DEATH EX MACHINA: SCENE 3, TAKE 14. ACTION!

Another Janet Reid WRITING CONTEST!    
At the suggestion of Colin Smith, we're going to celebrate the publication of Gary Corby's latest Athenian mystery DEATH EX MACHINA.

The usual rules apply:

1. Write a story using 100 words or fewer.
2. Use these words in the story:   stage  actor   crane   chorus   ghost
3. You must use the whole word, but that whole word can be part of a larger word. The whole word must appear intact if it's part of a larger word:
ghost/ghostly is ok but stage/stagnate is not.
4. Post the entry in the comment column of THIS blog post.
5. One entry per person. If you need a mulligan (a do-over) erase your entry and post again) It helps to work out your entry first and then post.
6. Titles count as part of the word count (you don't need a title)

Contest opens: Saturday June 6 10am    Contest closes: Sunday June 7 10am

My Entry (I'm first in line, top of the heap!):

Director: "NICO AND DIOTIMA, CENTER STAGE.   CHORUS, DOWNSTAGE RIGHT."

Assistant: "QUIET ON THE SET! DEATH EX MACHINA: SCENE 3, TAKE 14."

Director: "ACTION!"

Actor: "You'll get rid of the ghost?"

A crane creaked in the background lowering someone on a rope. 

Director: "What the... CUT!"

Director: "This isn't the dead body scene! Who is that?"

Assistant: "Gary's agent, Janet."

Director: "Again? I thought you locked the set?"

"Janet, daaah-ling, so good of you to drop in."

"About Gary's contract..."

"You got him everything: money front and back, residuals, even gross points! What's left?"

"A bigger trailer."

"You're a shark, Janet."

***

The results are in
and I didn't win
but I did get Special recognition for a meta entry!  Yeah? I googled meta and found a plethora of mind-numbingly incomprehensible discussions, examples and (supposedly) definitions. Surprising enough, I found the simplest definition in the online Cambridge dictionary: "writing about imaginary characters and events in which the process of writing is discussed or described."  

...