CHAPTER SIXTEEN Q — A QUESTION FOR THE NEW DIRECTOR

The school district hired a new arts director named Camille Porter in late spring.
She invited Nora and Ellis to discuss how the program should operate the following year.
Camille had worked with children’s theaters in three cities and had no connection to Crescent.
She listened while Nora described the old accident and the new rehearsal arrangements.
Then she asked a question nobody had asked before.
“What would make you comfortable attending a performance without feeling responsible for everybody in the room?”
Nora looked surprised.
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
Camille nodded.


“That’s an honest answer.”
She explained that safety needed to be the responsibility of trained staff, not the private burden of a former student who had been injured.
Ellis agreed.
“I can help design the procedures,” he said.
“But somebody employed by the school has to maintain them.”
Camille proposed a training session for teachers and volunteers.
She also wanted a simple process for reporting problems without requiring children or parents to argue with administrators.
Nora asked whether reports would receive written responses.
“Yes,” Camille answered.
“And the person reporting a problem will be told what action was taken.”
Ellis asked who could stop a performance if something seemed unsafe.


Camille said the director, stage manager, and designated safety lead would each have that authority.
“What if a donor objects?” Nora asked.
“The donor can wait outside,” Camille replied.
Nora laughed so suddenly that she startled herself.
Camille smiled.
“I take that as approval.”
The meeting ended with a plan for staff training and a schedule for inspecting equipment.
On the way out, Nora told me she felt strangely light.
“I think she just gave me permission to be an audience member,” she said.
“You never needed permission,” I answered.
“Maybe not,” Nora replied.
“But I needed somebody else to accept responsibility.

”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN R — THE MAN WHO BUILT THE PLATFORM

Victor Ames attended the staff training at Camille’s request.
He brought a small model of a fixed platform and demonstrated how weight traveled through its supports.
The teachers listened carefully while he explained the difference between decorative scenery and structural components.
A volunteer asked whether a stage could be safe without expensive equipment.
“Absolutely,” Victor said.
“A simple structure designed for its purpose can be safer than a complicated one nobody understands.”
After the session, he approached Nora.
“I read the findings,” he said.
“I’m glad the reviewers looked at the bearings.

”
“You were right to warn us,” she answered.
Victor shook his head.
“I should have warned people six years earlier.”
Nora considered that.
“You can’t change when you spoke,” she said.
“But you can make sure the next crew hears you.”
Victor told her he had begun including written stop-work procedures in his contracts.
He said his employees could raise safety concerns without losing their positions.
“That’s something I should have done long ago,” he admitted.
Ellis joined them and asked whether Victor would review the school’s storage platform.
Victor agreed to look at the design before anyone built it.


The three of them stood beside the empty gym floor, discussing a project that had nothing to do with the Kesslers.
I watched from the doorway.
For once, their conversation was about preventing a problem rather than explaining an old one.