Our Town
by Thornton Wilder
About Our Town
Described by Edward Albee as “the greatest American play ever written,” Our Town presents the small town of Grover’s Corners in three acts: “Daily Life,” “Love and Marriage,” and “Death and Eternity.” Narrated matter-of-factly by a humble and omniscient Stage Manager (David Koberling), and performed with minimal props and sets, the play depicts the simple daily lives, loves, and losses of two everyday families in the small town of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire.
Dr. Gibbs (Bernie Mulvaney) is the fabled small-town family doctor, whom we first meet strolling home at dawn from a house-call delivering a set of twins as his wife, the warm and worrisome Mrs. Gibbs (Kaitlyn Lee), and the Gibbses' friend and neighbor, Mrs. Webb (Margaret Mendoza), pragmatic and poised, begin their days at the stove, preparing breakfast for their families. Mr. Webb (Bill Gibson), the droll and dedicated editor of the local newspaper, delights most in his role as a father.
At the center of the play is the story of the Gibbses' son, the affable, sensitive, romantic George (Jay Garcia) who falls head-over-heels in love with the Webbs' bright, earnest, and winsome daughter, Emily (Rachel Reynolds).
As directed by Marvin Zehr, what progresses over the course of the evening is nothing more than simple, ordinary, beautiful, extraordinary human life.
Event Details
Location
Dates & Times
Carthage Senior High School Auditorium
36500 State Route 26
Carthage, NY 13619
Thursday, September 17
Friday, September 18
Saturday, September 19
7:00 PM
7:00 PM
7:00 PM
Cast and Creative Team
Marvin Zehr
Persephone Hayes
Linda Zehr
Chris Autote
Lynnea Calendar
Savannah Coates
Jay Garcia
Bill Gibson
Persephone Hayes
David Koberling
Kai Koberling
Kaitlyn Lee
Charlie Malewich
Harmony Malewich
Margaret Mendoza
Bernie Mulvaney
Micah Perez
Aaron Reynolds
Rachel Reynolds
David Shaffer
Rebecca Shultz
Michael Terrell
Lorelai Worthington
Emma Zehr
Direction, Set Design, Light Design
Assistant to the Director
Costume Design
Lighting and Sound
Mrs. Luella Soames
Ensemble
George Gibbs
Mr. Charles Webb
Ensemble
Stage Manager
Ensemble
Mrs. Julia Gibbs
Ensemble
Rebecca Gibbs
Mrs. Myrtle Webb
Dr. Frank Gibbs
Joe Crowell/Si Crowell
Wally Webb
Emily Gibbs
Howie Newsome/Sam Craig and others
Ensemble
Simon Stimson/Professor Willard
Ensemble
Farmer McCarty
About the Playwright
Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) is the only writer to win Pulitzer Prizes for both drama (Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth) and fiction (The Bridge of San Luis Rey). He collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on Shadow of a Doubt, hiked the Alps with the heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney, received a bronze star for his service in World War II, and was credited with discovering Orson Welles. He was also a much-loved teacher, letter-writer (especially with Gertrude Stein), and public speaker – in four languages. Hello, Dolly! is based on his play The Matchmaker.
Born in Madison, Wisconsin, and educated at Yale and Princeton, Thornton Wilder was an accomplished novelist and playwright whose works explore the connection between the commonplace and the cosmic dimensions of human experience. The Bridge of San Luis Rey, one of his seven novels, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, and his next-to-last novel, The Eighth Day, received the National Book Award (1968). Two of his four major plays garnered Pulitzer Prizes: Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1943). His play, The Matchmaker, ran on Broadway for 486 performances (1955-1957), Mr. Wilder’s Broadway record, and was later adapted into the record-breaking musical Hello, Dolly!
Mr. Wilder also enjoyed enormous success with many other forms of the written and spoken word, among them translation, acting, opera librettos, lecturing, teaching and film (his screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1943 psycho-thriller Shadow of a Doubt remains a classic to this day). Letter writing held a central place in Mr. Wilder’s life, and since his death, three volumes of his letters have been published.
Mr. Wilder’s many honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Book Committee’s Medal for Literature. On April 17, 1997, the centenary of his birth, the US Postal Service unveiled the Thornton Wilder 32-cent stamp in Hamden, Connecticut, his official address after 1930 and where he died on December 7, 1975.
Mr. Wilder continues to be read and performed around the world. Our Town is performed at least once each day somewhere in this country, with his other major dramas and shorter plays not far behind.
For more information, visit www.thorntonwilder.com.
“OUR TOWN is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com”