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Who We Are
We are Pitt Med’s Class of 2021, often jokingly referred to as the “year of the solar eclipse.” We can’t believe we’re finally in our last year at Pitt Med; it seems like just yesterday we were receiving our white coats and starting our first-year orientation festivities!
We have a talented, hard-working, and passionate class and we can’t wait to show you our creative side. From singers and dancers to orchestra members and artists, our cast and crew are excited to share our Pitt Med experience with our mentors, families, and friends. We’ve had a difficult year being separated by clerkships, the virtual interview trail, and of course, the pandemic. Coming back together to produce this year’s Scope and Scalpel will be a wonderful way to spend time together as a class before graduation.
Our Project
Scope and Scalpel is a unique Pitt Med tradition in which graduating students produce a full-length musical production parodying their medical school experience. Traditionally uncensored, but always good natured, the show is the longest running annual theatrical production in Western Pennsylvania, with the first show performed on May 13, 1955. Its founders were a few students who worked in a lab run by Dr. Frank Dixon. One day while out at a local pub discussing the challenges of attending Pitt Med, the idea to produce a class play was born. That spring, over 50 fourth-year medical students came together to write, produce, act, and sing in a show entitled “PMS IV” for a sold-out crowd at the Stephen Foster Memorial Theater.
Students strive to represent the medical world they’ve come to know so well through their years at Pitt Med, and the result is always a candid and comedic take on the medical school experience. Historically, students draw inspiration from pop culture and famous storylines, with titles ranging from “Scar Trek” in 1975 to “Back to the Suture” in 1990 to “Beauty and the Yeast” in 2018. This year marks the 67th annual production of Scope and Scalpel, and the Class of 2021 hopes to make their show the best one yet!
This year, Scope and Scalpel will be held on Friday, May 21st and Sunday May 23rd.
How You Can Help
Stay Tuned
Highlights from Past Productions
Check out prior playbills here. If you’re a Pitt Med grad, try and find the playbill from your graduating class! Check out last year’s incredible virtual production here.
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Contributions received for this project shall be used in accordance with the purpose described herein, the terms in the FAQs and applicable law. For questions that cannot be answered in the FAQs, please call 412-383-5001 or email engage@pitt.edu.
Your dreams are big, and so is that stack of MCAT prep books. $10 will buy us one snazzy prop or the perfect missing piece to a cast member’s costume change.
We know you’re balancing studying for boards with working on the wards and generally just trying to survive. Why not throw some of that hard-earned loan money our way? $25 can feed and hydrate our writing team for a whole night’s worth of work. Nice!
Not only do you double-check our Is/Os, correct our vital signs in our presentations, co-sign our orders, and shield us from pimping on rounds, you also slide us a cool $50 bill to help us plaster the medical school in beautiful Scope and Scalpel playbills. You’re the best! Sincerely, your fourth-year medical students.
With great power comes great responsibility. No more notes, but you have to know everything about every patient and keep the team happy too! Cheer up your medical students with a $100 donation to help us purchase all the make-up and hair supplies we need.
Your medical students have meticulously calculated the CHA2DS2-VASc, Cockcraft-Gault, MELD, HAS-BLED, FENa, Wells’, Child-Pugh and Centor scores for all your patients. Increase their score by donating $250 to feed our cast and crew for dress rehearsal night!
Now that you’re in charge of recruiting, you know what it takes to put together a good team. Ensure we have the best team possible with your $500 donation and rent our much-needed microphones and sound equipment for show weekend.
As chair, you’re the MVP of your department. Be the MVP of Scope and Scalpel with a $750 donation and provide all of the costumes for our large group numbers!
While only a four-letter word, the title of dean carries so much power...respect...fame! (or infamy?) A contribution of $1000 will pay for the set design and construction for our major scenes, and let’s face it, there’s no show without a good backdrop!
