Sixteen Bars
The play is meant to be part of an evening of one-acts. When I wrote it in 2003, I
was making a transition into retirement from my private consulting business. During
the previous twenty years or so, I had been a student of group dynamics. This play,
along with two others, are about groups in which the relationships are emotionally
quite interdependent, even though the group might be temporary. In Break, the
group is four women who have been taking work breaks together for thirty plus
years. In Welcome to Group, five men and their therapist form a therapy group. In
Sixteen Bars, the three men are all tenors singing with a band during the early
thirties. That a single band in this era would have three male singers is, of course,
dramatic license stretched beyond all credibility, but I wanted to have a little fun with
the Three Tenors thing while at the same time creating three distinct characters who
might have a somewhat tense, oddly affectionate relationship. I have long been a
fan of popular music of the twenties. If the play has weaknesses, they probably
stem from this genesis: it is probably more nostalgia and reminiscence than exciting
theatre. I happen to get excited by quieter things on stage, so there you have it.
To the play.