Our Town: A Play in Three Acts (Perennial Classics) by Thornton

Wilder

The Face Of Eternity And The Mind Of God

This beautiful new edition features an eye-opening Afterword written by

Tappan Wilder that includes Thornton Wilders unpublished notes and other

illuminating photographs and documentary material.

Our Town was first produced and published in 1938 to wide acclaim. This Pulitzer Prize–winning drama of life in the small village of Grovers Corners,

an allegorical representation of all life, has become a classic. It is Thornton

Wilders most renowned and most frequently performed play.

Features:

* ISBN13: 9780060512637

* Condition: NEW

* Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

* Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

By most accounts Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) considered himself a

teacher rather than a writer--a curious situation given than he won

numerous literary awards, including three Pulitzers. Among these prize-

winners was OUR TOWN, first staged in 1938. It is generally considered to

be the single most famous play written by an American author, and Samuel French Inc., which holds the amateur performance rights, states

that it is performed at least once a day somewhere in the world, as popular

abroad as at home.

The play is perhaps most widely known for the way in which it is staged.

The stage is bare. A few chairs, stools, tables, and ladders are used to

indicate a kitchen, a bed room window, a soda fountain, a cemetery and

other locations; the actors mime use of imaginary glasses, plates, bowls,

satchels, and boxes.

The story is equally simple. The first act introduces us to the town, Grovers

Corners in New Hampshire, seen in the early years of the 20th Century --

and most particularly to the Gibbs and Webb families, who live next door to

each other. The second act finds boy-next-door George and girl-next-door Emily marrying, and a flash-black shows the audience how their romance

began. It is a simple tale, full of details of small town life, church choir on

Wednesday night, milk delivered fresh each morning, breakfast to be

made, chickens to be fed--and slowly, as the action moves forward, we are

drawn into this simple way of life and its seemingly endless and trivial

repetitions.

Wilder swirls a number of themes throughout the work, themes that are

simple yet profound, details of the particular and the universal--and these

gather suddenly, unexpectedly in the third and final act, which comes as a

shock after the charming ease of the play. Emily has died in childbirth and

she takes her place in the cemetery among the dead, all of whom patiently

wait and watch for something which is not yet clear, the minutes passing

one by one into eternity, their memories of life fading into nothingness, a

portrait of darkness that is yet somehow still seeded with light. It is here that Wilder makes his ultimate statement: who are you when you have

been shorn of all earthly details and devices? Where do you exist within

the mind of God?

Many non-theatre people find playscripts difficult to read, and in truth

playscripts are a blueprint for directors and actors and not intended as

reading material for the general public. This is preface to the very basic

statement that some plays read well and some do not--and that this is not

necessarily an indication of how the play actually performs. On the page,

OUR TOWN reads a bit flat; it seems a shade obvious, a shade ordinary.

On the stage, however, it easily one of the most delicately beautiful

constructs imaginable, a play which demonstrates the beauty and value of

each life--no matter how ordinary it may be. Remarkable stuff and strongly

recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

For More 5 Star Customer Reviews and Lowest Price: Our Town: A Play in Three Acts (Perennial Classics) by Thornton Wilder - 5 Star

Customer Reviews and Lowest Price!