Remember the Ladies: Wives of the Presidents - Steve Anderson, Playwright (SGAcreative.com)

Excerpt from

Remember the Ladies: Wives of the Presidents
by Steve Anderson
(www.Writer.SGAcreative.com)

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: The following excerpt is (c) 2004, 2005, Steven G. Anderson. Reproduction, reposting, performance, or transmission of this piece, in whole or in part, is strictly forbidden unless you get my permission first. Contact me at SGAcreative.com.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In order to touch on the lives of dozens of first ladies with a cast of only four, this play must, by necessity, involve massive multi-casting, each actress playing many, many roles. When an actress is in character as a First Lady, I refer to her by name (Martha, Jackie, Lady Bird, etc.); the rest of the time, I refer to the actresses generically as Narrator 1, Narrator 2, etc.

NARRATOR 4. When the second American president, John Adams, took office, he and his wife Abigail knew that George and Martha Washington would be a hard act to follow. What they didn’t know was that the brand-new presidential mansion, the White House, wouldn’t be ready for them.

Narrator 1 enters as Abigail Adams. She crosses to center, takes a big breath, ready to get started, and then stops, staring aghast at the unfinished mansion. Hunting around, she finds a chair and perhaps a small desk, and positions them just left of center.

NARRATOR 3. Architects and engineers had been hard at work for ten years, building the house and laying out Washington, DC, around it, but shortly after moving in, Abigail wrote to her daughter in one of her famous letters:

Abigail sits down, quill and paper in hand, and writes.

ABIGAIL. "Woods are all you see, from Baltimore until you reach ‘the city,’ which is only so in name.... The house is made habitable, but there is not a single apartment finished.... We have not the least fence, yard, or other convenience.... The principal stairs are not up, and will not be this winter."

NARRATOR 4. No fence, no yard, no well for water; even the plaster on the walls was still wet. And as for lighting fires in the fireplaces....

ABIGAIL. (still writing) "Surrounded with forests, can you believe that [fire]wood is not to be had, because people cannot be found to cut and cart it!"

NARRATOR 3. Abigail complained repeatedly to John Hoban, the architect, but he would only say—(She leaves the podium and crosses to "Abigail" to reassure her, speaking in an Irish dialect) "Just a wee bit longer, lass. ‘Twill be worth the waitin’ for."

Abigail sighs, shaking her head, dissatisfied by that answer, then shrugs and turns back to her letter while Narrator 3 continues offstage. Abigail freezes, pen on paper.

NARRATOR 4. One hundred and seventy years later, in 1945, Harry Truman took office and his wife Bess was just as horrified by what she saw.

Narrator 2 returns as Bess Truman and takes up a position at center, first proud and regal, then becoming increasingly alarmed during the next narration.

NARRATOR 4. The walls of the White House creaked and groaned. Chandeliers in the downstairs rooms swayed to and fro on their own. And when they put a piano in their daughter’s room, its leg broke through the floor and almost brought down the ceiling in the room below.

Bess has reacted visibly to the creaks and groans off stage left and right, the chandelier above the audience, and the piano leg punching through directly over her head.

NARRATOR 4. Experts investigated and found that 175 years of wear and tear, the stress of several major additions and remodelings, and the sheer weight of the new third floor the Coolidges had added was just too much for the antique wooden frame of the White House. The entire building, they said, might collapse at any time.

Bess starts moving away from center, carefully, as if the stage floor might collapse under her at any moment. She takes only a few steps, and freezes.

Narrator 3 enters as Jackie Kennedy. She’s smiling at first, but her smiles crumbles as she takes a good look around.

NARRATOR 4. And when Jackie Kennedy arrived in Washington in 1961 and got her first good look at the inside of the White House, she was appalled, as well.

Jackie steps past Abigail and Bess, down to the edge of the stage, and takes a good look out at the auditorium, disappointed by what she sees.

JACKIE. (half to herself) "It’s the worst place in the world.... It looks like it’s been furnished by discount stores."

While the narration continues, Jackie moves away from the apron, exploring the bedraggled White House, pausing to take a good look at Abigail’s desk, and ends up just upstage of it.

NARRATOR 4. The White House was and is a grand, magnificent building, but it had been home to thirty-four First Families with thirty-four different senses of style, and not one of them had ever had the time to decorate it in a grand, magnificent style. The result was a crazy mix of fancy and plain, old and new. Jackie knew she had a mission.

Jackie turns out to the audience, about to share a brilliant idea, but pauses, troubled.

NARRATOR 4. But making the White House look as grand and impressive on the inside as it did on the outside would be expensive, and Congress would never pay that much just to make the White House "pretty."

Jackie sighs, shaking her head, and freezes. Ideally, all three ladies have placed themselves so that they become one tableau.

NARRATOR 4. So what did they do? What did they all do? They made the best of it. No well for water? John and Abigail Adams walked five blocks to an open spring. No firewood? They found some at last, and burned it in every fireplace in the house to help dry that wet plaster. No front stairs? They walked up and down a rickety, makeshift flight to get in and out of the building. And the East Room, which was supposed to be a glorious ballroom, but was nothing but bare, unfinished wood? Well, that was a perfect place to hang up the laundry to dry so the president’s clothes wouldn’t have to be hung up out in the yard.

ABIGAIL. (writing) "[But] you must keep all this to yourself, and, when asked how I like it, say that I write you the situation is beautiful, which is true.... It is a beautiful spot, capable of every improvement, and, the more I view it, the more I am delighted with it."

NARRATOR 4. Despite the wet plaster, unfinished walls, and temporary staircases, that "beautiful spot" drew guests from everywhere. Congressmen, senators, governors, even diplomats from Europe came to call—everyone wanted to come to the White House. And Abigail greeted every one of them.

Having finished her letter, Abigail rises and greets a group of imaginary visitors, leading them offstage.

NARRATOR 4. Harry and Bess Truman called in professional engineers, who bulldozed the inside of the White House, replaced the worn-out wooden frame with steel and concrete, added basements and air conditioning, and fireproofed the house. Nothing but the outside walls remained untouched. The work took three long years, and for those three years, the Trumans lived and worked at Blair House, a nearby hotel. Just as they had come to the unfinished White House, guests descended upon Blair House—and just as Abigail Adams had done, Bess Truman greeted every one of them.

Bess waves to some imaginary guests, beckons to them, and leads the way offstage.

NARRATOR 4. And what of Jackie Kennedy, who dreamed of making the White House as beautiful inside as out, but knew that Congress would never pay to make it "pretty?" She found a solution, too.

Jackie brightens, straightens, and addresses the audience.

JACKIE. "It would be a sacrilege merely to ‘redecorate’ it—a word I hate." (Beat. Perhaps a hint of a grin.) "It must be ‘restored’—and that has nothing to do with decoration. That is a question of scholarship."

Narrator 1 enters and steps to one of the podiums; as she speaks, Narrator 4 exits.

NARRATOR 1. Scholarship. History. American heritage. Congress loved it. The American people loved it. Jackie called in experts from throughout the United States and Europe to guide the restoration.

Jackie beckons to imaginary experts, then points out problems and possible solutions while the narration continues.

NARRATOR 1. She formed the Fine Arts Committee For the White House to search for furniture, paintings, and artifacts that would fit the era and style of the building, and she personally combed through an entire warehouse of furniture and decorations that had once been used in the White House, picking out pieces to use again.

Jackie has been opening an imaginary crate, and now pulls out a painting, admires it, and hangs it in the trouble-spot she identified earlier, then steps back to admire it.

NARRATOR 1. She wrote letters and made telephone calls, pleading with the owners of fine antiques to donate their family heirlooms to the cause of restoring the White House.

Narrator 2 enters, taking the other podium.

NARRATOR 2. When Congress again complained about the price tag, she formed the White House Historical Association to raise funds. The association still offers tours and educational programs today.

Jackie begins taking a series of snapshots of the painting.

NARRATOR 1. She also had a book assembled—in full color, no less—showing off all of the changes she had made in the White House, and she had the Association sell the book to tourists for $1 each. That may not sound like much, but more than eight million copies were sold, making the book an extremely successful fund-raiser.

NARRATOR 2. And when the work was done, Jackie capped it all off by leading a televised tour of the restored White House on Valentine’s Day, 1962. Forty-eight million people tuned in to see a White House which was finally as glorious inside as out.

Beckoning out to the audience, Jackie waves for us to join her on a walking tour, leading the way offstage.

NARRATOR 1. Today, thanks in part to Abigail, Bess, Jackie, and all of the First Ladies, the completed, rebuilt, restored White House remains one of the most popular tourist attractions in all of Washington—a remarkable feat for a building which is, after all, one-half office building, one-half family home.

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