Our Town Play Free Pdf
Jeremias Resendez
Our Town is a three-act play written by American playwright Thornton Wilder in 1938. Described by Edward Albee as "the greatest American play ever written",[1] it presents the fictional American town of Grover's Corners between 1901 and 1913 through the everyday lives of its citizens.
Wilder uses metatheatrical devices, setting the play in the actual theatre where it is being performed. The main character is the stage manager of the theatre who directly addresses the audience, brings in guest lecturers, fields questions from the audience, and fills in playing some of the roles. The play is performed without a set on a mostly bare stage. With a few exceptions, the actors mime actions without the use of props.
The first performance of Our Town was at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, on January 22, 1938.[2] It went on to success on Broadway and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and remains popular today with frequent revivals.
The Stage Manager introduces the audience to the small town of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, and the people living there as a morning begins in the year 1901. Joe Crowell delivers the paper to Doc Gibbs, Howie Newsome delivers the milk, and the Webb and Gibbs households send their children (Emily and Wally Webb, George and Rebecca Gibbs) off to school on this beautifully simple morning. Professor Willard speaks to the audience about the history of the town. Editor Webb speaks to the audience about the town's socioeconomic status, political and religious demographics, and the accessibility and proliferation, or lack thereof, of culture and art in Grover's Corners. The Stage Manager leads the audience through a series of pivotal moments throughout the afternoon and evening, revealing the characters' relationships and challenges.
It is at this time when we are introduced to Simon Stimson, an organist and choir director at the Congregational Church. It is learned from Mrs. Louella Soames that Simon Stimson is an alcoholic when she, Mrs. Gibbs, and Mrs. Webb stop on the corner after choir practice and "gossip like a bunch of old hens," according to Doc Gibbs, discussing Simon's alcoholism. It seems to be a well known fact amongst everyone in town that Simon Stimson has a problem with alcohol; all the characters speak to his issue as if they are aware of it and his having "seen a peck of trouble," a phrase repeated by more than one character throughout the show. While the majority of townsfolk choose to "look the other way," including the town policeman, Constable Warren, it is Mrs. Gibbs who takes Simon's struggles with addiction to heart, and has a conversation with her husband, Doc Gibbs, about Simon's drinking.
Underneath a glowing full moon, Act I ends with siblings George and Rebecca, and Emily gazing out of their respective bedroom windows, enjoying the smell of heliotrope in the "wonderful (or terrible) moonlight," with the self-discovery of Emily and George liking each other, and the realization that they are both straining to grow up in their own way.
Wilder began making notes for the play while he was teaching and lecturing in Chicago in the 1930s.[5] Constantly on the move, he worked on the play wherever he went.[6] In June 1937, he stayed in the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, one of the many locations where he worked on the play. It is believed Wilder drafted the entire third act during a visit to Zrich in September 1937, in one day, after a long evening walk in the rain with a friend, author Samuel Morris Steward.[7]
"Our Town" is not offered as a picture of life in a New Hampshire village or as a speculation about the condition of life after death. . . .It is an attempt to find a value above all price for the smallest events in our life. I have made the claim as preposterous as possible, for I have set the village against the largest dimension of time and place. The recurrent words in this play (few have noticed it) are "hundreds", "thousands", and "millions".[8]
In Wilder's writing of Our Town, he employed a metatheatrical style. He utilized the Stage Manager role to narrate the story and also to appear as several different characters. The Stage Manager, as the play's "Narrator," creates the story's point of view. The Narrator is supernatural as he is entirely aware of his relationship with the audience; as such it allows him freedom to break the fourth wall and address them directly.
The play's stage direction indicates that the play is to be staged and performed with little scenery, no set, and minimal props. Wilder's reasoning was, "...I tried to restore significance to the small details of life by removing the scenery. The spectator through lending his imagination to the action restages it inside his own head. In its healthiest ages, the theatre has always exhibited the least scenery."[9]
The characters mime the objects with which they interact. Their surroundings are created only with chairs, tables, staircases, and other mundane objects. For example, the scene in which Emily helps George with his evening homework, conversing through upstairs windows, is often performed with the two actors standing atop separate ladders to represent their neighboring houses.
The New York City debut of Our Town was on February 4, 1938, at Henry Miller's Theatre and later moved to the Morosco Theatre, where it ran until November 19, 1938; this production was produced and directed by Jed Harris.[11] Wilder received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1938 for the work.[12] The Jed Harris production of Our Town was revived at New York City Center on January 10, 1944, running for 24 performances until January 29, with Montgomery Clift as George, Martha Scott as Emily, and Thomas W. Ross as Mr. Webb.[13]
In 1946, the Soviet Union prevented a production of Our Town in the Russian sector of occupied Berlin "on the grounds that the drama is too depressing and could inspire a German suicide wave."[14]
Henry Fonda played the Stage Manager in a production that ran on Broadway from Nov 27 to Dec 27, 1969.[16] Elizabeth Hartman played Emily and Harvey Evans played George. Margaret Hamilton and Ed Begley were in the cast.[17]
A production at New York City's Lincoln Center opened on December 4, 1988, after 27 previews, and ran for 136 performances until April 2, 1989; the cast included Spalding Gray as "Stage Manager," Frances Conroy as Mrs. Gibbs, Penelope Ann Miller as Emily, and Eric Stoltz as George.[18] The production was videotaped for broadcast on PBS (see "Adaptations" below).
In 2003, Paul Newman, marking his final stage performance, acted in the role of Stage Manager, with Jayne Atkinson as Mrs. Gibbs and Jane Curtin as Mrs. Webb, in a production staged at New York City's Booth Theatre. It opened on December 4, 2002, after three previews and ran until January 26, 2003.[19] The production was videotaped for broadcast on Showtime and later on PBS (see "Adaptations" below).[20]
An award-winning revival of Our Town opened at the Barrow Street Theatre, in New York City, on February 26, 2009. The production was directed by David Cromer, who also performed the role of Stage Manager for much of the show's run. Upon closing, the production had played four preview and 644 regular performances, making it the longest-running production of the play in its history. In addition to Cromer, other notable actors who performed in the role of Stage Manager included Helen Hunt, Michael McKean, Jason Butler Harner, Stephen Kunken and Michael Shannon.[21]
A new revival directed by Kenny Leon is scheduled to open on Broadway in the fall of 2024.[23] The cast will feature Jim Parsons as Stage Manager, Zoey Deutch as Emily Webb, Katie Holmes as Mrs. Webb, Billy Eugene Jones as Dr. Gibbs, Ephraim Sykes as George Gibbs, Richard Thomas as Mr. Webb, Michelle Wilson as Mrs. Gibbs, Julie Halston as Mrs. Soames, and Donald Webber Jr. as Simon Stimpson. The production is expected to begin previews on September 17 with an opening night planned for October 10 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.[24][25]
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