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Royal Flush is a one-act, opera designed for collegiate, semi-pro, and professional companies with many talented female singers, and not enough roles for them all. It's a comic piece interspersed with touching and vulnerable moments for all five singers. Four sisters (either by blood or common experience) size each other up over one hand of Poker. The fifth - their "Mother" - manages the proceedings, calls the game, and calmly deals.
With each card, one of the four sisters reflects on the hand they are dealt - both in the game, and in their lives - and in the process, reveals their "tell." The stubbornness and competitiveness of the four sisters push them all to advance terrible hands, while the dealer quietly assembles a Royal Flush. At the showdown, the Mother/dealer calls them all out, identifying their tells (which they didn't know they were showing) and advising them to "be kind to each other, because you're never alone."
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