weekly Our Town Photo
Pictured: Tokyo's New National Theatre’s 2011 production. Directed by Miyata Keiko with a translation by Mizutani Hachiya. Kosakai Kazuki as the Stage Manager, pictured here in Act III, with the cast. Photo by Yakou Masahiko. (click to enlarge)
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“Our Town was a memorable production that I took part in, during summer stock at Adelphi University, while a theatre major at Stephens College, in Columbia, Mo.. I played one of the graveyard members, and remember that I had to master not blinking, for the entire scene. The play made quite an impression on me, as at first I did not understand Emily’s choice of what seemed to me to be such an insignificant day to return to. Then I realized that even what we may view as the most insignificant days of our lives, they contain immense blessings.”
CHRISTINE from THE FLORIDA KEYS
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Featured Our Town News
Photo by Jenny Anderson
JOIN OUR TOWN BROADWAY ON A Special ADVENTURE
From Adam rathe’s FEATURE “T&C Exclusive: Broadway's Our Town Took A Field Trip And Brought Us Along”
“‘It was very special,’ [Julie] Halson says. ‘When I first heard about it, I was like, ‘Really? Can't we look at photos? Why do we have to go there?’ But taking the trip changed her mind. ‘It does mean something to see where he wrote the play,’ she says. ‘He'd been to the MacDowell retreat nine times, and he finished the play in this little studio cottage, and it reminded all of us that art is not easy. Art takes work, art takes reflection. I'm about as spiritual as my coffee cup, but it was very spiritual. It was when we were in a different environment, smelling that air, seeing the birds, hearing those sounds that we realized, oh, this is what Wilder is asking us to pay attention to.’”
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Our Town star Katie Holmes ON THE COVER OF TOWN & CoUNTRY’S SEPTEMBER ISSUE
From Eric Wilson’s FEATURE “All The World’s A STAGE FOR KATIE HOLMES”
"As it happens, earlier this year she was reading Tom Lake, a novel by Ann Patchett that includes a character who has played the role of Emily Webb in Our Town multiple times, when she ran into Leon, whom she had met about 15 years ago while workshopping a production that never got off the ground. Leon broached the subject of casting Holmes, who last appeared Off-Broadway a year ago in The Wanderers (playing, of all things, a famous actress), as Mrs. Webb—Emily’s mother—in his production, which includes Zoey Deutch as Emily, Jim Parsons in the role of the stage manager, and Ephraim Sykes as Emily’s love interest, George Gibbs.”
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About Our Town
Our Town explores the relationship between two young Grover’s Corners neighbors, George Gibbs and Emily Webb, whose childhood friendship blossoms into romance, and then culminates in marriage. When Emily looses her life in childbirth, the circle of life portrayed in each of the three acts of Our Town–growing up, adulthood, and death–is fully realized.
Wilder offers a couple of chairs on a bare stage as the backdrop for an exploration of the universal human experience. The simple story of a love affair is constantly rediscovered because it asks timeless questions about the meaning of love, life and death. In the final moments of the play, the recently deceased Emily is granted the opportunity to revisit one day in her life, only to discover that she never fully appreciated all she possessed until she lost it. “Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you,” she says as she takes her place among the dead.
License Our Town
Amateur Productions in the USA, Puerto Rico and Commonwealth Countries:
Samuel French Inc.
All Professional Productions; Amateur Productions outside the USA and Commonwealth Countries:
Alan Brodie Representation Ltd.
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Thornton Wilder Instagram (@thorntonnwilder)
Featured Productions
Int’l
Teatre Lliure - Barcelona, Spain
North America
AMERICAN PLAYERS THEATRE
Bringing Our Town to His City: An Interview with Michel Hausmann
What inspired the creation of Our Town (Multilingual)? What made Thornton Wilder’s story the right fit for your company and community?
Michel Hausmann: Being an immigrant has its perks. For one, I didn’t have to read Our Town in high school like everyone else. I encountered it in my 30s and was blown away. Seriously, it might be the best play I’ve ever read. It stuck with me, and I knew I wanted to do something with it. But how do you bring something new to a play that’s been around, loved, and produced for over 80 years? Especially when there have been some spectacular versions, like Gregory Mosher’s at Lincoln Center and Cromer’s recent revival.