‘So it does. I suppose I shall have to be a good boy and wait until tomorrow with the rest of the audience. Well, let’s have Ellen do her song and then you can make your entrance, at least. It’s been a while since I’ve seen your act.’

It’s become my act. That’s how I think of it now, but it was mostly Crillick’s idea. Open auditions were held at Crillick’s Variety Theatre on Mondays and Tuesdays, the days the cast spent on fittings and rehearsals. I’d gone along at the start of the new year, not quite sure what to expect but knowing I needed the money. I’d already been turned away from a handful of more salubrious establishments. That very morning, I’d seen a sign in a milliner’s asking for an assistant, but when I enquired the proprietress had taken one look at me then shooed me away like a stray dog. I’d been out of work since mid-December at that point and things were getting desperate, but I’d heard it said that some of the theatres weren’t too fussy about who they took on. It had to be worth seeing if Crillick’s had something for me.

I was surprised to learn it was Crillick himself holding the auditions, but there he was and younger than I’d thought, thirty or thereabouts.

‘What have we here?’ he’d said when I walked in.

He was sitting alone at a round table before the stage. Something about his tone made me want to turn on my heel and leave. But I could see he wasn’t the sort of man to show weakness to, so instead I raised my chin and strode right up to him. That made him sit up in his chair.

‘I’m Zillah,’ I said and stuck out my hand for him to shake.

He took it, held it just a little too long. A lady might have snatched her hand back but I sensed he was testing me. I must’ve passed.

‘Oh, that will never do; we’ll have to think of something better. You sing, dance?’

I needed this job so I said I did both.

‘Show me, then.’

My mind was blank. I opened my mouth but no sound came out. Come on, Zillah. I started to sway from side to side. It wasn’t dancing as such but maybe it would be enough to get me a part in the chorus. Marcus Crillick has a mean streak but that day he must have been feeling merciful because he didn’t let me carry on for too long.