CASTS: [SCENE 1] @Hospital

[SCENE 1] Introduction: (In a makeshift hospital in the middle of the Crimean War at night, a lady with a low – lit lamp walks across a hall
FN full of wounded soldiers)
Soldiers *** FLASH TITLE***
[SCENE 2] @Pictures of Nightingale
FN: (against a black background and soft – tone instrumental music) I’m going to tell you something about my life, my name is
[SCENE 2] Florence Nightingale and I was born in the year 1820 in Italy and was named after a great city there. But I grew up in England in
Litte FN a large country house. The story I will tell you starts when I was still a girl, no louder than a mouse. When I imagined the kind of
Old FN life that I would lead and how I would tell my story, And when I got hold of the idea that I might do something with my life, had no
worries---- I wouldn’t let it go…
<*MUSIC: History Has Its Eyes on You (Instrumental) – Hamilton (Medyo slow and mellow)>

[SCENE 3] @Study Room

[SCENE 3] (Little girl FN with her sister in a study room with their father teaching them)
Little FN FN: I grew up with my sister Parthenope, named after another town. We were a wealthy family and father taught us on his own.
Sister From a young age I loved to read and I wanted to learn. I liked everything in order I was neat, and orderly.
parthenope (PN getting FN’s pencil on the study table and FN getting irritated. *murmurs)
Father My sister, on the other hand, just wants to play around. During lessons, she did her best to distract me.
(FN got the pencil back and place it in a line but PN destroys the arrangement. *murmurs)
Father: Girls! Could you please focus on the subject at hand!
FN: But I would not be distracted. I had this idea that I would do something with my life and I wouldn’t let it go.

[SCENE 4] @House: Backyard

[SCENE 4]
(Nightingale sisters in the backyard of their large estate – FN holding a book but her sister keeps on distracting her)
Little FN
FN: Wherever I was, I was only happy with a book in my hand, much to my sister’s frustration. I couldn’t keep stopping myself, I
Sister
only had my imagination.

<MUSIC: Foot Loose>

[SCENE 5]
(At the nightingale estate gathering, after her parents introduced her and her sister to the guest’s she immediately goes to a corner
[SCENE 5] to read.)
Male guest One male guest with his wife: You have a rather odd child there.
Wife The guest’s wife: Yes, a strange little girl who is unlike any other.
Father Father (with Mother looking at FN): Well she’s just interested in some other things.
Mother FN: They said I was a bookworm. But I knew I was more than that. I knew even then that I didn’t want to be like other girls.
Little FN (Sister in background playing toys)
Sister
[SCENE 6]@House: Living Room
(FN constantly reading one book at a time. [One scene] Little FN covers her face with a book reading then when she finishes she’s
older and in their study room.)
FN: I grew up with my head in books and over time I formed a very clear idea of what I wanted to do. What I wanted to do was
[SCENE 6] work. And the work that I wanted to do was Nursing.
Little FN
Old FN <MUSIC: Love is an open door!>
[SCENE 7] @House: Living Room
(Family of FN in the living room mad over her for her decision of becoming a nurse.)
Father: I forbid it!
[SCENE 7] Mother: What would the other families think? Knowing that a lady from the Nightingale estate is just a NURSE!
Old FN Sister: What made you even think of being a nurse? They work with sick people and the place where they are working are always
Father filthy and full of flies!
Mother Mother: This is not the kind of life we wanted for you!
Old Sister Father: Why wouldn’t you want to find one fine charming young fellow and settle down?! It’s just simple! Nurse?! Pffft!
FN: My family didn’t approve of what they expected of me. All they thought of to aim for with my life was to find a respectable man
to marry me. I knew that becoming a wife and mother would never be enough. I had this idea that I would do something with my
life and I wouldn’t let it go.

<MUSIC: Bohemian Rhapsody>

[SCENE 8]
[SCENE 8]@House: Study Room
Old FN
(In the study room constantly reading books.)
Father
FN: I stuck to my books and refused to give in. I would not change my course. At that time nurses got no training at all, but I had
other ideas. So long as my father refuse to let me work, I stuck to my books (Scene pleading to father but father refuses so punta
na lang ulit sa room to read) . Refining my ideas on how I would teach nurses to help the sick. Eventually I got the chance that all
these years I’d been waiting for.

[SCENE 9] <MUSIC: Let it go>

Old FN [SCENE 9]@Room na pweding magturo si nightingale. Kahit sa canteen?
Nurses (Line-up of nurses with wet towels on one hand and clean white sheets on the other.)
Soldiers FN: Okay ladies let’s see what you’ve learned.
I was tasked to train a team of nurses to work at the Crimea. A place far away where there is chaos. There was a hospital there
near a battlefield where injured soldiers were brought but they never got better, what a waste, they only fought. I train my nurses
in fundamental principles of cleanliness and hygiene. I wanted them neat and orderly and clean.

<MUSIC: Alexander Hamilton (rap)>

[SCENE 10]
Nurses [SCENE 10]
Old FN (FN and other nurses packing their stuff and travelling to Crimea.)
FN: Soon we were packed and ready to leave for a war that’s happening so far away. In a country most of my girls have never
even heard of. Even I had a little apprehension not so much on what we might find but because this was my chance to prove my
worth as a nurse.
 <MUSIC: Defying Gravity>

[SCENE 11]
[SCENE 11] (FN and nurses arrived at the hospital through a boat).
FN: The journey to Turkey took several weeks. We arrived and it was hot and it reeked. (Walking towards the hospital.) The hospital
itself was in a shell of an old army fort close to the battle field. As we walked towards it, I didn’t quite know what we would find.
Old FN
Whatever we had imagined, this couldn’t have happened.
Soldiers
(FN and other nurses surprised to see wounded, filthy and smelly soldiers howling for pain.)
<MUSIC:>

[SCENE 12]
[SCENE 12] FN: The first thing to hit me was the smell. (The other nurses were feeling like vomiting but FN placed a stern look to them.) The
Old FN stench of sickness and filth. Soldiers lay on the floor in pools of blood. Undressed wounds were covered in flies. (Soldiers were
Nurses being put in one by one and placed on the floor). Sheets such as their wear were covered in lice and maggots. It was a hell on
Soldiers earth!

<MUSIC: Still hurting – The Last Five Years>

[SCENE 13]
I knew in an instant what needed to be done. (FN sees the doctor.) First, I had to persuade the doctor to let us get to work. I knew
what I wanted to do and I wouldn’t let it go. (FN approaches the doctor.)
[SCENE 13] He resisted, (Doctor argues with FN.) but in the end, he said that things were getting so bad that he was willing to let me try. (With
Doctor a clap of a hand, FN instructs the nurses to work.) Here was my chance to prove what I believe were the first principles of good
Old FN nursing – cleanliness and hygiene. I set my nurses to cleaning every inch, every corner of the place.

[SCENE 14]
[SCENE 14] (Nurses walking in with brooms and buckets.)
Nurses First, we swept. I believe that when the wounded came to us they should expect not dirt and disease but good food, clean sheets,
Old FN fresh air and a chance for nature to heal their wounds.
Then, we scrub. That way we would be in charge. Order will prevail and health will be restored. I wouldn’t let my nurses rest until
the place was spotless. I was strict with them and I suspect that they found me rather stern.
Finally, we brought in fresh sheets. And once clean, the hospital will and should stay clean.
(Walking through a clean hospital hallway.)

<MUSIC: For the first time in forever>

[SCENE 15] [SCENE 15]
Old FN FN: This was how I imagined it. Clean and hygienic and everything in its place. Now we could concentrate on tending to the
Soldiers soldier’s wounds and nursing them back to health.
Nurses (Every nurse attending to each soldier in the wards.)

<MUSIC: How Far I’ll go>

[SCENE 16] [SCENE 16] @Hospital: Ward
Soldiers FN: The change in the hospital was immediate. (Soldiers were slowly rising up from their beds. Some can walk and eat.)
Old FN (At night, walking through the wards with a lamp.)
FN: I may have been stern with the nurses but at night I walked among the soldiers at the wards.

[SCENE 17] [SCENE 17] @Ward/ Room with beds

Old FN (cont’n) I would sit with them if they wanted or read to them or take their hand if they called out. After all, it was for them that we
were there at all. And I so wanted each of them to get better.
[SCENE 18]
Old FN [SCENE 18] @Hallway
(cont’n) And because of my lantern and my nightly rounds, they started to call me “THE LADY WITH THE LAMP”.
[SCENE 19]
Soldiers <MUSIC: That’s why the lady is a tramp(???)>
Old FN [SCENE 19]
Doctor (Soldiers walking out of the hospital. The doctor congratulating FN.)
FN: Soon we were rewarded for all our efforts. Soldiers that would have died before were getting better. And some were able to
[SCENE 20] leave their beds. It gave me such satisfaction to watch them leave. I’d never felt more complete.
Soldier
Old FN <MUSIC:>
Casualties [SCENE 20]
(FN talking with a black background)
FN: After the war ended, I stayed until every last soldier were well enough to leave. When I got back to England, I was astonished
to find that I was famous.
[SCENE 21]
Sister [SCENE 21]@ dining table, cheers with wine thingy
Old FN (Back to England, were her family welcomes her and becomes introducing her to guests in gathering all for her honor.)
Father
Mother [SCENE 22]
Guests FN: Not only were people talking about my work, but there was a trust fund that has been set – up in my honor. It was a good deal
of money and I used it to start up the first ever Nurse’s Training School in London. What I did changed nursing for good it became
a real profession with strict principles and standards with all the better for the entire nation. As a girl, I had decided that I would do
[SCENE 22] something with my life. I’m glad that I took hold of that idea and that I never let it go.
Old FN <MUSIC:Who lives who dies who tells your story – Song and rap>
Casualties
***END***