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Reader's Theater Scripts(Biographies in Ancient History):

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The official U.S. time - snapshot

To Tell the Truth

with

Martha Washington

by

Gail Skroback Hennessey

http://www.gailhennessey.com

To Tell the Truth Plays are based on the Game Show created by

Mark Goodson Productions

Host: Today's guest is Martha Washington.  Only one of the three on the panel is the real Martha Washington.  The other two on the panel are impostors.  Your job is to listen carefully to the information presented and decide which of the three guests is the REAL Martha Washington.  Let's begin by meeting our guests.

Martha Washington 1: Good Day to all you young people.  My name is Martha Washington.

Martha Washington 2: What a pleasure to be visiting with you today.  My name is Martha Washington.

Martha Washington 3: First Lady of the USA...that's me.  Hello, my name is Martha Washington.

Host: Let me read this brief summary on Martha Washington.

"I, Martha Washington, was born at Chestnut Grove Plantation where my  dad was a tobacco grower. My family nickname was "Patsy" and as a  young girl  once asked my father about how life might be like hundreds of years into the future.  I wondered to my father if people would ever have heard of  me. I told my father, "I'm not the first of anything.  I'm just me." Little did I know  I would grow up to become the First Lady of a new nation, the United States of America. Although some called me "Lady Washington", I was sometimes mistaken for the family maid due to my simple way of dressing!  I died in 1802 and was buried at Mount Vernon next to my husband, George."

Signed,

Martha Washington

Host: Let's begin the questioning with Panelist 1.

Panelist 1: You loved horses and once as a girl sat outside making a wish upon a bright star that you hoped the next ship from England would bring you  a pony.  When a spinet(type of piano) was delivered  to "Martha", you were disappointed until you realized it was for your aunt who had the same name.  A pony did arrive for you making you very happy. Tell us about another childhood memory, Martha.


Martha Washington 1:  A bear cub was found that soon became my pet.  I named him Blackie. He followed me everywhere. He eventually got too big and got into trouble. I yelled at him and he walked into the woods and never returned.

Martha Washington 2: I remember all the times that my mom and I used to pluck chicken feathers. It was the custom for a girl to collect bags of feathers for when she married. The feathers were used to make fluffy bedding.  Remember Blackie...one day, he pawed at the bags hanging outside to make the feathers dry nice and fluffy. That's when the feathers flew all over the place like snow and I yelled at Blackie and he left us.

Martha Washington 3: I loved making things grow and spent lots of time with my plants.

Panelist 2: What was it like for a girl growing up when you were young? Did you go to school?

Martha Washington 1:  My parents were strict.  There was no humming or skipping on the stairs. At the dinner table, children were only allowed to speak if spoken to by an adult. As a girl, I was told to act like a "lady".

Martha Washington 2: I didn't go to school.  My family taught me the manners of a lady and the important things needed to run a house when I got married.  When I was 11 years old, I received an important gift, it was called a  "housewife" . A leather carrying case, it contained buttons, ribbons, tape measure, scissors, needles and lots of thread.

Martha Washington 3: I was tutored at home in reading, penmanship, spelling and numbers.  I had lots of difficulty with my spelling especially with words that sounded one way and were spelled another!

Panelist 3: Martha, did you ever get into trouble as a girl?

Martha Washington 1: Of, course, not. I was to grow up to be the wife of the first  president of the United States.  I had to act proper at all times.

Martha Washington 2: Yes, don't all children get into some mischief as they are growing up? As you already know I loved horse back riding. One day, I was visiting a relative's house and went riding and jumped a hedge.  It was so exciting.  Everyone looked in amazement at my accomplishment...except my mother.  She didn't say anything until we got home.  I was punished for being "unladylike" and had to write an apology letter.  And, because of my  spelling difficulties, had to rewrite the letter more than once!


Martha Washington 3: Sadly, as a girl, I once chopped down a cherry tree in my family's backyard.I had received a shiny ax for my birthday and went about cutting things down. When I realized I had cut down my father's favorite tree, I  was afraid that my father would be very angry with me. When my father asked what had happened to his cherry tree, I said that "I cannot tell a lie, Pa".  This action and what I said  became pretty famous in history.

Panelist 4: You eventually got married to a man named  Daniel Parke  Custis. His family didn't think highly of the marriage because your family, although wealthy, wasn't as wealthy as them.  Interestingly, your home was called the White House! You had four children of which two died at an early

age. When your husband died, leaving you alone at the age of 26, you met and married George Washington, leader of the continental army in the Revolutionary War, in 1759. You moved to Mount Vernon on the Potomac in Virginia. Tell us about your life with George Washington.

Martha Washington 1: I had a wonderful home.  I enjoyed going to lots of parties.  Unfortunately, George was out fighting the Revolutionary War against the French and  Germans, so I often  had to attend the parties alone.

Martha Washington 2: When George had to leave for the battlegrounds of the Revolutionary War, fighting the British,  I followed him.  I helped comfort the sick, knitted socks, patched uniforms. I tried to remain cheerful and happy despite the situation of my life at that time.  I learned from experience  "that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances."

Martha Washington 3:  I followed George into the battlegrounds and brought my new digital camera along so I could take photograph and eventually sold them to newspapers making a career for myself as a photographer. In fact, I was one of the first female photographers in the history of the United States.

Panelist 5: After the war, you had hoped that you and George could live a quiet life at Mount Vernon.  This was not to happen since your husband was asked to be the first president of a new country, the United States of America. You moved to NYC which was the first capital of the United States into a much smaller place than Mount Vernon.  Later, you moved again to Philadelphia, which became the second capital of the United States while a new capital named for your husband was being built.  Tell us a memory as the first lady of the United States.

Martha Washington 1: When the war of 1812 with the British was going on, I remember running back into the White House which the British had set on fire, to save the beautiful portrait of my husband, George.

Martha Washington 2: I never really liked being the first lady. I  once wrote  that  I would "much rather be at home" and even wrote to my niece that I  "was more like a state prisoner than anything else".  After George died, I burned all his letters to me because I didn't want others reading them.  I forgot two that I'd left in my desk so they are the only two that have survived to this day.

Martha Washington 3:  As First Lady, I organized the first Easter Egg Roll. Today, done on the White House lawn, it originally was done on the grounds of the Capitol. Children were invited with their parent to search for eggs and candy hidden on the grounds and the eggs were then rolled down a hill. It was lots of fun and a  new invention called the radio helped the public hear about my wonderful idea for children.

Host: Panelists and members of the audience, it is now time to decide who you think is the REAL Martha Washington.  Is it number 1`? Is it number 2?   Is it number 3?  The votes have been cast.  Will the REAL Martha Washington, please stand up?

Answer: 2

Notes: All the responses to Panelists 1 and 2 are correct.

**** The Egg Roll was really started by Dolly Madison  during her husband's presidency(1809-1814).

*** Using the script, find four characteristics of Martha Washington and support your answer with evidence from the play.

Sources:

Martha Washington , Girl of Old Virginia by Jean Brown Wagoner

Martha Washington, Daughter of Virginia by Marguerite Vance

Martha Washington by Joan Marsh

World Book Encyclopedia

http://www.mountvernon.org/learn/collections/index.cfm/pid/351

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/mw1.html