A Difficulty With More Than One Response

Act before the knot tightens

Read for meaning first. Select a highlighted word if you want a closer look.

To forestall further confusion, the producer sent one confirmed update instead of allowing several different schedules to circulate. A volunteer helped extricate the set pieces from a crowded storage room so they could be divided between two available cars. The transport question was no longer intractable, but the opening venue's rehearsal time remained difficult to change. The producer called the venue directly and asked which parts of the setup absolutely required access before the audience arrived.

The conversation helped forestall a last-minute dispute over who could enter the room and when. Once the cast could extricate the essential props from the larger collection, a shorter setup became possible. The remaining timetable issue had seemed intractable because everyone had been treating the complete original set as necessary. Revising that assumption did not remove every inconvenience, but it allowed the producer to state a plan whose limits the performers and venue could both understand.

Original fictional passages for vocabulary practice.