A One-Act Play & its One-Act Sequel
based on stories by R.D. Robbins MD.
Set in a Northern Field Hospital during the Civil War, then eight years later, somewhere in Nebraska Territory.

THE STORY:

PART 1: SCENES FROM AN AMPUTATION
Set in Virginia, 1862, this is the story of two wars, one less visible than the other: the obvious one, a war against slavery, and the more hidden, a war against spirochetes.
Although during the Civil War, on the North side, the USCT (U.S. Colored Troops), were permitted to fight for their freedom, only 3 men of color earned Medical Degrees, became commissioned officers, and were allowed to treat the wounded.
Any other medically motivated black men learned their medicine the old-fashioned way.... by apprenticeship under a willing white doctor.
"Scenes from an Amputation" tells the story of just such a black man, Jebidiah Wall, who, with the help of Dr. Cordell Cuttaridge, awakens to his potential as a man of medicine.
Jebidiah, a freeman of color, serves in a Field Hospital, rounding up the injured, bringing them in for triage and, hopefully, repair. He keeps his mouth shut and his eyes open. Dr. Cuttaridge sees he has an apt pupil & teaches. But not everyone in that Northern Field Hospital is happy about the arrangement.
To compound the problems, Jebidiah has just brought in a Rebel kid who needs an amputation.

* * * * * * *

PART 2: TESTAMENT OF DOC CUTTARIDGE
The scene shifts to Nebraska Territory, 1870, about eight years later.
Doctor Cordell Cuttaridge has put his surgical work in the North's Field Hospital behind him and heads out west for some peace and personal repair.
He settles in Black Gulch, a modest new town eager for his services which run the gambit from removing porcupine quills to patching up drunken cowboys.
He also meets the proprietor of The Black Powder Saloon, Cora Fideliter, and finds himself grateful for her intelligent and pleasant companionship, something he's not enjoyed before. And Miz Cora finds herself immensely entertained by the doctor's tales of his medical adventures back east.

When Miz Cora gains access to the good doctor's private letters, letters from various women, she finds herself jealous, as if the letters were scribed by the doctor's old lovers.

BUT A SURPRISE RUN-IN WITH AN OLD AMPUTEE-PATIENT FROM THE WAR, AND AN ALMOST BOTCHED BREECH-BIRTH DELIVERY RENDER DOC CUTTARIDGE DOWN-FOR-THE-COUNT AND ONCE AGAIN LEFT TO BATTLE HIS OLD WARTIME ENEMY�ĶTHE UNSEEN ENEMY HE STILL CANNOT DEFEAT, EVEN IN 1870. carrie robbins

DEVELOPMENT

SAWBONES received its First Reading at the private home of Julia Miles as part of the "Julia's Reading Room" series of the League of Professional Theatre Women, December 17, 2012.

Among the players, it featured:
·Stephen Hauck
·Tyler Jakes
·Erika Rolfsrud
·Scott Schafer
·Charles Turner
·Jenne Vath
With musical underscorings in Part 2.

STYLE

With a total cast of 7, SAWBONES can be played in any space with a wide-open 'sky' or a projection that suggests the broad uninterrupted sweep of land in both Virginia & Nebraska, pre-industrialization.