Our Town by Thornton Wilder Know-the-Show Audience Guide researched and written by Amy Crossman, Meredith Keffer and Doug West for the Education Department of The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Cover illustration by Scott McKowen The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Our Town: Know-the-Show Guide In This Guide – The Life of Thornton Wilder.........................................................................................2 – Our Town: An Introduction.........................................................................................4 – Who’s Who: The Characters in Our Town....................................................................5 – A Brief Production History of Our Town......................................................................7 – Explore Online: Links.................................................................................................9 – Commentary and Criticism.......................................................................................10 – In This Production.....................................................................................................11 – Sources and Further Reading.....................................................................................12 1 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Our Town: Know-the-Show Guide The Life Wilder’s writing career began at Oberlin College, where he wrote several pieces for the Oberlin Literary Magazine. His college writing career moved with him to Yale where he Thornton Wilder continued to have his work published, this time in the Yale of Literary Magazine. Thornton Niven Wilder was born on April 17th, 1897 in Madison, After graduating from Yale in 1920, Wilder travelled to Rome Wisconsin, and was one of and the American Academy for Classical Studies at his five surviving children born to father’s insistance. While studying there Isabella Thornton Niven, and he began to work on his first novel, Amos Parker Wilder, Editor of the The Memoirs of a Roman Student. “He was a Wisconsin Journal. Thornton had After a summer in Rome, Wilder an older brother, Amos and three returned to the States to take a surviving twin, younger sisters: Charlotte, Isabel job as a French teacher at The and all of his life he and Janet. Thornton himself had Lawrenceville School, a private searched for the alter Photo of Thornton Wilder from an identical stillborn twin. school for boys located in ego lost at birth.” thorntonwilder.com Lawrenceville, NJ. In 1906, Wilder’s father, Amos, -Terry Theodore accepted a consul post in Hong Kong and relocated the family. While teaching at the Lawrenceville Within six months, Isabella and Amos agreed to a temporary School, Wilder continued to write, and separation and Mrs. Wilder returned to the US with her children, the novel he began in Rome as The Memoirs settling in Berkeley, California. Between the years of 1906 and of a Roman Student was later published as The Cabala in 1926. 1915 the Wilder family moved back and forth across the Pacific While teaching in Lawrenceville and writing his first novel, Ocean, but Thornton would eventually graduate from Berkeley Wilder also took the opportunity to complete a Master’s Degree High School in 1915. Wilder was forced by his father to attend in French at nearby Princeton University. After finishing his Oberlin College for two years, and then allowed to transfer to degree, Wilder took a leave of absence from The Lawrenceville Yale University, his father’s alma mater. School to complete work on his second novel, The Bridge of San 2 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Our Town: Know-the-Show Guide Luis Rey which was published in 1927 and earned Wilder his during WWII, Wilder’s 1942 play The Skin of Our Teeth first Pulitzer Prize. 1927 also yielded the production of Wilder’s premiered back in the States and earned him his third Pulitzer first play, The Trumpet Shall Sound. Prize (his second for Drama). After returning home from his time overseas, Wilder continued to write both fiction and drama, In 1929, Wilder was invited to teach at The University of publishing a short “dramatic burlesque” called Our Century, and Chicago by a former Oberlin classmate. While there, his a novel based on the final days of Julius Caesar’s reign which he teaching schedule was structured to allow him ample time to titled The Ides of March. write, which he did at a furious pace. The Woman of Andros (1930), The Angel That Troubled the Waters, and Other Plays Thornton Wilder continued to write throughout the rest of his (1931), The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden (1931), life, garnering both critical praise and awards. He was given Lucrèce (an adaptation of Andre Obey’s Le Viol de Lucrece, the 1963 United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, the 1965 1932), Heaven’s My Destination (1934), as well as other short National Medal of Literature, and his 1967 novel The Eighth pieces of fiction and short, one-act dramas were all published Day earned a National Book Award. His final novel, the semi- during this time. autobiographical Theopolis North was published in 1973 and two years later, on December 7, 1975, Thornton Niven Wilder In 1936, Wilder retired from teaching and devoted himself to died in his sleep. Mr. Wilder never married and was extremely traveling and writing full time. In 1937 he completed a play guarded about his personal life and relationships. He was called The Merchant of Yonkers, which would later be rewritten survived by his younger sister, Isabel, who had acted as his as The Matchmaker in 1954 and ultimately adapted into the secretary and confidant for most of his professional career. musical Hello, Dolly! which premiered on Broadway in 1964. In 1937, he began work on a more serious play. Originally titled Our Village, Thornton Wilder published Our Town in 1938. While it was not an instant critical success, Our Town was an automatic hit with audiences and eventually led to his second Pulitzer Prize (his first for Drama). While serving his country as a member of the Army Air Corps 3 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Our Town: Know-the-Show Guide In the third act we are led to the cemetery on the hill, where many of the townspeople we have come to know so well are Our Town patiently and smilingly awaiting not “judgment” but greater An Introduction understanding. Into their midst is led the bride, a little timid at first, a little wishful to go back to life, to live again with her Originally titled Our Village, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town is memories. But she is shown how impossible, how futile it is arguably his most popular work. First published and produced to return. The past cannot be re-lived. Living people, humans, in 1938, Our Town was awarded the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for occupied with their petty occupations and small thoughts, know Drama. Wilder himself offered readers what he called the “Story little of true joy or happiness. Truth is to be found only in the of the Play” as a preface to the script itself: future. Thornton Wilder as The Stage Manager in a production of Our Town, a role THE STORY OF THE PLAY he played many In the first act the author genially outlines the history of the times throughout his life. town, Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, and something of the character of its citizens. Then he carries you into the houses of the Gibbs and Webb families, substantial homes containing substantial folks. You arrive at breakfast and are carried through one day in the lives of these good people. The second act concerns the love affair between young George Gibbs and little Emily Webb, and thus culminates in a moving wedding scene, which contains all those elements of poignant sorrow and abundant happiness that make for solemnity and impressiveness. Photo from the Beineke Libraray collection. 4 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Our Town: Know-the-Show Guide Who’sIn Whothe Play Stage Manager – An omnipresent narrator who serves as our guide to Grover’s Corners and throughout the play. He moves seamlessly back and forth between our world in the theatre, and the world of the play. The Webbs Charles Webb – The patriarch of the Webb family, Mr. Webb is the editor of the town paper, The Grover’s Corners Sentinel. Not originally from Grover’s Corners, he settled there after attending Hamilton College in Costume renderings by Candida Nichols for the 2013 production of Our Town. Martha Scott, Upstate New York. the actress who Myrtle Webb – The wife of Editor originated the role The Gibbs of Emily Webb in the Webb, born and raised in Grover’s Frank Gibbs – The patriarch of the Gibbs family, ‘Doc’ Gibbs is 1938 stage production, Corners, Mrs. Webb was, by her own the town doctor and the local expert on the Civil War. He also played her in the admission, “the prettiest girl in town, 1940 film adaptation. was born and raised in Grover’s Corners. next to Maime Cartwright.” Mother to Julia (Hersey) Gibbs – From one of the oldest families in Emily and Wally, she also sings in the Grover’s Corners, Mrs. Gibbs is wife to Frank and mother Congregational Church Choir. to George and Rebecca. She sings in the church choir with Emily Webb – Arguably the central character Mrs. Webb. of the story, Emily is the oldest of the Webb children, and we George Gibbs – The eldest of the Gibbs children, we see George see her progress from a well spoken teenager in the first act, grow from a boy with dreams of baseball to a man with to a wife and mother in the third. dreams of a family farm. Wally Webb – Emily’s younger brother, he spends his time Rebecca Gibbs – George’s young sister, she hates gingham studying Canada and not eating his bacon. dresses, especially blue ones. 5 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Our Town: Know-the-Show Guide Who’sIn Whothe Play Joe Crowell – The oldest of the Crowell boys, he delivers The Grover’s Corners Sentinel to all of its subscribers. Si Crowell – The younger brother of Joe, Si becomes the town paperboy in his brother’s absence.