Our Town comes to the Town of Washington

by Charlotte Manning

As I write this, the Dear Citizens of Grover’s Corners are into their final week of rehearsals.  As you, Dear Citizens of Washington Island, read this, opening night of Island Players’ production of Our Town is tomorrow!

There will be three performances at Trinity Fellowship Hall of this Pulitzer Prize winning play by Thornton Wilder:  Friday, February 18 at 7pm and Saturday, February 19 at 2pm and 7pm.

Since its Broadway debut in 1938, Our Town has been presented uncounted times as a stage play, including once on the island in 1979.  It was made into a movie starring William Holden and Martha Scott, into a musical starring Frank Sinatra, Paul Newman, and Eva Marie Saint, into an opera, and at least three times as t.v. productions.  It was seen again on Broadway in 2009, where it ran for 644 performances.

Our Town has from the beginning to the present day, maintained its appeal and its challenge.  No gimmicks, no technical dazzle, no props, barely a set. Its minimal staging frees the imagination, allowing audiences to identify with the simple but meaningful lives of the people of the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, population 2,642.

Grover’s Corners, as 17 year old Emily observes, is not a “very important place when you think of all New Hampshire.”  For playwright, Thornton Wilder, it is a macrocosm of community life the world over: folks going through the routines and rituals of their lives without fully appreciating the richness of the lives they are leading.

A stage manager serves as all-knowing narrator and guide, both inside the play and outside of it.  He weaves the strands of the several themes together: the characters’ absorption in the flurry of everyday events and their inattentiveness to time, as if they had all the time in the  world.  The quest for companionship, friendship, and love, the wide-ranging bonds between human beings.  “Blessed Be the Tie that Binds” becomes the theme song.  And, finally, the observation that we may have 20-20 vision yet still be blind.

The creator of Our Town, Thornton Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1897.  He lived part of his childhood in China, where his father was a diplomat.  Wilder received a degree at Yale and then a Master’s in French at Princeton.  He taught at several colleges, including University of Chicago, University of Hawaii, and Harvard.  He served in WWI and WWII.

Wilder considered himself a teacher first and writer second.  Listen for a line spoken by a newspaper boy, “…I think if a person starts out to be a teacher, she ought to stay one.”  Even so, he wrote constantly.  Wilder won two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama:  Our Town and Skin of Our Teeth and one for his novel Bridge of San Luis Rey. His novel, The Eighth Day won a National Book Award. In 1963, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  In all, 17 plays and 8 novels plus numerous screen plays, libretti for operas, and translations of French poetry.

Reprise of Our Town. 

Saturday, Sunday June 11th, 12th 7:30pm. 

Trinity Fellowship Hall.

Tickets - $12 for adults; $6 students through high school. Advance Tickets go on sale May 28th at the Red Cup and The Rec. Center For information, contact Joyce Morehouse - 920-847-2215 .

 

Our Town Cast

Stage Manager…………………………....…Ham Rutledge

Dr. Gibbs………………….………………..…Howard Scott

Joe Crowell………………….………………. Oliver Hansen

Howie Newsom………………….……..……Phil Green

Mrs. Gibbs…………….……….…………..…Cindra Hokkanen

Mrs. Webb………………………………….…Carol Amadio

George Gibbs………………….……….……Nick Knutsen

Rebecca Gibbs………………Annabelle Hansen/Carsen Ervin

Wally Webb……………………….…………Alex Johnson

Emily Webb………………………………....Ashley Wacaser

Professor Willard………………….………Terry Henkel

Mr. Webb……………………………………Jens Hansen

Simon Stimpson……………………………Tom Noonan

Mrs. Soames …………………….…………Carolyn Foss

Constable Warren…………….…………..Doc Westring

Si Crowell………………… ………….….…Oliver Hansen

Sam Craig…………….……………….……Phil Green

Joe Stoddard……………….……………..Doc Westring

Additional actors playing minor ensemble roles: Janet Engstrom, Lee Engstrom, Emily Dompke, Autumn Dompke, Carissa nn, Joyce Morehouse

Director……………………………..………Dave Ranney

Asistant Direcotor……………………..…Charlotte Manning

Producer…………………………………..Joyce Morehouse