Tonight was the reading of x restrung cortex, the 5-minute Ron Allen play, at Theatre of NOTE. The actors – Jemal, Jo.D., Wendi, and Michelle H – performed the play three times, interspersed with jazz and poetic songs from Ron’s band, Code Zero. Each time they performed it, new meanings and new interpretations came to the action on stage.

The audience was a full house.

The play was a royal flush.

By the third repetition, Jo.D. had the audience calling the second halves of his lines back to him, call-and-response style, and screaming with laughter.

Jo.D.: The actors are…
Audience: NUDE!

Jo.D.: The narrator wears a…
Audience: TUXEDO!

Jo.D.: The following exchange represents…
Audience: SUBMISSION!

Some variation on this technique is definitely going in the next draft of 13 WAYS. The word “chorus” can also include repetition in the sense of alternating with verses. We’re going to take a chorus (or a scene-as-chorus) and do it with unchanged text, but changed intentions and action, 3 times over.