Toby's Desk

Toby's desk anchors the scene: it contains scattered drafts, the seltzer, and the pad; it is the locus of his labor and his rituals of destroying failed material, framing the office as a private workshop and defensive fortress.

Toby's desk anchors the scene: a place where drafts are composed and destroyed, the pad is taken from it, and the trash can sits beside it. It functions as the locus of Toby's craft and territorial authority during the audition.

Toby's desk/office papers are picked up by Toby as he transitions from hallway to his office, serving both as a work shield against personal exposure and as the physical threshold between public management and private rupture when he discovers his father.

Toby's desk and its papers serve as the immediate professional boundary Toby attempts to use—he picks up papers from a desk to orient himself to work, then confronts the emotional breach when he discovers Julie seated in the office chair adjacent to the desk.

Toby's desk functions as both workplace and psychological barrier: Toby returns, sits, and buries himself in papers to avoid confronting Julie. The desk is used to reassert professional distance and to shield emotional vulnerability.

Toby's desk is where he returns, sits, and reads papers to create distance; it acts as a physical barrier and refuge, enabling him to convert a personal confrontation into solitary work and signaling emotional withdrawal.

Toby's desk functions as the physical and symbolic barrier he returns to after confronting Julie; he sits and reads papers there to reassert professional distance, using the desk as refuge and as a place to bury the emotional fallout in work.