Four Score and Seven Years Ago By: Stella Age: 10

Hello! This is Stella! I'd like to tell you about a play that we went to at the Capital Center for the Arts. It was a very interesting play. We enjoyed it a lot. ;)

So-here is my entry about the play, "Four Score and Seven Years Ago".

As you might have guessed by the title, the play was about the Civil War. The cast of the characters was quite small but it was a wonderful play. The cast was as follows:

A Slave (Main Character)
A Confused Confederate Soldier
A Quaker Woman (Shop keeper)
Corrupt Union General who also played a Confederate General

That's EXACTLY what I might have thought too. Ok, four characters in the play. How on earth could this be fun? Well, the answer is, it was!!
I'll now describe the play and the characters...
Facts about the play:
This play placed emphasis on the question, "Should blacks fight in the Civil War?"
It showed the scene of the Battle of Gettysburg very effectively. It gave lots of information in that scene and in the play.
Some of the people in the play treated the blacks as if they were still slaves.
The play showed the struggles between the North and the South.
It was a musical.

Our Comments:
We studied and memorized the Gettysburg Address. It is a very interesting speech by Lincoln. It is not long. People were very surprised by how short it was. The cameraman back then couldn't even get his stuff set up in time to get a picture of Lincoln speaking!
We appreciated the play since we studied the Civil War last year.
In one hour they gave lots of information.
Characters:
Main Character- Black Man-Narrator of the play

He thought he was right.
He was saved by the Underground Railroad.
He wanted to fight.
He wanted rights. In one scene with the Quaker woman it showed how they both couldn't vote.
He was a clerk in the Quaker Woman's store.
He was for the Union.
He was treated as a slave.
He taught himself to read. He got an education.
He talked back to the generals and he was bold.

Confused Confederate Soldier
He thought he was right.
He liked the glory of the army until he got hurt at the battle of Gettysburg.
He was even more ignorant than the black man.
He couldn't read or right.
He was very confused.

Write up on both sides of the war:
In one song they showed both of the sides in what I thought was a very interesting way. They had the Confederate Soldier and the Black Man both next to each other. The song was, "How can you lose with God on your side?" It showed that both sides thought they we doing the right thing for God. It was a very effective way of depicting both points of view.


Quaker Woman-Owner of Store

She was against war and thought it was sinful. She was very brave though.
She was a widow of a Union soldier.
She couldn't vote like blacks.
She treated the blacks as equal.

Corrupt Union General
He didn't have polished manners.
He sold items for the black market.

Confederate General
He had polished manners.
He sold items for the black market.

We had a lot of fun at this play. Three cheers for the Capital Center for the Arts!

By: Stella
Age: 10
Grade: 5