The Breaking of Bread

Our first production for the Fall 1972 was the one-act play "The Breaking of Bread". It took place in the Civil War and was about two soldiers coming together on the battlefield, one from the South and one from the North. I was cast as the Southerner, but the guy I was acting with had parents who objected to their son playing a Union soldier, so we switched roles. Dennis Sartain was the other actor. Dennis and I complemented each other very well. We worked very hard to get the play as real as possible. We got two period-looking rifles as props. We also had a very realistic fight scene over one of the guns. We had spread leaves over the stage and had a tree stump in the middle. Our fight scene was choreographed. We performed the play twice at school, and another three times in area churches. Every time we did it, something went wrong. I couldn't wear glasses and am pretty blind without them. At one point during the fight, we lost the rifle under the leaves. We were throwing each other across the stage, and each time we would land and try to feel around for the rifle. The play couldn't go on until we found it. After what seemed like hours, I stood up and found myself standing on it. We carried on from there. During the fight, Dennis accidently hit me in the nose, as I couldn't see to block the punch. My nose started bleeding. Folks in the audience thought I had put ketchup up my nose. It was pretty realistic. During another performance, Dennis flipped me over during the fight, and I landed wrong. I hurt my back, but we had to keep going. There is also a duel of rifles at the end. We had placed caps in the rifles to make the shot sound. My cap didn't go off, and I had to ad lib about the shoddy rifle. During our final performance at a church, Dennis broke his wrist during the fight. No one knew until after the play. I later directed that play during my senior year at PC. It was still jinxed, as one of my actors quit, and I had to recast a week before the show. It is a powerful play. But, the moral to the story is--the audience never knew the problems.