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Dramatic portrayal of first female physician in the US, Elizabeth Blackwell, is Feb. 10

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman physician in the United States, will come to life at Upstate Medical University in the form of actress Linda Gray Kelley Wednesday, Feb. 10 at noon in the Medical Alumni Auditorium of Weiskotten Hall. The performance, part of the Upstate’s Elizabeth Blackwell Day celebration, is free and open to the public.

The 45-minute production, complete with sets, costumes and props, will follow Blackwell’s career as a physician as she crisscrosses the globe in her pioneering role as America’s first woman physician.

The performance at Upstate has special meaning: Blackwell earned her MD in 1849 at Geneva Medical College, Upstate’s earliest predecessor. (Geneva Medical College donated its assets to Syracuse University, which in turn sold the medical college to SUNY Upstate Medical Center in 1950.)

Kelley will also portray more than a dozen influential characters that are present in Blackwell’s life, including Dorothea Dix and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

The performance of “A Lady Alone” is written by N. Lynn Eckhert, MD, an adjunct professor in the public health at Massachusetts Medical School and a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School.