for the curious onlooker to see through the stage door before the production even starts. If theatre has religious roots, then this could be considered one of our sacred customs. Maintain the taboos, keep the rules, protect the holy objects and officiants to be offered up during the ritual. One evening deep in a work trance, I realized what time it was suddenly and unintentionally slammed the stage door shut in the face of a young boy, of maybe twelve years. He was on his way over from the parking lot, drifting as if compelled by the power of the magic, jaw slightly slack with forbidden sights revealing themselves. I walk over, pass in front of him, unlatch the door and allow it to swing shut. The power must be preserved. The game has rules – most of them unwritten. He’ll thank me later – when the lights go down and the orchestra begins the overture. Backstage is not for outsiders. It’s a holy place. Different rules apply there.

• Through a Screen Door
• Sample Stagehand Performance Action Sheet
• Interviews with Scientologists
• little cabin. The door, Kotos:
• Analyzing Your Intentions