This Forum is meant to immediately follow the play. It extends the life of the play and challenges the audience to further explore history and storytelling. The tone is lighthearted and fun.

Applause. Actors take their places on the stage. Thunder. House lights up. Spencer appears.

SPENCER

Thank you. Thank you, ladies and Gentlemen. I hope you enjoyed our entertainment. And now, I invite you to witness another wonder, never before seen on any stage. I present to you. The Benjamin Franklin Fact and Fiction Forum.

ACTORS

(To the audience.) Ooooo….

SPENCER

In the story you have just seen there are many documented facts about Franklin and his world, but there are also fictions, elements that are not true. Your task is to decide which is which. We will present to you a series of statements that are either fact or fiction. As you hear each statement, you will stand (Actors stand.) if you think the statement is true and stay seated (Actors sit.) if you think it is imagined. Do not be swayed by others, my friends, they may not know more that you do… and may very well know even less. Listen carefully, for we will try to trick you! Are you prepared?

ACTORS

YES!

SPENCER

Then we shall begin! May we have the first statement! Franklin?

SPENCER indicates FRANKLIN.

FRANKLIN

The steeple experiment was actually never performed because it was thought to be too dangerous. Fact or fiction?

SPENCER

Stand if you think that’s a fact. Stay seated if you think it’s fiction.

Audience stand or sits.

FRANKLIN

Fiction! I never performed the steeple experiment because I was waiting for Christ Church steeple to be finished. However, the experiment was performed in Russia and the man was killed!

SPENCER

Sally?

SALLY

I was as fascinated by science as my father and when he created the Academy of Philadelphia, that later became the University of Pennsylvania, he made a provision for girls to be educated alongside boys. Fact or fiction?

The Audience stands or sits.

SALLY

Fiction. In fact the Academy was for boys only. There was no school for girls at all. Girls were educated at home.

SPENCER

William?

WILLIAM

My father and I were at odds for most of our lives and later, after I became Governor of New Jersey, we did not speak to each other for many years. Fact or fiction?

Audience stands or sits.

WILLIAM

Fact. And, during the Revolutionary War, I was a loyalist, faithful to the King of England, and my father was a patriot who believed America should govern herself.

FRANKLIN

Indeed. I was one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence, but not the actual writer of it because others thought I was too opinionated. (To the audience.) I don’t think I’m too opinionated, do you? Do you?

DEBBIE

They know you too well.

SPENCER indicates FRANKLIN.

FRANKLIN

We shall see. I was the only founding father never to have owned slaves. Fact or Fiction?

Audience response.

FRANKLIN 

Fiction! Debbie and I owned two household slaves but later freed them. By the 1780’s, I was convinced that slavery was evil and must be stopped. Along with the Philadelphia Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, I helped to create a plan for the emancipation and education of slaves and their children.

SPENCER

John?

JOHN

Apprenticeships in the mid-1740’s usually began at age 18 and lasted for four years. Fact or fiction?

Audience response.

 JOHN

Fiction! Actually, apprenticeships often began as young as ten years old and lasted for at least seven years. Apprentices had to sign a contract in which they agreed not to play cards, get married, go to plays and, under all circumstances, obey their master.

FRANKLIN

My brother often beat me for being willful, which was true, but it served me well later in life that I followed my instincts.

SPENCER

Debbie?

DEBBIE

My husband built many useful inventions - lightning rods, the stove, bifocal glasses, and the first hospital in America. The money he made from these inventions allowed us to live comfortably all our lives. Fact or fiction?

Audience response.

DEBBIE

Fiction! We never made any money from Franklin’s inventions.

FRANKLIN

“The most acceptable service to God is doing good to man.”

DEBBIE

Yes, dear.

SPENCER

Reverend?

RICKERSLEY

During the 1740’s, of the people of Philadelphia believed that lightning was an expression of God’s anger and could only be prevented by ringing church bells. Fact or fiction?

Audience response.

RICKERSLEY

Fact! Even after Franklin was awarded the Royal Society’s prestigious Copley Medal for scientific discovery, many of us still considered his experiments dangerous to his soul and ridiculed him for his ideas about lightning rods.

FRANKLIN

Never mind that now. I convinced the good citizens of Philadelphia with determination and perseverance. I knew I was right. Eventually, even your church was safe from lightning, Reverend.

RICKERSLEY

God in his mercy has allowed it to remain standing, Franklin.

Thunder.

FRANKLIN

And all of us, as well.

SPENCER

And now I thank you one and all for taking part in our Benjamin Franklin Fact and Fiction Forum.

FRANKLIN

May I make a final comment, sir?

SPENCER

It is time to draw our event to its close, sir.

FRANKLIN

Surely you can spare a moment for a last thought?

SPENCER

A brief thought, sir.

FRANKLIN

Let us all explore and celebrate history, its facts and its imagined moments told from many points of view. Who owns history? We all do. Go now and tell your own stories. History is waiting to be created. See that you make the most of it.

Thunder. The actors step out of role and take their bows.

END FORUM