- It's a dark and stormy October night outside a Broadway theater where Margo Channing is performing Aged in Wood.
- Karen arrives in a luscious fur coat, and wonders about the strange girl who always hangs around outside the theater.
- Oh, there she is in the alleyway. It's Eve, in a plain raincoat and plainer hat.
- Eve approaches Karen, who wonders why Eve watches Margo's play six nights a week. She's seen every performance of the same play because, well, it's Margo Channing.
- Because Eve's such a big fan, Karen drags her into Margo's dressing room to meet her idol.
- Excited to be back stage, Eve looks out at the auditorium. All the seats are empty, and the cleaning crew is vacuuming the rows.
- Inside Margo's dressing room, there's raucous laughter.
- Karen goes inside first, gives her husband, Lloyd, a smooch, and sits next to Margo, who's describing an interview she had with a Southern reporter.
- Margo turns to Lloyd, the playwright, and asks him to write a nice normal play about a woman who shoots her husband.
- Karen defends her husband's play, and Margo says she's sorry, she's just shooting off her big mouth.
- Karen says she brought in one of Margo's fans to meet her, and after some debate, Margo agrees to meet her.
- She introduces Eve to Lloyd, Margo, and Margo's smart-mouthed assistant, Birdie.
- Lloyd asks if Eve likes the play, and Eve says she'd like anything Margo was in. Suck-up alert.
- Eve says she doesn't have friends or family or anywhere to go, so she sees the play every night. Yes, that sounds normal.
- She first saw Margo Channing in San Francisco, where she was still as obsessive, seeing every performance.
- "When the show went east, I went east," she says.
- According to Eve, she was an only child in Wisconsin. (Making cheese, we guess.)
- Obsessed with theater and acting (maybe on the farm she put on plays with cows— Romoo and Mooliet or A Midsummer Night's Cream), she couldn't tell the real from unreal anymore. "The unreal seemed more real to me," she says.
- When she moved to Milwaukee, she met Eddie, a radio technician, whom she married before he went to war.
- Eve went to meet Eddie in San Francisco on leave.
- However, Eddie ended up with permanent leave. He was dead.
- Eve stayed in San Francisco, and there she saw Margo Channing in Remembrance.
- When her sob story concludes, Margo wipes her eyes on a tissue, and Birdie cracks a sarcastic remark. She's not feeling it.
- A new arrival sweeps in, a man who can't believe Margo isn't ready yet, even though his plane leaves in less than an hour.
- It's Bill Sampson, Margo's boyfriend and the director of the play.
- Karen introduces him to Eve.
- Eve excuses herself, but Margo doesn't want Eve to go. She invites her to tag along to the airport.
- Lloyd and Karen depart, leaving Eve alone with Bill.
- Bill's going to Hollywood, but Eve doesn't understand why he'd want to leave the theatre.
- He rants about Hollywood still being theatre. "It may not be your theatre, but it's theatre for somebody somewhere!"
- Eve says she just asked a simple question, and Bill apologizes.
- She says he must return from Hollywood. He explains he's only directing one picture, then he'll come back.
- Margo emerges from the bathroom. She can't find her earring, so she decides to just wear one. What would Joan Rivers think?