An intimate new one-man play takes audiences into the world of our nation’s first president as he struggles to hold a fragile army together while fighting to win independence for a nation yet to be born.
In the harsh winter of 1777, with his army starving and the American Revolution teetering on the edge of collapse, General George Washington knelt in prayer.
“A General’s Prayer” was written by Dean Batali, who is known for writing episodes of the television shows “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “That ’70s Show.”
The 70-minute play about the general who later became the nation’s first president comes as the nation’s celebrates its 250th anniversary.
The play is set at the Continental Army’s encampment at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 31, 1777, one of the lowest points during the Revolutionary War. A day’s march from there, the British occupied the then-American capital of Philadelphia.
The army took refuge at Valley Forge during a brutal winter as it dealt with a supply crisis while retraining and organizing a collection of undisciplined militias for planned counterattacks against the British.
More than 12,000 soldiers constructed what became the fourth-largest city in the American colonies at the time, building 1,500 log huts and two miles of fortifications. Although there was never a battle at Valley Forge, supply problems and harsh weather contributed to hunger and disease that killed nearly 2,000.
Facing desertions and criticism from the Continental Congress, Washington is shown at his most vulnerable as he wonders if there will even be a United States the next day.
He believes God’s guiding hand has delivered his army to this point but wonders what will happen next.
The play builds on the famous painting of Washington, “The Prayer at Valley Forge,” which Arnold Friberg created in time for the nation’s bicentennial celebrations in 1976. The work, which is one of the most recognizable paintings in American history, shows the general kneeling, bowed in prayer, on snow-covered ground in a forest beside his horse.
“The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army,” Washington says in the play while illuminated by a campfire.
Despite the serious circumstances, there are light-hearted moments injected into the formal 18th-century style dialogue.
Washington recounts carrying around a coin that has the face of King George III on it, adding that he always turns it in his pocket so that the king’s lips face his backside. “I can only hope that my face doesn’t appear on currency someday,” the general deadpans.
Washington also reflects on Alexander Hamilton, his military aide-de-camp and later Treasury Secretary in the Washington administration, who himself is the subject of a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical.
Washington speaks of Hamilton, who in life was known for his intellectual gifts, as verbose. The general says that if he asks Hamilton for the time, he expects to receive a five-page treatise in return.
Batali told The Epoch Times that he wanted to write a play about “what it took to get General Washington to his knees on that day in 1777.”
He said he tried to develop a show that challenges Americans “to live up to the Providence and blessings that we like to proclaim.”
“If George Washington saw what this country was today, what would he think? Would he be proud of the people that we are? Would he feel that the sacrifices that he and the others made were worth it?”
Batali said he enjoyed researching Washington’s letters, which were filled with run-on sentences in which the general didn’t always stay on point.
“We don’t use words these ways anymore, so I was able to put words in surprising places.”
“That’s actually a fun character to write and makes the play a little bit more interesting when you never know exactly what he’s going to say next,” he said.
Batali said James Denton was a natural choice to play Washington.
Denton is known for playing Mike Delfino in TV’s “Desperate Housewives” and Dr. Sam Radford on the Hallmark Channel’s “Good Witch.”
Denton is something of a “history geek” and collects presidential signatures, Batali said.
On the first day of rehearsal, the actor showed up with a document signed by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. He memorized the show in less than a month, “and he’s just loving it,” Batali said.
The play runs at the World Stage Theater of the Museum of the Bible in Washington through July 19. Tickets range from $35 to $49.
