TEACHER INFORMATION

PACKET

5 0L W T

OCTOBER 8 – NOVEMBER 7

BYdiRECTEd BY gORdON EdElsTEIN

Teacher I n formaT Ion PackeT

C o m p i l e d a n d W r i t t e n b y

annIe dImarTIno Director of Education

mallory PellegrIno Education Programs Manager

krIsTIanna smITh Interim Principal Teaching Artist

barbara sonensTeIn Resident Teaching Artist

elIzabeTh nearIng Literary Manager

Teacher Information Packet Layout by claIre zoghb

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OCTOBER 8 – NOVEMBER 7 2014ON ThE Cla iRE TOw sTagE

iN ThE C . NEwTON sChENCk i i ThEaTRE

BYdiRECTEd BY gORdON EdElsTEIN

l o n g W h a r f T h e aT r eg r aT e f U l ly a c k n oW l e d g e s

T h e g e n e ro s I T yo f o U r e d U c aT I o n s U P P o r T e r s

FrederiCk a. deluCa Foundation

the hearSt FoundationS

elaine gorbaCh levine Charitable Foundation

the Seymour l. luStman memorial Fund

national Corporate theatre Fund

the SeedlingS Foundation

WellS Fargo Foundation

the Werth Family FoundationFounding Supporter oF long WharF theatre’S

video Study guide and Supporter oF the eduCatorS’ laboratory

50TH sEAsON COMMUNITY PARTNER

* Member of actors’ Equity association, the Union of Professional actors and stage Managers in the United states ° Member of United scenic artists, Usa-829 of the iaTsE

This Theatre operates under an agreement between the league Of Resident Theatres and actors’ Equity association, the Union of Professional actors and stage Managers in the United states.

gordon edelsTeIn ARTIsTIc DIREcToR H JoshUa borensTeIn MAnAgIng DIREcToR

preSentS

BY THORNTON WIldERdiRECTEd BY gORdON EdElsTEIN

sET dEsigN EUgENE lEE°

COsTUME dEsigN EMIlY REbHOlz°

lighTiNg dEsigN JAMEs F. INgAlls°

sOUNd dEsigN/COMPOsER JOHN gROMAdA°

MUsiCal diRECTOR JONATHAN qUINN bERRYMAN

PROdUCTiON sTagE MaNagER HOPE ROsE KEllY*

assisTaNT sTagE MaNagER AMY PATRICIA sTERN*

assisTaNT sTagE MaNagER MICHEllE lAUREN TUITE*

OUR TOwN @ 1938, 1957 The wilder Family llCCopyright agent: alan Brodie Representation ltd

www.alanbrodie.com

50TH sEAsON COMMUNITY PARTNER

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look for ThIs symbol To fInd dIscUssIon and WrITIng PromPTs, qUesTIons and classroom acTIvITIes!

c o n t e n t s

aboUT The P lay

Characters 8

Synopsis 12

about the playwright: thornton Wilder 16

thornton Wilder timeline 17

The World o f The P lay

director’s vision 21

alumni Cast 23

themes 26

sUPPlemenTal maTer I a l s

our Town production timeline 30

preface by thornton Wilder (new York Times, 1938) 35

glossary of theatre terms 37

Curriculum Connections 38

For the First-time theatregoer 39

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A B o U tt H e P L A Y

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c H A R A c t e R s

Stage managerThe stage Manager of Our Town is the stage manager of the play (see glossary on p. 37). she guides the audience through the play Our Town and the living and dying of the inhabitants of grover’s corners.

emily WebbThe daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Webb and Wally’s older sister. she is the archetypal girl next door. Emily is a bright, industrious student who speaks her mind.

george gibbSThe son of Doc and Mrs. gibbs and older brother to Rebecca. george is a popular boy in town, a star baseball player, and class president. george is the All-American, golden boy archetype.

doC gibbSgeorge and Rebecca’s father, husband of Mrs. gibbs, and the town doctor in the small town of grover’s corners.

mrS. gibbSgeorge and Rebecca’s mother and wife of Doc gibbs. she is from a prominent family in grover’s corners, the Herseys. Her life dream is to see Paris, France.

mr. WebbThe publisher and editor of the local paper, grover’s corners sentinel. He is husband to Mrs. Webb and father to Emily and Wally.

“In our town we like to know the facts about everybody.” –sTAgE MAnAgER

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mrS. WebbThe wife of Mr. Webb and mother to Emily and Wally. she is the arche-typal Mother—concerned about her children’s health but also very busy with the day to day life of running the house.

Simon StimSonThe choir director of grover’s corners. He is also the town alcoholic.

mrS. SoameSA woman who sings in the choir along with Mrs. Webb and Mrs. gibbs. she is the town gossip.

rebeCCa gibbSDoc and Mrs. gibbs’ daughter and george’s younger sister. she is inquisitive, thrifty, and intelligent.

Wally WebbMr. and Mrs. Webb’s son and Emily’s younger brother.

hoWie neWSomeThe local milkman.

“In our town we like to know the facts about everybody.” –sTAgE MAnAgER

joe CroWell, jr.The paperboy.

Si CroWellJoe’s younger brother, also a paperboy.

ConStable WarrenThe town policeman.

Sam CraigEmily’s cousin who leaves grover’s corners to move out West, returns for her funeral.

joe StoddardThe town undertaker.

c H A R A c t e R s c o n t i n U e d

our Town takes place in Grover’s Corners,

New Hampshire, 1901-1913.

While Grover’s Corners is not a real place,

many believe Thornton Wilder based

Grover’s Corners on Peterborough, New Hampshire.

s e t t i n G

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What is a day in your town like? Describe the rhythm of a day in your life.

What is an archetype? List archetypes that exist in your school. How does understanding an archetype help us navigate our surroundings?

What do you think the function of the Stage Manager is in the play? How is she different from a Narrator?

i n t H e c L A s s R o o m

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d e t A i L e d P L o ts Y n o P s i s

ACT I: THE DAILY LIFE 1901

The play begins with the Stage Manager setting furniture on an empty stage. She addresses the audience directly with the title of the play, author, actors’ names, setting, and then establishes where all the main features of the town are on stage: main street, town hall, churches, drug store, bank, public school, the Gibbs’ house, and the Webb’s house. All of these places are unseen to the audience, as there is no elaborate set or use of props in the play. Typically, the entire set is represented with two tables, several chairs, and sometimes two ladders. Most props are pantomimed. The Stage Manager states that the day is May 7, 1901 in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, just before dawn.

After the Stage Manager’s introduction, the ordinary events of a typical day in Grover’s Corners unfold. Howie Newsome, the milkman, and Joe Crowell, Jr., the paperboy, make their rounds, delivering the milk and newspapers. Doc Gibbs comes home from a night of delivering twins. As the morning progresses, the Gibbs and Webb children, George and Rebecca Gibbs, and Emily and Wally Webb, get ready to head out to school. After the children leave for school, Mrs. Webb and Mrs. Gibbs spend time in their gardens discussing their hopes and dreams. Mrs. Gibbs’ shares her life dream to travel to Paris, France. The Stage Manager then invites Professor Willard and Mr. Webb, the editor of the local paper, to provide the audience with some factual information about Grover’s Corners. We learn that Grover’s Corners is a small town of

2,642 people and is built on some of the “oldest land in the world”. Mr. Webb, tells that Grover’s Corners is a “very ordinary town...duller than most,” and that most folks settle down in Grover’s Corners to live their entire lives.

Afternoon arrives; Emily and George walk home from school, revealing the first seed of their affection for one another. George applauds Emily on the excellent speech she gave in class. George reveals that he wants to take over his Uncle Luke’s farm one day. Subsequently, at the Webb house, Emily asks her Mother if she is pretty. The Stage Manager interrupts again, to tell that a new bank is being built in town and that folks are considering what would be best to put in the cornerstone of the bank, “for people to dig up...a thousand years from now.” The Stage Manager lets the audience know that she is going to put a copy of this play in the cornerstone of the bank so that people a thousand years from now will know that this is the way they were.

Now evening, the choir of the Congregational Church practices under the direction of Simon Stimson, who has a drinking problem. George and Emily discuss their homework through open windows. Dr. Gibbs talks to George about the need to be more helpful to his Mother. Mrs. Gibbs implores her husband to take time off to get away and rest. Finally, as the moon shines brightly, Rebecca and her brother George marvel at an address on a letter that juxtaposes the small town of Grover’s Corners with the enormity of the universe.

OUR TOWN Is WRITTEn In THREE AcTs.

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ACT II: LOVE AND MARRIAGE 1904

Three years have passed, and the time is now July 7, 1904.The Stage Manager announces that this act will focus on Love and Marriage. She comments that “most everyone climbs into their grave married.” Emily and George have recently graduated school, and the act begins on the morning of their wedding day. Dr. Gibbs and Mrs. Gibbs share their concerns that George may be too young to get married, and they both reflect on how sad and nervous they were on their own wedding day. The day is filled with nerves and emotions as the Webb and Gibbs families prepare for their first born children to get married. The Stage Manager then takes the play back in time to re-live what it was like to be very young and in love for the first time. She goes back one year, to the day that Emily and George “first knew that they were meant for one another.” One day after school, Emily, in an emotional outburst, tells George that he has become too full of himself over baseball. George consoles her by buying her an ice cream soda at the drugstore. Instead of being upset with Emily, George is moved by how much Emily cares for him and his character. George decides he is not going away to State Agriculture School and instead will stay in town to take over his Uncle Luke’s farm. George and Emily realize their love for one another.

The Stage Manager brings the play forward again to 1904, to the wedding ceremony of Emily and George. She warns the audience that the play is about to get very serious. Both Emily and George get cold feet on their wedding day but are reassured by their parents. George says that he is going to do his best to take care of Emily and that he loves her and needs her. Emily replies, “All I want is someone to love me.” The two young people proceed with the wedding. The Stage Manager closes the act by confessing that she is not sure if she believes in

marriage. She reflects that one’s life can be distilled down to birth, childhood, marriage, children, sickness, and finally death but that the “important thing is to be happy.”

ACT III: DEATH AND ETERNITY 1913

During the intermission, the stagehands have been arranging chairs in rows on the stage. These chairs are graves in the cemetery. The actors, the souls of the Dead, enter and sit in the chairs. Among the Dead are Mrs. Gibbs, Simon Stimson, Wally Webb, Simon Stimson, and Mrs. Soames. The Stage Manager brings the play forward nine years, to the summer of 1913, in the cemetery of Grover’s Corners. She points out the townspeople who have died. She contemplates how “there’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being.” The first scene begins with Joe Stoddard, the undertaker, preparing a grave for Emily who died during the birth of her second child. The funeral procession makes its way to the cemetery. The Dead speak to one another as Emily’s ghost enters to take her place among them. Emily watches the mourners leave, while chatting with Mrs. Gibbs about her and George’s farm. After sitting quietly, Emily realizes that she can go back to relive a day in her past life. Although both Mrs. Gibbs and the Stage Manager warn her against it, Emily decides to revisit her twelfth birthday. This experience proves to be unbearable for Emily—as she sees “the thing that they—down there—never know.” She sees all of the details of her life that she never noticed while living it with the knowledge of what happens in her future. Emily says her final goodbyes to Earth and returns to her grave, commenting that humans are “just blind people” that do not understand. The act ends with George visiting Emily’s grave as the Stage Manager lets Grover’s Corners settle down for the night.

“ Our Town is not a play about the evaporated glory of simpler yesteryears. On the contrary, it whispers to us the urgent necessity of living in the here and now—which is all anybody in Grover’s Corners ever had, all anybody anywhere really has… Wilder sought to make sacraments of simple things. In Our Town he cautioned us to recognize that life is both precious and ordinary, and that these two fundamental truths are intimately connected.”

— New YOrk Times

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ACT ONE:

in act i, the Stage manager discusses items that have been chosen to go into the cornerstone of the new bank in grover’s Corners in 1901. the town has chosen the uS Constitution, The new York Times, the bible, a copy of The sentinel (the local paper), William Shakespeare’s works, and the text of the play she is participating in, our Town, “So …people a thousand years from now’ll know a few simple facts about us…the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying.”

Choose ten items to put in a cornerstone or time capsule for your class (or your life) in the year 2014. These items should reflect the present life we are living and should help people understand—a hundred or even a thousand years from now—the life we live today. explain and defend your choices by sharing what the items you choose mean to you today and how the items will demonstrate who we are as a people a hundred years from now.

DID yOu kNOW that long Wharf theatre made a trap for

The Train Driver in 2010? employees of the theatre at that time made their

own small time capsule to put inside, just like the Stage manager places

in the cornerstone of the bank. here iS the trap in 2010 (leFt) and 2014 (right).

ACT TWO:

Write an essay explaining your reaction to the scene in Act II where Emily and George realize they have fallen in love.

HINT: Do you find the scene charming or too corny? Is it realistic or too simple? Does this scene reflect, as the Stage Manager says, “the days when you were first in love; when you were like a person sleepwalking, and you didn’t quite see the street you were in, and didn’t quite hear everything that was said to you. you’re just a little bit crazy.”

i n t H e c L A s s R o o m

s Y n o P s i s c o n t i n U e d

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GO FuRTHER: Re-write the scene for 2014.

ACT THREE:

Examine Emily’s final monologue: “I can’t. I can’t go on. It goes too fast. We don’t have time to look at one another. I didn’t realize. so all that was going on and we never noticed. Take me back-up the hill-to my grave. But first: Wait! one more look. good-by, good-by, world. good-by, grover’s corners…Mama and Papa. good-by to clocks ticking…and Mama’s sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths…and sleeping and waking up. oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do human beings ever realize life while they live it—every, every minute?”

• What are the ordinary things of your everyday life that you would miss if you had to say goodbye to them forever? Write a monologue or letter to yourself explaining what you would like to hold on to forever.

• If you acknowledge that life is fleeting—that it can be gone in an instant—does this change the way you want to live your life?

• Is it possible to be present and aware of the gift of life “Every, every minute” as emily says? Why do you think the Stage manager responds “the saints and poets, maybe. they do some.”

Examine Simon Stimson’s final monologue to Emily in Act III

“Yes, now you know. now you know! That’s what it was to be alive. To move about in a cloud of ignorance; to go up and down trampling on the feelings of those…of those about you. To spend and waste time as though you had a million years. To be always at the mercy of one self-centered passion, or another. now you know-that’s the happy existence you wanted to go back to. Ignorance and blindness.”

COMpARING vIEWpOINTS: Compare Simon’s final monologue with that of Emily’s final monologue. Is life wonderful or awful or both?

Wilder’s first major success came in 1927 with The Bridge of san Luis Rey, for which he received the pulitzer prize. he used the proceeds from

this book to build his family a house in hamden, Ct. This would remain his official address from 1930 until his death in 1975.

Wilder was an accomplished scholar with degrees from princeton and yale university. he was accomplished in many languages, reading and conversing in english, French, german, italian, and Spanish. Wilder taught Comparative literature at the university of Chicago and poetry at harvard University. Wilder considered himself a teacher first and a writer second.

two of Wilder’s plays received pulitzer prizes, our

Town (1938) and The skin of our Teeth (1943). his play The Matchmaker, was turned into the broadway musical Hello, Dolly! Wilder was successful in many various forms of writing. he wrote the screenplay for the classic Alfred Hitchcock film shadow of a Doubt, and several volumes of his letters have been published.

Wilder is the recipient of many honors including the gold medal for Fiction, the presidential medal of Freedom, and the national book Committee’s medal for literature.

Wilder’s works continue to be read and performed around the world. our Town is the most produced play in american history, so popular in fact, that it is said to be performed at least once each day somewhere in this country!

A B o U t t H e P L A Y W R i G H t :t H o R n t o n W i L d e R

THoRnTon WILDER

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THoRnTon WILDER (1897-1975) WAs An AccoMPLIsHED PLAYWRIgHT AnD novELIsT WHo LIvED THRougH TWo WoRLD WARs AnD

THE gREAT DEPREssIon. WILDER WRoTE FIvE FuLL-LEngTH PLAYs AnD sEvEn novELs ovER HIs LIFETIME. HIs WoRk ExAMInEs THE

unIvERsAL IMPoRTAncE oF EvERYDAY ExPERIEncE.

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1897: born in madison, Wisconsin (april 17th)

1906: moves to hong kong (may) and to berkeley, California (october)

1906-10: attends emerson public School in berkeley

1910-11: attends China inland mission School, China

1915: graduates from berkeley high, where he was active in dramatics

1915-17: attends oberlin College

1918-19: Serves for eight months as Corporal in the Coast artillery Corps WWi

1920: receives his b.a from yale College

The Trumpet shall sound (first full-length play)

1920s: teaches at lawrenceville School, nj

1924: First residency at the macdowell Colony, peterborough, nh

1926: receives degree in French from princeton university

1927: The Bridge of san Luis Rey (pulitzer prize 1928)

1930s: part-time teacher at the university of Chicago, extensive foreign travel

c H R o n o L o G Yo F t H o R n t o n W i L d e R ’ s L i F e A n d W o R K s

THE WILDER FAMILY

WILDER AT 13

WILDER AT oBERLIn

WILDER WITH HIs FATHER AnD BRoTHER

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t i m e L i n e c o n t i n U e d

1931: The Long christmas Dinner and other Plays (six one-act plays)

1937: adaptation of ibsen’s A Doll’s House for broadway with ruth gordon

1938: our Town opens on broadway (pulitzer prize)

1942: The skin of our Teeth opens on broadway (pulitzer prize)

1942: Writes screenplay for alfred hitchcock’s The shadow of a Doubt

1942-45 military service with armed Forces intelligence in africa and italy

1948: The Ides of March (novel)

1952: gold medal for Fiction, american academy of arts and letters

1953: on the cover of Time magazine (january 12)

1955: The Matchmaker opens on broadway with ruth gordon

THE SkIN OF OUR TEETH, 1942

WILDER As MR. AnTRoBus

WILDER In THE AIR FoRcE

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1963: awarded presidential medal of Freedom

1964: Hello, Dolly! opens on broadway

1965: awarded national book Committee’s medal for literature

1967: The Eighth Day (novel) receives national book award for Fiction

1973: Theophilus north (novel)

1975: dies in his sleep in hamden, Ct (december 7th)

soUrce: http://thorntonwilder.com/ soUrce: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/ourtown/ei_wilder.html

WILDER As THE sTAgE MAnAgER In

OUR TOWN

WILDER’s HAMDEn HoME

WILDER AnD cARoL cHAnnIng

WILDER REcEIvEs THE PREsIDEnTIAL MEDAL oF FREEDoM

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W o R L d o F t H e P L A Y

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DIREcToR goRDon EDELsTEIn

d i R e c t o R ’ s V i s i o n

on September 8, in a crowded room of over sixty actors, community members, designers, long Wharf staff and trustees, artistic director gordon edelstein posed the question “Why Our Town for LWT’s 50th

anniversary season?”

then, he answered it: “our Town, as well as any play i can think of profoundly, movingly, and honestly presents the practical parts of our lives against the backdrop of the stars.” this play looks at the ordinary in our lives against the profound existential questions of our lives. Why are we here? how does one navigate life with the knowledge and the reality that we are all going to die?

“our Town looks different than it did 1937. this is what our town looks like now. it is the perfect play to begin our 50th anniversary season. if you are in this room, it’s because you are an important part of that.”

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d i R e c t o R ’ s V i s i o n c o n t i n U e d

● this production features a woman as the Stage manager instead of a man.

● long Wharf theatre opened auditions to the community. over 200 people came out to audition for roles as extra in our Town. each week a group of 35 community members will make up the graveyard scene in act iii.

● the set is designed by long Wharf veteran eugene lee. the set will be simple with the suggestion of backyards and homes, a bit of picket fence, a couple of tables and chairs, a raised platform, and no masking of the wings. the actors will be seen entering the stage from the dressing rooms.

● In the first two Acts, the back wall will be black with pictures of children’s houses and neighborhoods in white. the third and fourth grade students of davis Street arts and academics School in new haven drew the pictures being used for the backdrop. in the third act, the back wall will be completely white.

● no text from the original script will be changed; however, the costumes and the diversity of the cast will reflect the world we live in now. So, the setting of the play will remain grover’s Corners in 1901, but the people of grover’s Corners will look like our town…will look like new haven.

● all actors cast have been on the long Wharf Stage in past productions.

● many different people of various races and ethnicities are represented in the cast of this play to truly represent our community as it is now.

THINGS TO kNOW AbOuT THIS 50TH ANNIvERSARy SEASON pRODuCTION:

MYRA LucRETIA TAYLoR PLAYs THE sTAgE MAnAgER

LWT sTAFF MEETs THE cAsT oF OUR TOWN

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As PART oF goRDon EDELsTEIn’s vIsIon, ALL AcToRs In OUR TOWN

HAvE APPEARED In Long WHARF THEATRE PRoDucTIons.

Have YOu seeN aNY Of THem befOre?

A L U m n i A c t o R s

character cast PreVIOUs wOrk at lOng wharf theatre

Stage Manager Myra lucretia taylor Come Down Burning and Cage Rhythm (92/93); Old Settler (96/97)

Dr. Gibbs Don sparks Front Page (05/06)

Mrs. Gibbs linda Powell King of Coons (93/94)

Mrs. Webb christina rouner Pera Palas (01/02); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (05/06)

George Gibbs rey lucas The Old Man and the Sea (08/09)

Emily Webb Jenny leona The Underpants (13/14)

CLOCkWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Don sPARks In THE FRONT PAGE; cHRIsTInA RounER In A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM; REY LucAs In THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA; JEnnY LEonA In THE UNDERPANTS AnD LInDA PoWELL In A DOLL’S HOUSE.

A L U m n i A c t o R s c o n t i n U e d

character cast PreVIOUs wOrk at lOng wharf theatre

Professor Willard steve routman The Underpants (13/14)

Mr. Webb leon addison Brown The Bluest Eye (07/08)

Mrs. Soames ann McDonough Paris Bound (85/86); Painting Churches (86/87); Scenes From American Life (87/88); Love Letters (88/89); Voysey Inheritance (90/91); How Do You Like Your Meat (90/91); Absurd Person Singular (92/93); Almost All in the Timing (95/96); Show-Off (96/97); Down the Garden Paths (99/00)

Sam Craig Mateo gomez The Old Man and the Sea (08/09)

Joe Stoddard Jim andreassi Fathers and Sons (87/88); Bullpen (88/89); Dinner at Eight (88/89); Temporary Help (90/91); Crazy Horse and Three Stars (91/92); Canned Goods (93/94); Saturday, Sunday, Monday (94/95); Blues for Mr. Charlie (94/95); African Company Presents Richard III (94/95); Negro of Peter the Great (95/96); Joy Luck Club (96/97)

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CLOCkWISE FROM TOP LEFT: sTEvE RouTMAn In THE UNDERPANTS; Ann McDonougH In DOWN THE GARDEN PATHS; RoBERT DoRFMAn In THE FRONT PAGE; LEon ADDIson BRoWn In THE BLUEST EyE AnD MATEo goMEz In THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA.

character cast PreVIOUs wOrk at lOng wharf theatre

Simon Stimson robert Dorfman Front Page (05/06)

Constable Warren Phil Mcglaston Fences (13/14)

Howie Newsome JoJo gonzalez Romance of Magno Rubio (04/05); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (05/06)

Joe Crowell aidan McMillan The Shadow of the Hummingbird (13/14)

Si Crowell Dermot McMillan The Shadow of the Hummingbird (13/14)

Rebecca Gibbs remsen welsh A Civil War Christmas (08/09

Wally Webb namumba santos Coming Home (08/09)

Baseball Player Mel eichler Coming Home (08/09)

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CLOCkWISE FROM TOP LEFT: PHIL McgLAsTon In FENCES; ATHoL FugARD AnD AIDAn McDERMoTT In THE SHADOW OF THE HUMMINGBIRD; nAMuMBA sAnTos In COMING HOME; MEL EIcHLER (RIgHT) In COMING HOME AnD JoJo gonzALEz In A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.

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1. DAILy LIFE. it is not just life’s major moments like births, graduations, and weddings, but the ordinary, everyday minutes like breakfasts, the moon in the sky, and the smelling of the flowers that must be cherished.

“goodbye to clocks ticking…and Mama’s sunflowers… and food and coffee… and new-ironed dresses and hot baths…and sleeping and waking up! oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anyone to realize you!

Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? — every, every minute?”– emily, act three, our Town

t H e m e s i n o u r t o w n

“ouR ToWn iS an attempt to Find a value above all priCe

For the SmalleSt eventS in our everyday, daily liFe.”

– excerpt from thornton Wilder’s preface to Three Plays by Thornton Wilder

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2. DEATH. the Stage manager makes it clear from the start of the play that the events of the play are told in hindsight. everyone dies. life is brief. no one in the play understands this as they are living it. if the characters of grover’s Corners were aware of their mortality, would they live differently? do we live differently when confronted with our inevitable death? While nothing is permanent, the Stage manager suggests that there is something eternal in us all.

“now there are some things we all know, but we don’t take’m out a

nd look at’m very often. We all know that something is eternal.

And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t

even the stars…everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal,

and that something has to do with human beings… There’s something

way down deep that’s eternal about every human being.”

– Stage manager, act three, our Town

3. LOvE. it is love that sustains us and has the ability to transform us. Children love their parents, parents love their children, we love school, we love baseball, we love singing, we love helping others, we love history, we love our friends. it is this love that sustains life and makes death more painful. When we fall in love, we are transformed. We are our best selves when we truly love someone or something.

“… I want you to try and remember what it was like to have been

very young. And particularly the days when you were first in love;

when you were like a person sleepwalking and you didn’t quite see

the street you were in, and didn’t quite hear everything that was said

to you. You’re just a little bit crazy. Will you remember that please?”

– Stage manager, act two, our Town

“ On the stage it is always now: the personages are standing on that razor-edge, between the past and the future.”

– Quotation from an interview with thornton Wilder conducted by richard h. goldstone in the Paris Review, Winter 1956

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“i think it comes from deep within thornton Wilder’s heart and spirit. it brings to mind conversations I’ve had recently with so many people about the play; people who were in the play, people who saw the play, people who directed the play. but two actors in particular ... in their wonderfully mature years, have said to me that they never fully comprehended emily’s words until now, in their 70s and in their 80s. the play has brought them to tears in ways that didn’t when they were 20 or 40 or 60 years younger. ... it’s something i’ve certainly taken to heart since i’ve had the privilege of working on this biography. that is, as emily says, every, every day matters, every moment. and thornton was so concerned about expressing in his work and in his own life just the value of every moment of the most ordinary part of the most ordinary day. the idea that tuesday can be a particularly ordinary day ... that on that day or any other day of life at any moment, we simply need to experience, to treasure those things; to look at the now and look at each other —really look at each other. How wonderful that thornton and emily remind us of those opportunities.”

source: nPr Interview highlights with Penelope niven about her book Thornton wilder a Life

After reading the above passage, spend one day journaling every ordinary thing that happens to you. Write in detail about your day, including all the senses you experience. In class, discuss how this close study influenced how you experienced the day at large.

a famous quote from Wilder’s novel The Bridge of san Luis Rey:

“There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival and the only meaning.”

Compare and contrast this quote with the one of the above quotes from the Stage Manager. What is similar about the message they communicate to their audience? Are they meant for similar audiences? What literary devices does the author use in these quotes and to what end? In your opinion, which quote is most powerful?

i n t H e c L A s s R o o m

29

s U P P L e m e n t A Lm A t e R i A L s

30 31

o u r t o w n P R o d U c t i o n t i m e L i n e

“I WIsHED To REcoRD A vILLAgE’s LIFE on THE sTAgE, WITH REALIsM AnD WITH gEnERALITY…

so I TRIED To REsToRE sIgnIFIcAncE To THE sMALL DETAILs oF LIFE BY REMovIng scEnERY.

THE sPEcTAToR THRougH LEnDIng HIs IMAgInATIon To THE AcTIon REsTAgEs IT InsIDE

HIs oWn HEAD.” – from new York Times preface

1938. The first production of our Town is on january 22 at the mcCarter theatre in princeton, new jersey. it is a one-time performance before the show moved to new york for its “official” opening the following month. Jed Harris produces and directs.

our Town premieres henry miller’s theatre, new york City on February 4.

thornton Wilder publishes a preface to our Town in the new York Times on February 13. the preface is not published with the play until 1979.

our Town wins the pulitzer prize for drama.

thornton plays Stage manager for two weeks in broadway production, then in summer stock productions in massachusetts and pennsylvania.

1938 PRoDucTIon

31

1940.Frank Craven and martha Scott reprise their roles as the Stage manager and emily in the 1940 screen adaptation, directed by Sam Wood, but john Craven (Frank’s son) is replaced by William holden as george.

1946.thornton Wilder plays the Stage manager again in a 1946 production of our Town in Westport (at Westport County playhouse), earning his actor›s equity card.

1959.thornton Wilder reprises his role as the Stage manager for the Williamstown play Festival production.

1963.gallaudet College (for the deaf) mounts a production of our Town with deaf actors. david hays (founder of the national theatre of the deaf) describes in harvard magazine (in 1976) what he felt when he saw the production: “jose Quintero and i had just completed a production of it at the Circle in the Square (in new york), but i thought theirs was more moving. there was something in the way the deaf actors expressed themselves that profoundly stirred me. Somehow they were able to clarify the play’s meaning and its reach into the universal soul.”

1969.broadway revival of our Town stars henry Fonda as the Stage manager.

WILDER DIscussIng THE scRIPT

WILDER In 1959 WILLIAMsToWn PRoDucTIon

32

1971.Geraldine Fitzgerald is the first woman to play the Stage manager at the Williamstown theatre Festival. “there’s no reason why women shouldn’t play characters that have an overview,” she reportedly said. “Why are men the only supposed philosophers?”

1977.a tv version of our Town gathers 8 emmy nominations. the nbC production featured hal holbrook as the Stage manager.

1987/1988.long Wharf theatre produce the 50th anniversary production of our Town starring hal holbrook as the Stage manager, directed by arvin brown.

1988.our Town is revived by the lincoln Center theater with Spalding gray as the Stage manager, directed by gregory mosher.

2002. paul newman headlines our Town as the opening show of the Westport County playhouse’s 72nd summer season, directed by james naughton. newman’s wife, joanne Woodward, is the artistic director of the WCp. She explains that almost everyone in the (Westport) cast “is from around here, which is by design because it’s our Town and we wanted it to be our town.” the production later moved to broadway (at the booth theatre on West 45th Street).

dominquez high School in Compton, California--with an explosive culture of black and hispanic youths and dismal outlook of school life--has not produced a play in 20 years. they have nothing in the way of a theater program, nor a budget of any sort. english teacher, Catherine borek, decides to produce our Town with her students.

P R o d U c t i o n t i m e L i n e c o n t i n U e d

HAL HoLBRook (cEnTER) As THE sTAgE MAnAgER In THE 50TH AnnIvERsARY PRoDucTIon oF OUR

TOWN AT Long WHARF THEATRE

33

oT: our Town is a documentary (shot by Scott hamilton kennedy) that chronicles the month and a half before the opening night play performance of their version of our Town.

the new york theater company transport group stages our Town with a teenager as the Stage manager and a couple in their sixties as george and emily. jack Cummings iii, artistic director, explains that, «the non-traditional ages of these ... actors should not change the reading of the play - it is my hope to uncover or awaken layers in the play that are not found in most productions. the cycle of life, the connection to life at different ages and the idea that even if you have lived many years you can still never have «lived» are just some of the thoughts i hope to explore with an audience. i cannot predict how an audience will react to this production or any for that matter. the only thing i can do is put in front of an audience what i and my collaborators feel and interpret and then hope for the best.»

2003.the paul newman version of our Town is adapted for the television, shown on Showtime and as part of pbS’s masterpiece theatre.

2009.david Cromer’s our Town opens at barrow Street theatre in new york. this is a rather revolutionary production of our Town, absorbing the audience into the acting space (the house lights never go down) and including a surprise in the third act when emily returns to her former life that the new York Times calls “a beautiful feat of stagecraft that departs from tradition but transmits the essence of Wilder’s philosophy with an overwhelming sensory immediacy.”

sPALDIng gRAY (cEnTER) In THE 1988 LIncoLn cEnTER THEATER REvIvAL oF OUR TOWN

DAvID cRoMER’s PRoDucTIon oF OUR TOWN

34

P R o d U c t i o n t i m e L i n e c o n t i n U e d

2013.the 75th anniversary of our Town: Ford’s theatre is the only professional theatre to do an anniversary production, directed by Stephen rayne and starring portia (an african-american woman) as the Stage manager.

2014.long Wharf theatre produces our Town as the opening to its 50th anniversary season, directed by gordon edelstein.

“our town is not offered as a picture of life in a new Hampshire village; or as a speculation of conditions of life after death. It is an attempt to find a value above all price for smaller events in our daily life... I have set a small village

against the largest dimensions of time and place.” – from new York Times preface

soUrces:http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/ourtown/ei_wilder.htmlhttp://www.twildersociety.org/works/our-town/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/ourtown/ei_williamstown.htmlhttp://www.csmonitor.com/1988/1214/ltown.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/theater/reviews/27town.html?_r=0http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/ourtown/ei_ot.html

FUNFACTs:

DID yOu kNOW…?

our Town was turned into a three act opera by composer ned rorem and librettist j. d. mcClatchy.

our Town was performed for troops during World War ii. it was very popular and called “a piece of home.”

Do human beings

ever realize life

while they live it

—every, every minute?

OCTOBER 8 – NOVEMBER 2

an americanclassic

BYdiRECTEd BY gordon edelstein

50tH seAson CoMMUnitY PArtner

5 0L W T

BOx OffiCE 203.787.4282 www.LONGwHARf.ORG

35

P R e F A c e t o o u r t o w n

For a While in rome i lived among

arCheologiStS, and ever SinCe i

Find mySelF oCCaSionally looking

at the thingS about me aS an

arCheologiSt Will look at them a

thouSand yearS henCe. roCkeFeller Center

Will be reConStruCted in imagination

From the ruinS oF itS FoundationS. hoW

high WaS it? a theSiS Will be Written on

the bronze plateS Found in neW york’S

detrituS heapS—“tradeSmen’S entranCe,”

“night bell.”

in rome i was led through a study of the plumbing

on the palatine hill. a friend of mine could

ascribe a date, “within ten years,” to every

fragment of cement made in the roman republic

and early empire.

an archeologist’s eyes combine the view of the

telescope with the view of the microscope. he

reconstructs the very distant with the help of the

very small.

it was something of this method that i brought

to a new hampshire village. i spent parts of six

summers tutoring at lake Sunapee and six at the

macdowell Colony at peterborough. i took long

walks through scores of upland villages.

and the archeologist’s and the social historian’s

points of view began to mingle with another

unremitting preoccupation which is the central

theme of the play: What is the relation between the

countless unimportant” details of our daily life, and

one is at once up against the problem of realism in

literature.

William james used to warn his students against

being impressed by the “abject truth.” most works

in realism tell a succession of such abject truths;

they are deeply in earnest, every detail is true, and

yet the whole finally tumbles to the ground—true

but without significance.

how did jane austen save her novels from that

danger? they appear to be compact of abject truth.

Their events are excruciatingly unimportant; and

yet, with Robinson crusoe, thackeray, and dickens.

The art is so consummate that the secret is hidden;

peer at them as hard as one may; shake them; take

them apart; one cannot see how it is done.

i wished to record a village’s life on the stage,

with realism and with generality.

the stage has a deceptive advantage over the

novel—in that lighted room at the end of the

darkened auditorium things seem to be half caught

up into generality already. the stage cries aloud

its mission to represent the act in eternity. So

powerful is the focus that it brings to bear on

any presented occasion that every lapse of the

author from his collaborative intensity is doubly

conspicuous: the truth tumbles down into a heap of

abject truths and the result is doubly trivial.

So I tried to restore significance to the small

details of life by removing scenery. the spectator

through lending his imagination to the action

restages it inside his own head.

in its healthiest ages the theater has always

exhibited the least scenery. aristophanes’s The

clouds—423 B.c. two houses are represented

on the stage, inside of one of them we see two

beds. Strepsiades is talking in his sleep about his

racehorses. a few minutes later he crosses the

stage to Socrates’s house, the idea Factory, the

“thinkery.” in the Spanish theater lope de vega

put a rug in the middle of the scene—it was a raft in

mid-ocean bearing a castaway. the elizabethans, the

Chinese used similar devices.

BY THoRnTon WILDER, As PRInTED In THE NEW yORk TIMES In 1938

the theater longs to represent the symbols

of things, not the things themselves. all the lies it

tells—the lie that that young lady is Caesar’s wife;

the lie that people can go through life talking in blank

verse; the lie that that man just killed that man--all

those lies enhance the one truth that is there—

the truth that dictated the story, the myth. the

theater asks for as many conventions as possible.

a convention is an agreed-

upon falsehood, an accepted

untruth. When the theater

pretends to give the real

thing in canvas and wood

and metal it loses something

of the realer thing which is

its true business. ibsen and

Chekhov carried realism as

far as it could go, and it took

all their genius to do it. now

the camera is carrying it on

and is in great “theoretical

peril” of falling short of

literature. (in a world of

actual peril that “theoretical

peril” looks very far-fetched,

but ex-college professors must be indulged.)

but the writing of the play was not

accompanied by any such conscious

argumentation as this. it sprang from a deep

admiration for those little white towns in the hills

and from a deep devotion to the theater. these

are but the belated gropings to reconstruct what

may have taken place when the play first presented

itself—the life of a village against the life of the stars.

in an earlier draft of the play there were some

other lines that led up to those which now serve as

its motto. the Stage manager has been talking about

the material that is being placed in the cornerstone

of the new bank at grover’s Corners, material

that has been chemically treated so that it will last

a thousand or two thousand years. he suggests

that this play has been placed there so that future

ages will know more about the life of the average

person; more than just the Treaty of Versailles and

the lindbergh Flight—see

what i mean?

Well, people a thousand

years from now, in the

provinces north of new

york at the beginning of the

twentieth Century, people

ate three times a day—soon

after dawn, at noon, and at

sunset.

every seventh day, by law

and by religion, there was

a day of rest and all work

came to a stop.

the religion at that time

was Christianity; but I guess

you have other records

about Christianity.

the domestic set-up was marriage, a binding

relation between a male and one female that lasted

for life.

…anything else? oh, yes, when people died they

were buried in the ground just as they were.

Well, people a thousand years from now, this

is the way we were—in our growing-up, in our

marrying, in our doctoring, in our living, and in our

dying.

now let’s get back to our day in grover’s

Corners…

36

P R e F A c e t o o u r t o w n c o n t i n U e d

“The theater longs to represent the symbols

of things, not the things themselves. All the lies

it tells […]-all those lies enhance the one truth that is there—the truth that dictated the story,

the myth.”

37

G L o s s A R Yo F t H e A t R e t e R m s

SET: the physical structure which creates the world of the play on stage.

pROpS: Small hand held items used by actors to create the period, character, or setting.

STAGE MANAGER: person responsible for the physical set up, actors, and technical cues of a production.

DRAMATuRGy: Contextualizing a show through research both historically and in the world today.

pANTOMIME: to perform a story or action without words, relying on gesture alone.

COSTuMES: the clothing actors where to denote their character.

CuE: anything said or done, on or off stage, that is followed by a specific line or action.

CROSS: When an actor moves from one side of the stage to the other.

bLOCkING: the series of movements each actor has within a play.

ARCHETypE: an example representative of a certain type of person or thing. also a recurrent symbol or motif. an archetype instantaneously brings to mind a description of physical appearance and/or specific behaviors. Examples include: Girl-Next-door, golden boy, jock, know-it-all.

THE FOuRTH WALL: a term used to describe the separation between the characters on stage and the audience.

STAGE DIRECTIONS

upstage right upstage upstage left

Stage right Center Stage Stage left

downstage right downstage downstage left

AuDIENCE

What is the significance of calling one of the characters the Stage Manager?

This show is performed without props. Given the definition of props and pantomime, infer the symbolic significance does that choice has?

What do you think the term “breaking the forth wall” refers to?

i n t H e c L A s s R o o m

38 39

c U R R i c U L U mc o n n e c t i o n s

We belIeve ThaT TheaTre can sUPPorT and work in tandem with everyday classroom activities and scholastic goals. below are some suggested activities that can be done for each production, with a focus on vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and writing.

vocabUlary

• Highlight words in the script that are unfamiliar.

• Write definitions in the margins of the script.

• Find synonyms for new vocabulary words.

• Find antonyms for new vocabulary words.

• Study the new vocabulary words for spelling tests.

comPrehens Ion

• Create a story map for the play.

• Create a biography for one of the characters.

• Map out the relationships in the play.

• Summarize the play.

• Summarize each individual scene.

• Summarize the play from the perspective of one of the characters.

• Answer the essay and text-related questions.

• Discuss the play’s themes.

• Discuss the current events that correlate with the themes of the play.

• Cut out articles from magazines and newspapers that discuss some of the issues and topics brought up in the play.

f lUency

• Read the script aloud in a large circle.

• Pair up and read scenes aloud together.

• Pick a character and focus on reading his/her lines with accuracy and expression.

• Switch roles so that the students have a chance to experiment with different vocal expressions for different characters (tone, tempo, and volume).

Wr I T Ing

• Write journal entries or monologues using vocabulary words.

• Write a journal entry or monologue from the perspective of one of the characters.

• Write a scene depicting part of the story that we hear about in the play, but is not in the stage action.

• Write a review of the production.

• Write a letter to one of the cast members, designers, director, playwright, or staff members sharing your impression and questions regarding the show.

• Write a letter from one character to another.

• Write a new ending to the play.

39

F o R t H e F i R s t - t i m e t H e A t R e G o e R

DO arrive early. Make considerations for traffic, parking, waiting in line, having your ticket taken, and finding your seat. If you need to pick up your tickets from the box office, it is a good idea to arrive at least twenty minutes early. generally, you can take your seat when “the house is open,” about half an hour before the show begins. late seating is always distracting and usually not allowed until intermission or a transition between scenes, if it is allowed at all. Follow the old actors’ mantra:

to be early is to be on time.

to be on time is to be late.

to be late is unForgivable.

DO dress appropriately. Going to the theatre is a special event for many people, and your clothing should reflect your respect. the dress code is casual, but not sloppy: hats, bandannas, and revealing clothes are a bad idea. nice jeans are okay, but those with holes are not.

do turn off your cell phone. phones and any other noise-making devices should be switched off before you even enter the theatre: you won’t be allowed to use them anyway. texting during a performance is also rude. the intermission is a good time to use your phone, but remember to turn it off again before the next act begins.

don’t leave your garbage in the theatre. Food and drinks are usually not permitted in the theatre at all, with the exception of bottled water. if it is allowed, be sure to throw out your trash in a garbage can or recycling bin in the lobby; don’t leave it for the house manager or ushers at the end of a show.

DO watch your step. Aisles can be narrow, so please be considerate when finding your seat. Avoid getting up during the performance whenever possible, since it can be very distracting. you can use the restroom before the show and during intermission. also, be careful not to cross in front of the stage, as it will break the illusion of the show. don’t step on or over seats, and never walk on the stage itself.

don’t talk during the performance. Chatting is extremely rude to the actors and the audience around you. everyone is trying to pay attention to the play and those nearby will be able to hear, so please be quiet and considerate.

do get into it! actors feed off of the audience, just as the audience feeds off of the actors. don’t be afraid to laugh, clap, or cry if you are so moved. however, there is a line that can be crossed. please be respectful, and don’t distract from the work of the professionals on stage. after all, people paid good money to watch the show, not you. just enjoy the experience and let yourself have an honest response.

In THEATRE ETIquETTE, THE MAJoR consIDERATIon To kEEP In

MInD Is THAT YouR AcTIons cAn BE DIsTRAcTIng noT onLY To

THE REsT oF THE AuDIEncE, BuT To THE AcToRs on sTAgE As

WELL. BEHAvIoR THAT Is AccEPTABLE In oTHER PuBLIc sETTIngs,

LIkE MovIE THEATREs, BALLgAMEs, oR concERTs, Is ouT oF

PLAcE WHEn ATTEnDIng THE THEATRE.

THE FoLLoWIng TIPs sHouLD HELP You gET AcquAInTED WITH

soME Dos AnD Don’Ts FoR FIRsT-TIME THEATREgoERs.