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Rehearsal Room

He was one of those people you see every day and start to believe you know when in fact you don’t. You have the arrogance to believe they’re part of the fabric of your day because you exchange a glance or a smile. You feel they have somehow become part of your life when in fact you have almost nothing to do with them and know nothing about them and haven’t made any particular effort with them at all.

 

He had close-cropped hair. He had black eyes. There was a kind of fluidity to them. They were bright, alert, mobile eyes.

 

He swept our floor each day. Before the company rehearsed he swept the floor meticulously – I might even say with love. It was part of the ritual of the day to thoroughly clean the working space. It was part of our company ethic and of the notion we had of discipline. We believed that discipline must matter in the kind of theatre we were hoping to create. We didn’t think you could just rock up to rehearsal. Preparing the space was as important as the rehearsal itself.

 


ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR

was born in London. She has won awards for her short fiction and plays, and is currently working on a collection of short stories. Her work has been shortlisted for the Asham Award, the Bridport Prize, and the BBC National Short Story Award, and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Most recently her stories have appeared in The Sunday Times Magazine online and the anthology of the BBC National Short Story Award 2011.



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