Props list:
a silvery grey broadsword
a beribboned feathered tambourine
start at the back left corner of the stage
kneel
get my broadsword
swap
gaze my broadsword
sigh quietly
act sets her silvery grey broadsword carefully down on the stage to her left.
drop my broadsword
stand
get my tambourine
smile sadly as she gazes around the room, and her gaze passes over you without pause. With a toss of her head, she lifts her tambourine and shakes it briskly; the sweet, sharp shimmer of the tambourine's chimes resounds through the room, and the scarlet and gold ribbons coiled around the tambourine's rim shiver with the motion. - I did choose to delete my instrument scripts, for this one.
act begins a steady, soft beat with the rim of her tambourine against the palm of her left hand.
stride
sing Tonight, when I step from my haven,;My weapon and shield stay behind.;Tonight, when I walk through my forest,;I ache with need but half-defined.
act continues to walk slowly forward towards the center of the stage.
act suddenly accelerates the tambourine's rhythm and switches over to a quick double-beat that mimics the sound of a racing human heart, striking the beribboned rim and then the taut skin of the tambourine against her left palm in swift repetition.
sing If my heart were a hill troll attacking,;I would drop it with razor-thorned spell.;If my heart were a stumbling child,;I would leave it to starve where it fell.
act breaks off the music of the tambourine as she stops at the center of the stage, and the abrupt halt makes her faded travelling cloak swirl forward around her slight body before settling back again.
fidget
squint Tanager
remove crystal amulet
act removes the crystal amulet from around her neck with a vicious twist of her wrist. The chain catches briefly in her tied-back ebony braids, and those sufficiently close to the stage hear a few strands of hair snap as she pulls it free. Her expression is defiant, but the curve of her mouth is as wistful as the shiver in her soft voice. - Tanager often suffers from Murphy's Law.
sing Tonight, every foreign mind whispering;Abrades on hopes shattered and rent.;Tonight, I step out of my forest;Like a nightmare the jackal-lord sent.
act tosses the crystal amulet away from herself with perhaps a bit more force than she intended. The amulet hits the floor, skitters across the stage, and comes to rest nearly a yard away.
drop crystal amulet
act stares over the heads of the members of the audience as she whips the tambourine's music back into a wild, whirling pace.
sing If my heart were a late-blooming rose,;I would cut it to die on the vine.;If my heart were a last beam of sun;I would shade my brown skin from its shine.
smile faintly and shades her violet eyes with one hand as she lowers her gaze once more into the crowd. This time, her gaze does not drift over people without touching them, but settles into the crowd, meeting first one pair of eyes and then another. She slows her pace and begins to mark time with the thump of the tambourine against the side of her thigh, a soft, gentle rhythm.
stride right
sing Tonight, I drift lost through the grasslands;Disturbing no plant’s trailing leaf.;Tonight, I walk into your city;In shadow, like bandit or thief.
act shifts back to marking the rhythm against her palm as she descends the stairs on the right side of the stage. The music rises in an accelerating crescendo, but her voice cuts over it as she reaches the bottom of the stage and begins to walk back in front of the audience.
sing If my heart were a fluttering bird;I would cage it close, no more to fly.;If my heart were a swift-spinning spider,;I would wait: with the frost, it would die.
shudder
act lets the tension drain from her body along with her tambourine's speed as she continues to pace to the left. A whimsical pirouette makes her cloak swirl again and centers her in front of the audience, tapping her tambourine quietly against her palm.
smile sadly as she glances down, and her soft voice echoes the longing and grief in her expression.
sing Tonight, as I shadow your doorway,;My wishes twine, tangle, and lace.;The rain starts to fall from above;And hides the lost tears on my face.
cry brave
gaze my feet
act does not lift her head, but she switches back to the prior heartbeat rhythm, and her voice comes more quickly.
sing If my heart were a grovelling servant;I’d dismiss her before end of day.;If my heart were a path in the forest;I’d turn to seek some other way.
sigh harshly
act stares at the crowd for a long moment as the tambourine's pace slows.
sing Tonight, knowledge stalks towards perception,;And I see that you’re not coming home.;I turn like a spirit retreating;And leave streets for leaf mold and loam.
turn Tanager
stride right
act approaches the stairs she just descended. As she climbs them, the tambourine's pace picks up, and she switches into back into the heartbeat rhythm, speeding faster and faster into a fevered tumbling of rhythm.
sing And my heart is no troll and no rose-vine,;And my heart is no servant or child.;It grants and steals strength as if dicing;And it manifests passioned and wild.
climb the steps, let tension build, move towards the stage center, look at the audience again
smile bitterly, and, between beats, shapes the form of a spell with her fingertips. Abruptly, she blurs with the magic of a hastening spell, and the speed of her tambourine playing accelerates even more as she switches suddenly into a three-beat pattern-- one side of the rim, the skin, and the other side of the rim, running over and over the skin of the tambourine with her hand. The beats spill frantically over one another in a mad rush of percussive frenzy, and her hand is barely visible.
sing And there’s naught I can do to stop weeping;Or to pick up my shattered control.;Somewhere you dance in your city,;And, knowing, my heart is not whole.
act snaps the tambourine down against her palm to produce a thundercrack of sound that rings through the room with stunning volume.
act turns her back on the audience and walks slowly towards the discarded broadsword. Partway there, she notices the amulet tossed off to the side, and she detours to pick it up.
get amulet
put amulet in my pouch
act begins to mark each of her footsteps off by tapping the tambourine against the side of her thigh as she returns to the place where she left the broadsword.
get broadsword
gaze my broadsword
turn Tanager
gaze longsword in my cloak
exhale
kneel
act rests the broadsword across her knees, keeping her left hand on the hilt to keep the weapon from sliding.
smile faintly, but the expression curves her lips without touching her haunted violet eyes. When she sings, her voice is soft, and the slowly formed melody aches with the bitterness of solitude.
sing Tonight, I sit under wet branches;And whisper an unanswered prayer.;In the morning, unthinking, I reach out--
act thumps the tambourine one last time against her thigh and ceases its rhythm.
put tambourine in pouch
act extends her free hand beseechingly as she stares across the audience. After a moment, the hope in her expression dulls, and she lowers the hand again to rest it on her knees.
gaze my feet
sing ...of course, you’re not there....