The Village Singer (1979)

More important issues may have raged in a little New England town at the turn of the century than the standing of the church choir, but not to the members of the choir itself. The soloist CANDACE WHITCOMB, the village singer, is a lady of advancing years whose voice, though of undisputed quality, has been advancing with her-some have even heard it on better days. Her impecunious but solid, not-so-young nephew, WILSON FORD, has had an understanding with ALMA WAY, the not-so-young soloist from the choir in the next village, for nearly ten years, but he cannot ask her for marriage without funds, or at least the promise of Aunt Candace’s home when she is no longer with them.

The quality of the choir’s singing is also uppermost in the minds of WILLIAM EMMONS, store-keeper and Candace’s date of long standing, and, of course, of the REVEREND WILLIAM POLLARD. They do not doubt that changes must be made but the methods chosen are cruel rather than kind. Sharing their guilty consciences are Candace’s sister, NANCY FORD (Wilson’s mother) and the rest of the cross-section of this calm community who make up the choir: JENNY CARR, TODD WILKINS, MINNIE LANSING, and BRENT FREEMAN, all of whom find themselves pitched into troubled waters after the party they give to Candace on her birthday one summer’s evening.

Colin Graham