Occupying the Same Space Several Times Over

Synopsis (Full Opera)

Cast
Rick (tenor)………….. a lawyer who’s tired of years of defending despicable characters
Rock (baritone)………. Rick’s latest client, a career felon whose latest spree is a string of baseball-bat slayings
Clarence (tenor)………. a dairy farmer who’s more attentive to his cows than his wife
Lulu (soprano)………... Clarence’s wife, a devoted homemaker who longs for romance and passion
Emma (soprano)……… Clarence’s prize Jersey cow, known for her good nature and willingness to give her milk

Although they are different ages, Rick, Rock, Clarence, Lulu, and Emma were all “born” at the same second on the same day of the same year – albeit, if not on different planes and dimensions, at least in different states of the union. This second was precisely the second that Earth was poised again, as it is every 7,000 years, on the edge of a cataclysmic sneeze (the “Great Sneeze” theory – you can look it up). As the earth held its breath waiting for the burst, everything stopped. Nothing moved. And into this split-second, motionless vacuum, the essences of Rick, Rock, Lulu, Clarence, and Emma settled… and began to merge. It is during this non-moment that our story never takes place.

Rick, the lawyer, unhappy with his life in general, struggles to find a defense for his murderous client, Rock, who openly despises Rick, not the least for Rick’s obvious inability to kill anyone. Rick longs for a more peaceful (and certainly useful) existence, which in this altered universe sets him on a collision course with Emma, a savvy Jersey who’s mastered the art of living well. Emma, with her siren-like appeal and lovely eyes, has seduced the heart of her dairy-farmer owner, Clarence, away from his devoted but overly talkative wife, Lulu. Eventually, as worlds collide, Rick is transported from his legal office to Clarence’s barn, while Emma ends up in a downtown office building with Clarence. As Rick and Emma’s transmogrification evolves, each takes on the emotional and intellectual, rather than physical characteristics of the other.
Lulu, longing for the days of romance and passion with Clarence, encounters Rick in the barn. She is, oddly, not so much disturbed at a stranger in her barn as grateful for someone to talk to. She pours out her frustrations to him as he listens, attentive and kind, and their relationship takes root. Their love blossoms, even though Rick is eventually able to utter (udder?) nothing more than a tuneful “moo.” At first irritated by this, Lulu soon recognizes the benefits of a handsome man who can listen with only the occasional monosyllabic interjection.
Emma and Clarence, Lulu and Rick find happiness. Meanwhile, Rock, the true cockroach of this story, finds himself in the middle of what to anyone else would have looked like a field of tall corn, but to him were the jungles of darkest Africa. With only his baseball bat as a machete, Rock strikes out in search of civilization – a dream he will never find.

Three Excerpts

Excerpt I: “I woke up this morning…” Rick, Lulu (introduction only)

Lulu, as she does innumerable times each day, calls Clarence out of the barn to a meal in the house.

In his world, Rick awakens after a night of strange dreams. The words, “She gave her milk so agreeably” stuck in his head, he muses about life as a cow, furiously scribbling everything on his legal pad – the only place where anything is real for this overworked lawyer.

Excerpt II: “I can’t kill, but I can give milk.” Rick, Emma (through Lulu’s voice)

Later that day, after a draining session with Rock, Rick prepares for bed. His legal pad is snuggled safely in it’s drawer, “To be or not to be…” leading the parade atop the latest page, “If not a murderer then perhaps a cow,” marching second down the page. As he drifts into sleep, Emma (using Lulu’s voice) calls to him, beckoning him toward a bovine happiness.

Excerpt III: “Lulu’s Aria” Lulu

Lulu, shucking corn with the hands of a master craftsman, tosses her life into a paper shopping bag along with the green leaves and brown hair she tears cleanly off the corn. She talks endlessly to no one about her life, her troubled marriage, and the kind man she met in her barn the night before (Rick).