Our Town is a 1938 three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. Wilder called Our Town
his favorite out of all his works, but he complained that it was rarely done
right, insisting that it "should be performed without sentimentality or
ponderousness--simply, dryly, and sincerely." It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Wilder
was dissatisfied with the theatre of his time, so he uses meta-theatrical
elements such as setting the play in the actual theatre where it is being
performed, but the year is always 1938. The play tells the story of the fictional American small town of Grover's Corners between
1901 and 1913 through the everyday lives of its citizens. 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 Stage Manager of the 1938 production introduces the
play-within-the-play which is set in the fictional community of Grover's
Corners, New Hampshire. The Stage Manager gives the coordinates of Grover's
Corners as 42°40′ north latitude and 70°37′ west longitude (those coordinates
are actually in Massachusetts, about a thousand feet off the coast of
Rockport). The Stage Manager, is completely aware of his relationship with the
audience, leaving him free to break the fourth wall and address them directly.
According to the script, the play is to be performed with little scenery, no
set, and minimal props. The characters mime the objects with which they
interact. Their surroundings are created only with chairs, tables, staircases,
and ladders. For example, the scene in which Emily helps George with his
evening homework, conversing through upstairs windows, is performed with the
two actors standing atop separate ladders to represent their neighboring
houses.
Act I: Daily Life
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. Professor Willard speaks to the audience about the history of the town.
Joe Crowell delivers the paper to Doc Gibbs, Howie Newsome delivers the milk,
and the Webb and Gibbs households send their children (Emily and George,
respectively) off to school on this beautifully simple morning.
-Act II: Love and Marriage
Three
years have passed, and George and Emily prepare to wed. The day is filled with
stress. Howie Newsome is delivering milk in the pouring rain while Si Crowell,
younger brother of Joe, laments how George's baseball talents will be
squandered. George pays an awkward visit to his soon-to-be in-laws. Here, the
Stage Manager interrupts the scene and takes the audience back a year, to the
end of Emily and George's junior year. Emily confronts George about his pride,
and over an ice cream soda, they discuss the future and their love for each
other. George resolves not to go to college, as he had planned, but to work and
eventually take over his uncle's farm. In the present, George and Emily say
that they are not ready to marry—George to his mother, Emily to her father—but
they both calm down and happily go through with the wedding.
Act III: Death and Eternity
Nine
years have passed. The Stage Manager opens the act with a lengthy monologue
emphasizing eternity, bringing the audience's attention to the cemetery outside
of town and the characters who have died since the wedding, including Mrs.
Gibbs (pneumonia, while traveling), Wally Webb (burst appendix, while camping),
Mrs. Soames, and Simon Stimson (suicide by hanging). Town undertaker Joe
Stoddard is introduced, as is a young man named Sam Craig who has returned to
Grover's Corners for his cousin's funeral. That cousin is Emily, who died
giving birth to her and George's second child. Once the funeral ends, Emily
emerges to join the dead; Mrs. Gibbs urges her to forget her life, but she refuses.
Ignoring the warnings of Simon, Mrs. Soames, and Mrs. Gibbs, Emily returns to
Earth to relive one day, her 12th birthday. The memory proves too painful for
her, and she realizes that every moment of life should be treasured. When she
asks the Stage Manager if anyone truly understands the value of life while they
live it, he responds, "No. The saints and poets, maybe—they do some."
Emily returns to her grave next to Mrs. Gibbs and watches impassively as George
kneels weeping over her. The Stage Manager concludes the play and wishes the
audience a good night.
http://articles.mcall.com/1999-11-03/features/3277947_1_stage-manager-wilder-emily-webb
