Contact: Tom McLaughlin 3504 Harry Langdon Lewis Central High School Director of Theatre Boulevard Phone 712-366-8322, ext 8283 Council Bluffs, Iowa 51503 Department of Theatre

Cell P [email protected] Fax 712-366-8340 [email protected] Continuing the Winning Tradition of Excellence Press Release

139 Students Mount LC’s Production of th Thornton Wilder’s 75 anniversary production of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning American classic OUR TOWN

The performances are on Friday, November 8 and Saturday, November 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the Lewis Central Auditorium at the Middle School. The house opens for seating at 7:00 pm for general seating. Tickets are available from members of the OUR TOWN team, in the LCHS Principal’s Office and at the door on the nights of the show. Tickets prices are $5.00 for students in advance and $7.00 and $7.00 for adults in advance and $9.00 at the door.

Council Bluffs Iowa—October 18, 2013: As part of a national celebration of the play’s 75th anniversary, the Lewis Central High School will perform Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic Our Town this Friday, November 8 & Saturday, November 9 at 7:30 pm at the Lewis Central Auditorium at the Middle School.

Set in Grover's Corners, a quintessentially American town at the turn-of-the-last-century, Our Town is a powerful and poetic reminder of the precious nature of everyday existence. As the Stage Manager in the LC production, Connor Strait narrates Wilder's immortal tale of birth, love, marriage, death and daily life. "Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anyone to realize you," says Emily, played in the LC production by Haley Dunop. The large cast, directed by Tom McLaughlin and Tom Heckman, also includes a cast and directing team/production of over 60 students and an additional 79 students who have contributed by being on one of the crews who have been working daily since early September on the project.

Quotations from the Directors

“This is truly one of my favorite plays and is incredibly poetic because of how it speaks to audience members of different ages so differently—it’s what makes the show so brilliant. Our life experiences actually a huge role in how what we see. High school students will truly see and entirely different show

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Page 2 LCHS Continues Performing Arts Winning Tradition of Excellence than their parents will see. And their parents will see an entirely different show too.” Tom McLaughlin, Director of Theatre

“After 40 years of teaching and nearly 20 years of directing shows with Mr. McLaughlin, working with so many talented young people still inspires me.” Tom Heckman, Co-director

About Our Town

Thornton Wilder's most famous play transports the audience into the everyday lives of the citizens of Grover's Corners, a fictional New Hampshire town in the early 1900s. With a minimalist theatrical environment The play is split into three acts - as the Stage Manager describes, "The first act [is] called the Daily Life. [The second] act is called Love and Marriage. There's another act coming after this: I reckon you can guess what that's about." The story centers on two families, the Gibbses and the Webbs; through each act, we watch George Gibbs and Emily Webb (Haley Dunlop) grow into adulthood and experience their journey through both the ordinary and the extraordinary moments of life, love and death.

Our Town premiered in New York on February 4, 1938 at Henry Miller's Theatre to a thrilled audience and a standing ovation. The New York Times hailed the play as "beautifully evocative," and named it "one of the finest achievements of the current stage." Our Town cemented its place in history when Wilder was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1938. In the 75 years since its premiere in 1938, Our Town has become one of the classics of the Great American play canon. Our Town is produced so frequently by American schools, community theatres and professional regional theatres that the play is performed at least once every day. Through permission of the Wilder estate, Lewis Central’s current production is a part of the current national celebration, which includes readings and special performances in New York and Washington, D.C.

The cast includes: Connor Strait as the Stage Manager; Maggie Miller as Mrs. Gibbs; Kyler Nixon as Doc Gibbs; Krete Bullington as George Gibbs; Delayne Andrews as Rebecca Gibbs; Bailey Penner as Editor Webb; Morgan Jones as Mrs. Webb; Haley Dunlop as Emily Webb; Zach Schaben as Wally Webb; Andrew Schnitker as Howie Newsome; Elizabeth Geier, Mrs. Soames; Anthony Maldonado, Constable Warren; Austin Dunham as Nick Nichols as Simon Stimson; Zach Schaben as Professor Willard; Delayne Andrews, Rebecca Webb; Olivia Overholtzer, Samantha Craig; Ryan Clark, Belligerent Man/Dead Man; Kitty Terhune, Assistant Stage Manager/Woman in the Auditorium; Harley Waldstein, Joe Stoddard; Jonny Cox, Assistant Stage Manager/Baseball Player/Dead Man/Choir; River Lodes, Baseball Player/Si Crowell.

The directing team and production team include: Abigail Brickley, Costume Coordinator; Chelsea Bortolotti, Student Director; Pat Clark, Spotlight; Josie Ellis, Shift Coordinator/Assistant Stage Manager Natalie Force, Directing Team/Spotlight Operator; Dominika Jedinak, Stage Manager/Directing Team; Mason Jones, Technical Director; Callie Mescher, Assistant to the Director; Haley Sanders, Sound Operator/Designer; Payton Schmidt, Production Team; Shelby Smith, Directing Team; Broderick Strait, Student Director; Nhan Trinh, Production Team; Macey Vershoor, Production Team.

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The OUR TOWN ensemble includes: Ryne Beckman, OUR TOWN Ensemble/Choir; Jamie Bowen, OUR TOWN Ensemble/Choir, Katie Brougham, OUR TOWN Ensemble/Choir, Garrett Carver, Assistant Stage Manager, Emma Cortney, OUR TOWN Ensemble/Choir; Saxztinh Donaldson, Assistant Stage OUR TOWN Ensemble/Choir; Olivia Behm, OUR TOWN Ensemble/Choir; Ethan Trobaugh, OUR TOWN Ensemble/Choir/Dead Man; Anita Tucker, OUR TOWN Ensemble/Choir; Rindy Tucker, OUR TOWN Ensemble/Choir; Paige Hickey, Justin Rosenbohm, OUR TOWN Ensemble/Choir/Baseball Player; Alajandra Shell, OUR TOWN Ensemble/Choir; Anita Tucker, OUR TOWN Ensemble/Choir; Rindy Tucker, OUR TOWN Ensemble/Choir.

Other set and paint crew include: Emily Albertsen, Sarah Allmon, Tiffani Armstrong, Megan Bailey , Jonathon Ballenger, Olivia Behm , Erika Benson, Sebastian Bergantzel, Mitch Brinkman, Lily Bagley, Patrick Bicket, Crystal Brandenburgh, Shelby Bruun, Nathan Charleson, Nicole Christiansen, Luke Cianciaruso, Natalie Cochran, Vanessa Cox, Katelyn Davis, Cullen Donnelly, Alyssa Dorris, Ellie Hulsing, Jillian Fenwick, Damien Fink, Claire Fleming, Kacie Foss, Brianna Foster, Haley French, Taylor Fulsos, Paige Funkhouser, Amberly Gallant, Janalee Gardner, Ethan, Grace, Saleena Gooch, Madyson Hamblin, Mckenna Hanafan, Dustin Harbeck, Tanner Hawkinson, Paige Hickey, Dylan Hiles, Jordy Jensen, Allie Johnson, Tracey Kozak, Kassie Larsen, Cory Lear, Zackary Lenihan, Matthew Lustgraaf, Kye Madsen, Nash Maxwell, Dani McComas ,Nicole Miller , Katie Moore, Taylor Moore, Kristian Nielsen, Jocelyn Nightser, Joseph O’Brien, Brenden O’Brien , Christopher Ogg, Jessica Pearey, Brendon Quant, Morgen Rapp, Brianna Raymer, Kaylee Reynolds, Brian Rew, Max Regester, Ciara Renshaw, Brian Rew, Anthony Rich, Michaela Rodarte, Justin Rosenbohm, Johnathan Sanchez, Justin Schafer-Hanson, Ryan Scheidle, Emily Sieleman Eric Shoemaker, Justin Schneider, Clarissa Scott , Grant Simmons, Erica Smith, Taylor Smith, Daytona Smith, Emma Smith, Denae Statzer, Natalie Swanson, Katie Taylor , Natalie Thomas, Conner Thompson, Travis Thompson, Ethan Trobough, Cody VanWinkle, Grant Wambold, Haley Whitesel , Kayla Whitesel , Paxton Whiteaker, Kegan Walker, James Watson, Cameron Williams Macey Vershoor, Production Team

Other set and paint crew include:

More about the Playwright

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) began his writing career in Ojai, while studying at the Thatcher School as a young boy during his family's brief stay in California. However, Wilder spent most of his childhood split between Madison, Wisconsin and Hong Kong, where his father served as the American consul general for a number of years. He was educated at Yale and Princeton. Wilder was celebrated both as a novelist and a playwright; he used both mediums to explore the relationship between the ordinary and the extraordinary occurrences of life, a theme for which he was famous. Wilder received three Pulitzer Prizes in his lifetime - one for his novel "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" (1927), and two for his plays Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1943). Another play of Wilder's The Matchmaker ran on Broadway for 486 performances in the years 1955-1957, and was later adapted into the classic musical Hello, Dolly!. He received the 1968 National Book Award for his novel "The Eighth Day."

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In addition to his immensely successful writing career, Wilder also lent his talents to translation, opera librettos, lecturing, teaching, and acting. He also experimented with film; he is best known in this field for his classic screenplay of Alfred Hitchcock's thriller "Shadow of a Doubt." Critically acclaimed and internationally recognized, Wilder's honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Book Committee's Medal for Literature.

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