www.playwright.co.uk [H W Freedman]

CUSTER – Where He Stood

(A full-length play in Eleven Scenes)

by HW Freedman

Cheyenne Symbol of the Universe

SYNOPSIS

Denver Colorado, June 1891: ARMSTRONG, age 50, founder of the largest Custer fan club, has hired SARAH, age 22, to be a teacher for his wife’s young children. The play begins when Sarah arrives at Armstrong’s house after travelling all the way from NYC. We learn that Sarah was offered the position on the recommendation of Custer’s widow, LIBBIE Custer, for whom she worked as secretary answering correspondence from Custer admirers. We learn that Libbie and Armstrong have never met. And it quickly becomes apparent that Armstrong and Sarah hold diametrically opposing views of Custer and the fate of Native Americans. As the friction between them grows, Sarah slowly reveals who she is and the real reason she chose to take the position. When Sarah reveals her story, the conflict reaches explosive proportions. Throughout the play we see and hear Libbie’s lectures to the NYC chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution about her life with, and adoration of, Custer.

Time:	June, 1891
Settings:	The stage is bare, except for the minimum props and furniture required for each scene.
Cast Breakdown:	ARMSTRONG, age 50 SARAH, age 22 LIBBIE (Elizabeth Bacon Custer), age 47
Costumes:	ARMSTRONG wears an army (huzza) jacket with the insignia of a Major-General in the U.S. Seventh Cavalry. He is dressed in fringed buckskin breeches, troopers boots that reach his knees, his dark navy shirt with a broad collar is tied with a red neckerchief with long ends that float over his shoulders, on his head a broad felt hat, like a sombrero. His sabre and pistol are strapped to his side. Beneath his sombrero we see his blond ringlets that fall to his shoulders. He wears a handle-bar moustache and goatee.

Excerpt from a professional reader’s report:

CUSTER – Where He Stood “resonates with contemporary world events. Vivid and emotive verbal Imagery…creates a physically and morally gruesome setting for the play. The subject matter is an inspired choice both in the retelling of a story that needs to be heard in its own right, and for its thematic resonance - issues of the legitimacy of war and the methods of war, imperialism, nation-building, human rights, personal versus state responsibility and the subjectivity of written and verbal history.”