To our friends, family, Pitt Med community, and donors:

THANK YOU! With 50 donations, we were able to raise over $7400 for this year’s landmark virtual production of Scope and Scalpel.

Thank you to everyone who shared our page and/or donated! The funds are being used for make-up, costumes, green screen equipment, video and audio production, and the software we need to put together the final product. We hope you’ll join us on our premiere date - May 17, 2020 at 7pm - from the comfiest chair in your home! “Be prepared” by visiting www.lymeking.com on the day of the show for the premiere link, and follow along with show updates on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

Below are some of our amazing cast member Hyenas posing in the Elephant Graveyard! Join us May 17th to see more of the fabulous scenery of “The Lyme King!”

Hello Scope and Scalpel fans,

Thank you to all our donors and supporters! Thanks to your generous contributions, this weekend wrapped up an all-hands-on-deck filming marathon! Our main cast sang and danced their way through all of the show scenes with at-home green screen set-ups, and this week we’re focusing on extras choregraphy and music. Shout out to our orchestra director Leon Mirson for putting together a full score using our musicians’ personal recordings of the show’s music! Keep checking our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages as well as our website www.LymeKing.com for more behind-the-scenes footage and photos. We’ll also be posting details on how to access our show premiere online!

Date/time: May 17th at 7pm

Location: the comfiest spot at your home!

With gratitude,

Scope and Scalpel Coordinators, Cast, and Crew

P.S. This week we’re featuring the fabulous video production team leaders, Will and Jake!

Will Strober (1st photo below)

Video Producer / Writer

was44@pitt.edu

Will grew up in Northern California, right next to Stanford University. He went to Washington University in St. Louis for undergrad and majored in chemistry. He has seen Scope and Scalpel every year and has been eagerly waiting for his chance to get involved. After taking a long hiatus from filmmaking, he is ready to apply the skills he learned from his high school “Advanced Movie Making” class and take the lead on producing the video sketches for the show. Will is hoping to match into an ENT residency and looks forward to a career of slashing necks and cashing checks.

Fun fact: He was the former president and lead choreographer of his college’s Chinese Yo-Yo Club.

Jake Pemberton (2nd photo below)

Video Producer / Writer

cjp80@pitt.edu

Bio

It has been said that Jake spawned after lightning struck a remote cornfield in southwest Ohio, though his formative years remain an enigma. His initial aspiration when entering Bowling Green State University was to become a college professor teaching Roman and Greek philosophy/mythology/language. Through a fortuitous turn of events, he decided a Ph.D would take too long and be too inexpensive so he switched to neuroscience and the streamlined med school/residency/fellowship route. His favorite high school memories were being a part of his annual school musical, where he would annoy the more talented performers with his unsolicited comic relief. He decided to join the Scope and Scalpel team to relive his self-imagined high school glory days. He is an aspiring psychiatrist, mostly because he likes listening to stories.

Fun fact: Jake is afraid of lawnmowers, because when he was eight and mowing the lawn, the blade flipped out and impaled his leg. This resulted in no permanent injury, though he plans to outsource his landscaping requirements.  

Check out one of our videos, featuring our beloved Scaife Hall, here: 

Big news: filming has begun! Thanks to generous donors like you, we were able to purchase green screens and lighting kits (see director Josh Zollman’s set-up in his apartment below) for use in the first-ever virtual production of Scope and Scalpel. This past weekend, 6 scenes were filmed by cast members using their green screens in their own homes. Let’s just say our directors + video team members will be very busy the next few weeks!

Special shout-out to make-up director Tejasvi Gowda for creating video tutorials for each main character to learn how to perfect their Lion King inspired looks! Check out her Nala-esque look below!

Please consider sharing our campaign with your Pitt Med friends and supporters to help us finish this landmark project. We still need funding to support our video editing, audio editing, and software costs. We hope our show’s theatricality and good-natured teasing of the Pitt Med experience will bring some much-needed laughter and inspiration to you during these chaotic times.

Wishing you health, safety, and love,

Pitt Med Scope and Scalpel 2020

P.S. Check out our latest video for a good dose of humor. 

Thank you to all who have donated and/or shared our project with your friends and family members- working on this show has been a privilege for the cast and crew and we hope Scope and Scalpel is bringing the Pitt Med community some much needed humor. We’ve been rehearsing online, organizing no-contact pick-ups of prop and costume supplies, and still doing everything we can to make 2020’s show the best one yet. We are proud to announce that this year’s show will be the first-ever virtual musical theatre production of Scope and Scalpel! Follow along to learn about our production on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages as well as our new website www.LymeKing.com.

Also check out our newest promo video “Zoom Where It Happens” for some behind-the-scenes footage and the reveal of our lead roles. Pitt Med alum, which featured faculty member is your favorite?

Lots of love and wishing you safety and health,

Scope and Scalpel 2020

Thank you to all who have donated and/or shared our project with your friends and family members- your support has been wonderful! As we move our rehearsals to video chat and brainstorm new ways of making videos from home, the outpouring of love from the community has kept all of our spirits up!

Today we’d like to share some exclusive footage of one of our very first video rehearsals (clip from the original song, “I Just Can’t Wait for My MD”), as well as our brand new website! We’re also highlighting two of our student leaders, Sarah Hogan (Choreographer) and Leon Mirson (Orchestra Director). They’ve been especially flexible in revamping our choreo and music components in case 2020’s show is the first-ever movie edition of Scope and Scalpel! Keep checking back for updates!

Sarah Hogan (1st photo)

Choreographer

SFF4@pitt.edu

Fun fact: Sarah’s choreography career began back in high school when she created her now husband’s talent routine for the Mr. Ocean City High School Pageant.

Bio: Sarah grew up in Ocean City, NJ but attended the University of Pittsburgh for both undergrad and medical school so she considers herself an honorary Yinzer. She started dancing at the age of 2 and went on to perform and choreograph in Pitt’s Ballet Club during her time in college. Since starting medical school her dancing experience has mainly been limited to dancing at weddings and at the annual Pitt Med CAVO Halloween party, but she was more than happy to dust off her jazz shoes in order to choreograph this year’s Scope and Scalpel production. Sarah is super excited to be starting her career in Emergency Medicine next year!

Leon Mirson (2nd photo) 

Music Director and Orchestra Conductor

LEM94@pitt.edu

Fun fact: Leon once had the ambition of becoming a professional soccer player, but his hopes were cut short when he was tragically pulled from his goalkeeper position in the 5th grade soccer league during the team’s first play-off game. His team went on to win the championship as Leon was cheering from the sidelines as the new official “Team Manager.”

Bio: Leon was born in the city of Kiev in Ukraine and moved to the US when he was two years old with his family. He grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and attended the University of Pittsburgh and graduated with a degree in bioengineering. Pittsburgh grew on him and he was more than happy to stay for four more years and attend medical school in the same city (also change is hard). Leon’s musical background includes many years of classical piano training, a brief but meteoric rise to the position of 2nd chair trombone in the 8th grade, and, more recently, playing the bass guitar in the famous Pitt Med garage band, The Infraorbital Groove. Leon is an avid Scope and Scalpel enthusiast and has conducted the pit orchestra for two years during his time in med school. He is excited to arrange music for the orchestra and perform once again in Scope and Scalpel. Moving forward, Leon is thrilled to begin a career in internal medicine and to attempt to set the record for the longest note ever written.

Lots of love,

Scope and Scalpel 2020

Thanks to all who have shared our campaign or donated to our fundraiser- we’ve been blown away by your generosity and support!

Today is Match Day- a very exciting and monumental day in our journey to become physicians. Today we found out the residency location we have been “matched” to and will be spending our next 3-7 years in training. While our celebration has been moved online (go public health!), the enthusiasm and pride we have for each other hasn’t changed! Congratulations go out to all of our Pitt Med graduating students and to medical students across the country.

Today also marks a special day for Scope and Scalpel-theme reveal day! Have you been keeping up with our clues? Drumroll please…..the Pitt Med 2020 Scope and Scalpel show theme is:

The Lyme King!

Filled with amazing songs, beloved characters, and beautiful scenery, our show based on Lion King (with an infectious disease twist!) is sure to entertain. While our preparations have moved mostly virtual for now, we promise that we are hard at work at creating the best ever Scope and Scalpel production. We will keep you posted on any changes to the format, venue etc, and all donations will continue to support the production of the show in years to come.

Take care and stay healthy!

Scope and Scalpel 2020

Thank you to all who have donated so far! We had a great first week of fundraising and we have raised over $3000! Any donation amount will help us produce this show, so if you haven’t donated yet please consider doing so today and get us closer to our $10,000 goal!

With the plan of getting casting done by Match Week, our director brought all the Scope and Scalpel volunteers together for a meeting this past week (see 1st photo below). Writers shared their script progress, students shared ideas for props/costumes, and coordinators went over logistics for the show. It was great to have so many members of our class turn out to begin work on this production! Stay tuned for the theme reveal...

This week we’d also like to introduce two of our amazing student leaders, Aaron Landau, Head Writer, and Kristen Milleville, Stage Manager!

Aaron Jeffrey Landau, Head Writer, ajl116@pitt.edu

(2nd photo below)

Fun fact: Aaron achieved an orange belt in Taekwondo at the age of 5.

Aaron, a New Jersey native, is a reformed scatterbrained psychology and philosophy major of Boston University (2012) now further delaying any career decision-making and pursuing internal medicine. His classmates often complain of his booming, deep voice echoing through the hallways of Scaife, so he decided to put his words to paper rather than endlessly expelling them outward. Thus, he became the S&S Head Writer. Aaron is a bass vocalist in the med school a capella group. He also plays the guitar, bass guitar and mandolin and he wants you to know about it. Aaron has a passion for addiction medicine and likes to advocate for people who use drugs. He also has a phenomenal beard and maintains it with pipe tobacco-scented beard balm. You should try it.

Kristen Milleville, Stage Manager, kam401@pitt.edu 

(3rd photo below)

Fun fact: Kristen was a tap dancer for 10 years…. And everyone might get to see this skill again. 

Kristen grew up in Buffalo, New York (GO BILLS) and graduated from the University at Buffalo in 2016 with a degree in Biomedical Science. She has always loved musicals and listens to their soundtracks endlessly (unfortunately for her roommate), so she decided to put her knowledge and organization to use by participating in her first musical production as Stage Manager. She is also an avid knitter, and enjoys yelling at the TV during Buffalo Bills games. Kristen is pursuing a career in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and aspires to care for patients after neurologic injuries such as traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and strokes, and to help patients with disabilities function in their daily lives.  

Thanks for catching up with us and check back on March 20, 2020 (Match Day!) for the highly anticipated theme reveal! In the meantime, follow our show progress on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Love, Scope and Scalpel 2020