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1776: It is done.
By Jeffrey SmithJuly 1, 20166 min read
Rutledge waits for his cue.
That last night I wandered backstage and took candid photos of my fellow castmates. I wanted to capture little moments: Abigail Adams waiting for her cue; Dr. Hall from Georgia sitting next to Jodi, one of the stage managers; Rutledge watching the on-stage action through a narrow slit in the curtain; George Read lip-syncing to Adams's final song; the Adamses and the Jeffersons waiting for the end of act one like they were in box seats at an 18th century opera. Those were pieces I wanted to remember, the moments behind the scenes, when like a family we let down our facade and acted no more. The lines I memorized will eventually fade away. But those flickering images will live on in my imagination and in my heart.
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It came too fast, the final scene of the final performance. Hancock sent McNair to ring the bell, and the musical director at her piano in the pit made it ring. I wasn't on a stage at that moment, though. I was in Philadelphia in 1776 watching history get made. And for that moment I felt the same sense of release my character, Col. McKean, must have felt. That we had finally done it. That our long journey, this long journey, to bring this play to life, was finally done.About Jeffrey Smith
Jeffrey Smith started writing at fourteen on a Smith-Corona electric typewriter he borrowed from his father. His most recent book, Mesabi Pioneers, tells the story of the immigrants who turned a remote area of northern Minnesota into America's greatest source of iron ore. Jeffrey lives in Berlin with his wife, daughter, and three cats. He can often be seen running along the streets, boardwalks, and trails of the Lower Eastern Shore. That's probably him there, in the orange.
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