Bravo!
by Jeff Siamon

This is a drama with comic scenes. It’s set in Prussia during the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars. It’s the story of the King’s Players, a travelling troop of actors caught up in the middle of this war. Their leader/director is the Maestro who once was the English King’s court musician. But court intrigue forced him to leave England.
​xxxThe Players have been ordered by Major Otto von Schliessen, brother to the Grand Duke, to leave their encampment because they are on the Grand Dukes lands. However, the Maestro convinces him that if he should let them stay, the major could join their company and be an inspiration to his men going to the front. However, the major hates actors. It takes some comic business by the Maestro to convince the major otherwise.
​xxxNiki is the company’s (aging) leading man but because he is vain and not subtle, his advances towards Noelle are always rebuffed. She teases him by saying that if he were to become a real Count, she would take him to her bed. The Drudge, on the other hand, is in love with Noelle but she doesn’t take him seriously. He is just the backstage worker. Yet, he’s the one who paints all the scenery and writes all the plays. No one but Gwen, the Maestro’s younger mistress, considers him anything but a drudge, thus his name. She knows his true worth.
​xxxThe company might have continued in this vein, with Niki pursuing and being rebuffed by Noelle, the Maestro complaining of his once glory days as a famous conductor, and the Drudge being everybody’s dog’s body, but for the arrival of Hans, who has deserted his battalion in the midst of battle. While the Maestro accepts him into the company and agrees to hide him, Niki becomes jealous. His jealousy eventually gives way to violence and betrayal.