The play as a whole could be performed by no fewer than three actors, though
it’s written for seven. Characters can be voiced by different actors from scene
to scene.
So goes the Note I'm composing for my Oak Floors! a Heritage Cabaret. What happens, I wonder, when one character is sung by multiple voices in the course of the whole piece. If that works--and I suspect it would, if performed by pros--than my chamber musical could be done by three actors, one of them the music director, all playing multiple characters.
Or have one character locked to one actor while the rest bounce around as needed. That lock would be settled on the flaneur, as this figure is still called (I'll add that circumflex accent before producing some final version of the script.) Her/His role is to take us from scene to scene in the heritage cabaret. An obvious function, I suppose. But to "take us" is not a straightforward matter. Attitude, tease, degrees of complicity with what we're about to see or have just seen--all of these the flaneur will carry. Thus the story we receive, if I'm not off course here, will land with both conviction and light. Light as in suspension, light as in play.
But give me seven to sing the Chorus role. Play the Chorus off against individuals in scenes.
So, somewhere in the above is the genesis of a Note I want to include. I like thinking about this now--the prospect of only three actors to do the whole piece--instead of later in a rush, should that ever happen.
