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Rory Tharpe
Blues-rock ex-Pentecostal, “recovering from religion” electric guitarist-composer-singer, late 50s/early 60s, death-obsessed survivor and blocked songwriter, fighting to hold it together for her band, finances, creative control and integrity, has struggled with alcohol addiction and sobriety, burns through relationships with many wistful backward glances.
Katy Duren
Organ player, businesswoman, crack the whip motivator and wraith. Mother of Rory T. Sharp-tongued, cantankerous, never fully got her due as a skilled, talented musician in her own right. Micromanages Rory’s career in death as well as life.
Divinity Mason Mulvaney
Sixty-something Pastor of Revivals, Inc. motivational church and call center, childhood nemesis of Rory’s. Ambitious and ruthless in her pursuit of development funds and recognition for her burgeoning church ministry and call center. A rising star in the televangelism industry, fashions herself as a champion of the common worker and bootstraps rugged individualist ethos.
Jude Justis
White woman, late 40s, shambolic global superstar singer-performer, foul-mouthed, swaggering, has built a career off of minstrelsy and stealing from Black women singers, constantly looking over her shoulder as her industry capital wanes.
Cardinal Jefferson
Iconoclast, ace session bassist and raconteur, fortysomething, dogged by career and personal demons, embittered by never having gotten his due with his old record company, the greatest independent Black-owned hitmaker in American history.
Yvette Patton
Right hand woman of Pastor Divinity, fiftysomething, manages Revivals, Inc’s call center and intermediary with women workers, shrewd and calculating with an eye on the bottom line.
Mick Kincade
White male, 50s, de facto road manager to Rory and dabbling bassist, recovering alcoholic, veers between cynicism and optimism, pragmatist, relishes his role as a gatekeeper and grizzled insider, considers himself to have a heart of gold.
Sid Hastings
Fourteen year old runaway, dreamer, cult survivor, music lover, and unofficial documentarian of Rory’s sound and conflicted relationship with her audience(s).
Cruz
Motel owner and businesswoman entrepreneur, 40s-50s, involved in Indigenous community ventures, Rory’s lover, defender and conscience.
