[Rebirth] King of Theater

Early the next morning, Al came to the office as usual, ready to help Miss Alice with work.

But what I didn't expect was that when the door was opened, what appeared in front of me was an extremely bad scene.

The room was smoky, probably because someone had been smoking in it all night, all the documents on the table were moved to the corners, and there were several sandwiches that were leftover at some point in the center, exuding a smell of smoke. The rancid smell, and some half-drunk coffee, beer, Coke, as well as cigarette butts and chewing gum scattered around...

In addition, Kitty, Chris, and Belle, the three leading actresses of the troupe, all sat side by side on the sofa not far away with haggard faces, with a hint of embarrassment mixed with guilt; They sat in chairs, or stood in the corner of the room, with what might be called a forced smile on their faces; Outside, no one said a word.

There was a depressing and deserted atmosphere in the room.

This scene really makes people feel at a loss.

Especially at the moment when the door was opened and entered, everyone looked up expectantly and looked over eagerly. When they found out that the person who came was just a small office handyman and not the good news they were waiting for, they were all disappointed. lowered his head.

Al walked quietly to Alice and asked softly, "Is there anything I can do?"

Alice, who was trying her best to bury herself in the pile of documents and ignore everyone in the office, raised her head, looked around in a daze, and said hesitantly, "You, you... go get everyone a cup of hot water. !"

A cup of hot water obviously does little to help the whole situation.

But in this slightly sentimental moment, it is also a simple consolation.

The tense expressions on the faces of many people eased a little the moment they received the hot water.

They thanked Al politely, maintaining their demeanor throughout.

Especially Mr. Milson, even in such a predicament.

He still touched the child's little head friendly, and said gently in an elder-like tone: "Thank you, Al. I wish you good luck every day, child."

Al felt inexplicably uncomfortable.

It stands to reason that there is no need for him to be sentimental about these things that have happened in his previous life and have nothing to do with him.

But for many things, watching the fire from the shore and being in it are completely different feelings.

In his previous life, he only learned the whole story from the chatting of others, and he didn't know much about the details.

They said that after the fiasco, the performance group had no way to maintain and could only be disbanded. Many actors had to run around and apply for new jobs to find a new job.

The words are understated, as if describing the most common and ordinary thing.

But hidden behind these words are... the two beautiful girls, Kitty and Chris, clinging to each other helplessly, Belle's eyes are red with tears, and those who are likely to leave the crew and face fierce competition, No matter how difficult it is to find a suitable job, they have to be unemployed for a long time, and even other actors who are forced to stay away from the stage.

They also said that although Mr. Milson's theater production company would not be dragged down by one play, after the market was seized, it also began to slowly go downhill.

At first glance, this is nothing.

Under the impact of the future network information age, countless drama producers will inevitably be overwhelmed by the surging and unstoppable tide, and finally, it will be turned into rows of cold data, which will be counted in some materials and documents that few people read... …

And Mr. Milson's story, I think, is just a drop in the ocean, insignificant.

If it hadn't happened right next to him, Al in his previous life might not have even heard of it.

However, it is different now.

The person standing in front of Al is not some data, but a living real existence.

Is a fool who spends an hour a day brushing his hair, worrying all the time, worrying about the expansion of baldness;

He is a shrewd businessman who is stingy and stingy and always insists on not hiring more people, but also occasionally takes the initiative to spend money to buy Miss Alice a bouquet of roses out of guilt;

He is a good-natured boss who will opportunistically choose to hire cheap child labor Al, but will also kindly say "this kid is still young, don't give him too much work" from time to time;

He is a reasonable and good person who reprimands the actors under him for not working hard, but tries to restrain himself when the whole show is facing a disastrous situation, and never vents his anger indiscriminately.

Thinking of this, Al couldn't help feeling genuine sympathy for him.

Even if Mr. Milson goes bankrupt, his situation will be much better than that of him in the slums.

But this kind of sympathy does not come from the condescending look of an outsider, but the understanding and empathy for his situation as a person in the same industry, that kind of watching a drama that has put all my efforts and made it with one hand. Being lost in the sea, the degree of pain is likely to be no less than the pain of a mermaid's tail being cut off and the loss of a child.

In the dead silence, time passed by second by second with difficulty.

Finally, someone pushed the door and walked in. It was a staff member in charge of finance.

Everyone raised their heads again, looking at him expectantly.

But he brought the final bad news with a heavy face: "7 yuan, sir, as of last night's performance, we have lost [-] yuan, and there may be another loss in the future, which is about the stage The handling of the scenery..."

"Deal with it? What's wrong with the stage set?" Kitty, who had been silent all this time, let out a panicked voice.

She stood up anxiously, with a pitiful look on her face: "What are you going to do with it?"

But the financial officer was not in the mood to look at the beautiful heroine at all.

He said in a business-like manner: "Since we can no longer perform, a large stage set will take up a lot of space, so the theater asked us to remove it as soon as possible. In this way, the transportation will cost a little more money. But the following The problem is, after taking it away, you have to consider whether to keep it. If you keep it, it will cost money to find a place to store it for a long time;

Then, he gave a rather objective (cold) suggestion: "In the long run, considering the cost of both, I recommend burning it."

Chris exclaimed, but she has always been sensible, and quickly closed her mouth tightly, not wanting to cause trouble;

Belle stroked her heart, leaned back on the sofa with her eyes closed, and said nothing; Kitty began to cry softly.

There was silence in the office.

Then, Mr. Milson asked with difficulty: "If we burn it ourselves, will we still have to spend money?"

Then the financial officer talked about the environmental protection law, the fire protection regulations, and the site occupancy fee. In a word, money must be spent, otherwise, someone will definitely come to make trouble , There will be a fine if it is not done well.

Mr. Milson had no choice but to discuss with him exactly where to burn it and how to burn it...

This process was extremely cruel to everyone in the office. They seemed to have an old friend who had just passed away, and before they had time to grieve, they had to watch the other person being dragged into the crematorium...

Kitty kept sobbing like a little girl.

But everyone graciously didn't blame her, and kept pretending that nothing happened.

After all, as the heroine, she is probably the saddest one.

Because she couldn't forget that she once stood under the beautiful stage set and proudly accepted the audience's love, applause and cheers. That was the most glorious and memorable moment in her life, but Now, they are all going to be tragically burned.

There is no need to talk about the development of the next plot, it is a gloomy day anyway.

But in the theater industry, there is no doubt that the winner is king, and the down-and-out loser is not qualified to raise any conditions.

Al, who also worked in this industry in a previous life, fully understands the grief of these people, but there is nothing he can do about it.

He is only 13 years old, and he still has a big family to support. All he can do now is to take a small amount of money from the cracks of the prophet in his previous life to live his life well.

However, no matter how realistic, rational, and clear the thoughts in my heart...

When he saw Mr. Milson saying goodbye to the actors one by one sincerely and graciously, he still felt a kind of shock that seemed to grab his heart.

As an old-school theater practitioner, Mr. Milson has a very valuable quality.

And this kind of quality is precisely what Al, who lived in the era of commodity economy and was used to everything centered on interests, did not have, and he never realized it, and it is also something that touches people's hearts.

Mr. Milson is not like those newly emerged dramatists who only know how to chase fame and fortune. He treats actors who make money with a smile, and speaks sarcasticly to actors who do not make money.

Instead, he always respected every actor who worked for him, and privately regarded them as best friends until the moment of disbanding.

So, on the last day, he stood quietly at the door of the office, bid farewell to his "friends" earnestly, called out the names of each actor with great proficiency, hugged and bid farewell to them one by one, and sincerely He sincerely sent his best wishes: "It's a great honor to work with you. I hope to have the opportunity to meet again in the coming year. I wish you all the best and a bright future ahead."

Al was very moved.

When he was free in the middle, before anyone else had any news, he hurried to find the ticket seller, Mr. Smith, like a hardworking bee, and bought a lot of new tickets. movie tickets.

These new performances obviously took up the original performance time.

But the winner and the loser, the winner goes up and the loser goes down, as it should be.

The author has something to say:

I wish you all peace and good health.

The ending was inspired by the Titanic. When the movie came out, I was too young to feel anything like love. The most impressive scene was the last musician on the deck who kept playing, memory It's a little vague, it should be at the moment of dying, a musician playing the violin said to his companions that it was an honor to work with you, and then continued to play until the boat was submerged by sea water little by little , I thought he was so handsome!