Went over to Oberlin last night to see a production of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town". Oberlin has a really laudable theater group that puts on free plays in the summer. Their mission as they see it is to allow folks and families of any income level the opportunity to take in a live play. They get a handful of real equity or guild (or whatever they call them) actors, but also cast their productions with Cleveland region people who have been on a few stages in their time, so the quality is quite excellent. And a few foundations and generous donors help foot the bill.At least "Our Town" doesn't have much of a budget for set design. The stage is stark, with a couple trellises, two tables, some chairs...that's about it. And the construction of the play itself is pretty uncommon. The first act takes you through a typical day, at least through the eyes of a couple families and some passers-by who live in Grovers Corners, New Hampshire, with a population of a couple thousand people, give or take. The second act walks you through the courtshup and marriage of the son and daughter in the two spotlighted families. Just so I do not spoil things any further, I will just mention that the third act takes on a hue of its own, and is a bit more sad and reflective. It presents quite a comment on the human condition - but left me feeling a challenge somewhat akin to that presented in my last post about finding God in the ordinary. In this case, the challenge is to realize that all those details in life are what make up this life, so we should all pay attention and appreciate it while we are here on Earth.
I had never seen this play, so it was good to work it in. It was well done. The play debuted in 1936, so it has been around, but it has that timeless quality that speaks to us now as well as it spoke back in the 30's. The Oberlin company only diverted from Wilder's script in that Dr. Gibbs' family was played here by African Americans. The great thing about this was that it had nothing to do with the plot, and I never gave the racial angle a second thought.
3 comments:
How neat that they put the shows on for free. Theater anyone can afford. I like that. My school put on Our Town when I was in high school. It was good as I remember. :)
I just did a HUGE comment and my stupid net went down. So all I'm gonna say now is I saw Our Town as a teenager at the Eagles Mere Playhouse. Every summer we would have season tickets to the Playhouse and got to see lots of excellent plays, from Shakespere to Arthur Miller to Ibsen to Wilder. Loved them all!! Alvina Krause was the founder of the playhouse so many famous actors passed through there as unknowns.
"Our Town" was was my Junior Class Play in High School. I played Doc Gibbs and fell in love with the show.
It sure makes you think about your everyday life, particularly if you have lost someone close to you recently.
I was lucky enough to see a production of the play on Broadway with Henry Fonda as the stage manager.It was fabulous.
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