Act II players:

Olivia Galarza, Age 7: Narration (neice of Lou Rogai)
William Lemon III: vocals, horns, flute
Stephen Kurtz: drums,percussion
Jay Hudak: Bass Guitar
Lou Rogai: Piano,Keys
Stephonik Youth: vocals
Edward Klinger: steel drums, percussion

Act II: Hands Of A Man

"What am I doing? Am I just working here?"
The young soldier asks a timeless question of self-worth, relevant to our own individual struggles and applicable to our contemporary society. The answer lies somewhere between beast of burden and pawn of purpose.

Amongst the chaos of Act II we find our soldiers commanded by the Iron King to complete the destruction initiated in Act I and scour the city for his captive Queen. The message stated she was held in the tower, but before she is released these boys have the dirty task of dispensing with the surviving capteurs. The horn has been blown and walls have come down and the dust is blinding, but this does not stop the work of our boys. In our introduction we hear the calm and constant voice of the Iron King driving his young soldiers into madness:
"Dive into them deadly...my boys my fingers, my boys my fingers."

The highest power holds control over the boys, and from their innocence comes guiltless killing in the name of the Iron King. Initially naive and obedient, they believe that the place of their decision can be filled by the words of their king. An innate string of questions begins to surface: "You take that place in me, when I was a child was I not bright? When I was a babe was I not holy? Tell me the truth... whats the story?" After all when they were children, they were children of light. But soon, in the place of their natural light, the madness of the "dust" seeps into their every pore and eventually makes its way into their minds.

The city is under siege and the full punishment for the crime of keeping the Queen captive is not complete, as she was not yet located. Wandering through the dust and chaos that they have created, our soldiers play the pawn with the horrific task of finishing off the ones remaining.

Three distinct victims can also be heard in Act II, delirious and begging for help from these young strangers, unaware that they are reaching out to their killers:

A young woman struggles from under flaming debris:
"I'm pinned to the ground, and I cant feel my hands. I'm looking for help and Id move but I can't."

An old man exhales his final breath, a breath of dust:
"This was my home since I been a babe. Now it is crushed, my life is lost. Through this dust now I must wade, I will be dead before too long."

A mother pleads with the lurking figures, desperate for the ones she loves, cut down by a boy not unlike her own:
"Two sons, I have two sons, have you seen them in this rubble? Two sons... I must find them, for I have nothing, I have nothing."

And with this last arc of the blade the killing grows too much for the hearts of our boys. They have to bear the weight of this death and we hear them before they throw their minds into the swirling chaos of the horns in the finale' of Act II:
"I thought that these were the hands of a man, then I looked down-they were covered in blood. I am so sick from all this death, at the hands of a boy with no heart, a boy with no heart"