Our Town - The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Town...Our Town by Thornton Wilder Know-the-Show Audience Guide ... one-act dramas were all published during this time. In 1936, Wilder

Our Townby

Thornton Wilder

Know-the-ShowAudience 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

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

InThe Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Our Town: Know-the-Show Guide

1

Thornton Niven Wilder was born

on April 17th, 1897 in Madison,

Wisconsin, and was one of

five surviving children born to

Isabella Thornton Niven, and

Amos Parker Wilder, Editor of the

Wisconsin Journal. Thornton had

an older brother, Amos and three

younger sisters: Charlotte, Isabel

and Janet. Thornton himself had

an identical stillborn twin.

In 1906, Wilder’s father, Amos,

accepted a consul post in Hong Kong and relocated the family.

Within six months, Isabella and Amos agreed to a temporary

separation and Mrs. Wilder returned to the US with her children,

settling in Berkeley, California. Between the years of 1906 and

1915 the Wilder family moved back and forth across the Pacific

Ocean, but Thornton would eventually graduate from Berkeley

High School in 1915. Wilder was forced by his father to attend

Oberlin College for two years, and then allowed to transfer to

Yale University, his father’s alma mater.

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

continued to have his work published, this time in the Yale

Literary Magazine.

After graduating from Yale in 1920, Wilder travelled to Rome

and the American Academy for Classical Studies at his

father’s insistance. While studying there

he began to work on his first novel,

The Memoirs of a Roman Student.

After a summer in Rome, Wilder

returned to the States to take a

job as a French teacher at The

Lawrenceville School, a private

school for boys located in

Lawrenceville, NJ.

While teaching at the Lawrenceville

School, Wilder continued to write, and

the novel he began in Rome as The Memoirs

of a Roman Student was later published as The Cabala in 1926.

While teaching in Lawrenceville and writing his first novel,

Wilder also took the opportunity to complete a Master’s Degree

in French at nearby Princeton University. After finishing his

degree, Wilder took a leave of absence from The Lawrenceville

School to complete work on his second novel, The Bridge of San

2

Photo of Thornton Wilder from thorntonwilder.com

“He was a surviving twin,

and all of his life he searched for the alter

ego lost at birth.”

-Terry Theodore

The Life Thornton Wilderof

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Our Town: Know-the-Show Guide

Luis Rey which was published in 1927 and earned Wilder his

first Pulitzer Prize. 1927 also yielded the production of Wilder’s

first play, The Trumpet Shall Sound.

In 1929, Wilder was invited to teach at The University of

Chicago by a former Oberlin classmate. While there, his

teaching schedule was structured to allow him ample time to

write, which he did at a furious pace. The Woman of Andros

(1930), The Angel That Troubled the Waters, and Other Plays

(1931), The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden (1931),

Lucrèce (an adaptation of Andre Obey’s Le Viol de Lucrece,

1932), Heaven’s My Destination (1934), as well as other short

pieces of fiction and short, one-act dramas were all published

during this time.

In 1936, Wilder retired from teaching and devoted himself to

traveling and writing full time. In 1937 he completed a play

called The Merchant of Yonkers, which would later be rewritten

as The Matchmaker in 1954 and ultimately adapted into the

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

during WWII, Wilder’s 1942 play The Skin of Our Teeth

premiered back in the States and earned him his third Pulitzer

Prize (his second for Drama). After returning home from his

time overseas, Wilder continued to write both fiction and drama,

publishing a short “dramatic burlesque” called Our Century, and

a novel based on the final days of Julius Caesar’s reign which he

titled The Ides of March.

Thornton Wilder continued to write throughout the rest of his

life, garnering both critical praise and awards. He was given

the 1963 United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, the 1965

National Medal of Literature, and his 1967 novel The Eighth

Day earned a National Book Award. His final novel, the semi-

autobiographical Theopolis North was published in 1973 and

two years later, on December 7, 1975, Thornton Niven Wilder

died in his sleep. Mr. Wilder never married and was extremely

guarded about his personal life and relationships. He was

survived by his younger sister, Isabel, who had acted as his

secretary and confidant for most of his professional career.

3


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

patiently and smilingly awaiting not “judgment” but greater

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

memories. But she is shown how impossible, how futile it is

to return. The past cannot be re-lived. Living people, humans,

occupied with their petty occupations and small thoughts, know

little of true joy or happiness. Truth is to be found only in the

future.

Originally titled Our Village, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town is

arguably his most popular work. First published and produced

in 1938, Our Town was awarded the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for

Drama. Wilder himself offered readers what he called the “Story

of the Play” as a preface to the script itself:

The STory of The Play

In the first act the author genially outlines the history of the

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.

4

Our Town An Introduction


Thornton Wilder as The Stage Manager in a production of Our Town, a role he played many times throughout

his life.

Photo from the Beineke Libraray collection.

The Gibbs

Frank Gibbs – The patriarch of the Gibbs family, ‘Doc’ Gibbs is

the town doctor and the local expert on the Civil War. He

was born and raised in Grover’s Corners.

Julia (Hersey) Gibbs – From one of the oldest families in

Grover’s Corners, Mrs. Gibbs is wife to Frank and mother

to George and Rebecca. She sings in the church choir with

Mrs. Webb.

George Gibbs – The eldest of the Gibbs children, we see George

grow from a boy with dreams of baseball to a man with

dreams of a family farm.

Rebecca Gibbs – George’s young sister, she hates gingham

dresses, especially blue ones.5

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

Upstate New York.

Myrtle Webb – The wife of Editor

Webb, born and raised in Grover’s

Corners, Mrs. Webb was, by her own

admission, “the prettiest girl in town,

next to Maime Cartwright.” Mother to

Emily and Wally, she also sings in the

Congregational Church Choir.

Emily Webb – Arguably the central character

of the story, Emily is the oldest of the Webb children, and we

see her progress from a well spoken teenager in the first act,

to a wife and mother in the third.

Wally Webb – Emily’s younger brother, he spends his time

studying Canada and not eating his bacon.

Who’s WhoIn the Play

Martha Scott, the actress who

originated the role of Emily Webb in the

1938 stage production, also played her in the 1940 film adaptation.

Costume renderings by Candida Nichols for the 2013 production of Our Town.


6

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.

Simon Stimson – The choirmaster for The Congregational Church

Choir, Simon is one of the town’s troubled souls. He is

intoxicated more often than not.

Howie Newsome – The local milkman, Howie and his horse

Bessie make the rounds delivering milk and cream every day.

Professor Willard – A long-winded professor from the local State

University.

Mrs. Louella Soames – The town gossip, Mrs. Soames sings in

the choir with Mrs. Webb and Mrs. Gibbs.

Constable Bill Warren – The town’s only law enforcement

officer.

Joe Stoddard – The town undertaker.

Sam Craig – A cousin of Mrs. Gibbs who leaves Grover’s Corners

in search of fortune.

Who’s WhoIn the Play


Costume renderings by Candida Nichols for the 2013 production of Our Town.

The first ever performance of Our Town was presented at The

McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey on Saturday, January

22, 1938. Princeton was the first stop

on a pre-Broadway tour and Boston’s

Wilbur Theatre on January 25th was

the second. Our Town’s Broadway

debut was on February 4th, 1938 at

Henry Miller’s Theatre. It featured a

cast of nearly fifty actors including the

father and son team of Frank and John

Craven who played the Stage Manager

and George Gibbs, respectively. The

show ran from February 4, 1938

through November 11, 1938 for a

total of 336 performances. Following

its successful Broadway run, Our

Town was scheduled for a year-long,

nation-wide tour. Unfortunately, the

tour was halted in Chicago only a few

months into the tour due to a contract

dispute. Frank Craven, the actor playing

the Stage Manager was being paid a larger percentage than

Jed Harris, the director and producer. Mr. Harris travelled to

Chicago to ask Frank Craven to accept a lower percentage of

the show’s revenues, making Mr. Harris the top earner on the

payroll. When Mr. Craven refused to alter his contract, Harris

immediately cancelled the rest of tour without explanation.

Since the original production in 1938, Our Town has been

revived on Broadway four times (1944,

1969, 1988 and 2002). The 1944

production featured Martha Scott,

reprising her role as Emily Webb. In

1969, Henry Fonda played the Stage

Manager, now considered a “bucket-

list” role for many actors. The 1988

production won the Tony award for Best

Revival and featured future stars Eric

Stolz (George Gibbs), William H. Macy

(Howie Newsome), as well as humorist

and author Spalding Grey (Stage

Manager). The most recent Broadway

revival in 2002 starred Paul Newman as

the Stage Manager in his final Broadway

appearance.

A

7

History of Our Town


Thornton Wilder as The Stage Manager, Ellen Weston as Emily, and long-time Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey company member Robert Hock from the 1959 Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Our Town.PHOTO: WTF Archive

In addition to the four Broadway revivals since its original

production in 1938, Our Town has enjoyed a tremendous life

beyond the Great White Way. The play was initially licensed for

amateur and stock productions on April 19, 1939. By December

31, 1940 the play had been licensed no fewer than 795 times.

In those initial months, the play was presented in every state in

the Union except Rhode Island! Since then it has remained a

staple for amateur and professional theatre companies alike. It

has been asserted that there is at least one performance of Our

Town somewhere in the United States each night.*

2013 marks the 75th Anniversary of this beloved American

classic.

A

8

History of Our Town


(Right) A copy of the original Playbill for the 1938 performance of Our Town at The McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ.

(Left) A copy of an advertising poster from the Broadway Production later that same year.

*From Tappan Wilder’s Afterword in the 2003 printing of Our Town.

9

The Official Website of The Thornton Wilder Family

www.thorntonwilder.com

Explore Online

The Official Website of the Thornton Wilder Society

www.thorntonwildersociety.org

A Link to the PBS “Masterpiece Theatre” Our Town archive

www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/ourtown/

essays.html


on The PlaywrighT: “Wilder revolutionized modern stage

presentation by experimenting with a sceneless stage, imaginary

props, flexible jumps in time sequence, pantomime and a stage

manager as a character.”

– Thomas Siebold from Readings on Our Town, 2000

on The Play: “Our Town has a theatrical quality that distinguishes

it from [other plays of its time]. Wilder uses no scenery and

no act-curtain. The play begins with an announcement by the

Stage Manager that is calculated to draw attention to the bare

stage and to insist on the audience’s consciousness of its role as

spectator.”

– Thomas E. Porter from Myth and Modern Drama, 1969

“Taking as his material three periods in the history of a placid

New Hampshire town, Mr. Wilder has transmuted the simple

events of human life into universal reverie. He has given familiar

facts a deeply moving, philosophical perspective...Our Town is

one of the finest achievements of the current stage.”

– Brooks Atkinson, 1938

“It is no wonder, then, that his best-known and most successful

original play, Our Town (1938), has been termed a “New

England allegory,” “a beautiful evocative play,” “a tender idyll,”

“a hauntingly beautiful play,” and “less the portrait of a town

than the sublimation of the commonplace.”

– Irma Honaker Herron, from The Small Town in

American Drama, 1969

on The STage Manager: “The Stage Manager is not merely an easy

means to exposition, to setting the scene in Grover’s Corners.

He is the principal means to the double vision, the intermeshing

of past and present, which permeates the whole play...Although

the Stage Manager knows Grover’s Corners well, he exists in our

time.”

– Barnard Hewitt, 1959

on original reviewS: “Our Town did indeed receive mixed

reviews. Negative comments focused on whether it was

‘dramatic’ enough to be called a play or merely what Robert

Benchley in The New Yorker saw as ‘so much ersatz’... and

George Jean Nathan later called it ‘a stunt.’ But where it really

mattered, the play’s staging, acting, directing, and themes evoked

powerful adjectives and praise. It was ‘beautiful,’ ‘touching,’

‘one of the great plays of our day,’ ‘magnificant.’ Robert Colman

in The Mirror pulled out all the stops, proclaiming it ‘worthy of

an honored place in any anthology of the American drama.’”

– Tappan Wilder from the Afterword of the 2003 printing

of Our Town, 2003

&

10

Commentary Criticism


In

11

This Production

Above: Costume designs for Emily and Doc Gibbs (left) and George Gibbs (right) by Costume Designer, Candida Nichols.

Right: A photo of the set model and an early sketch of the Our Town set by Scenic Designer, Charlie Calvert.


12

On Thornton Wilder:

Hewitt, Barnard. “Thornton Wilder Says ‘Yes’”, The Tulane Drama

Review 4.2 (1959): 110-20. Print.

Herron, Ima Honaker. The Small Town In American Drama.

Dallas: Southern Methodist UP, 1969. Print.

Kuner, M. C. Thornton Wilder: The Bright and the Dark. New

York: Crowell, 1972. Print.

Porter, Thomas. Myth and Modern American Drama. Detroit:

Wayne State Univ Pr, 1969. Print.

Siebold, Thomas. Readings on Our Town. San Diego, CA:

Greenhaven, 2000. Print.

Simon, Linda. “Thornton Wilder.” Critical Survey of Long Fiction.

Pasadena, CA: Salem, 2010. N. pag. Print.

Theodore, Terry. “Thornton Wilder.” Magill’s Survey of American

Literature. Pasadena, CA: Salem, 2007. N. pag. Print.

Wilder, Tappan. Afterword. Our Town: A Play in Three Acts. New

York: Perennial, 2003. N. pag. Print.

Wilder, Thornton. Preface. Our Town: A Play in Three Acts.

London: Samuel French, 1965. N. pag. Print.

By Thornton Wilder:

Plays:

The Trumpet Shall Sound (1919)

The Angel That Troubled The Waters and Other Plays (1928)

The Long Christmas Dinner, The Happy Journey to Trenton and

Camden, Pullman Car Hiawatha, Queens of France, Love and

How to Cure It, Such Things Only Happen in Books (1931)

Lucrèce (Translation/Adaptation 1932)

A Doll’s House (Translation/Adaptation 1937)

Our Town (1938) Pulitzer Prize Winner

The Merchant of Yonkers (1939)

The Skin of Our Teeth (1942) Pulitzer Prize Winner

The Matchmaker (1954)

A Life in the Sun (1955)

The Drunken Sisters (1957)

Three Plays (1957)

Plays for Bleecker Street (1962)

The Alcestiad (1977, published posthumously)

Novels:

The Cabala (1926)

The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) Pulitzer Prize Winner

The Woman of Andros (1930)

Heaven’s My Destination (1934)

The Ides of March (1948)

The Eighth Day (1967) National Book Award Winner

Theophilus North (1973)

&Sources Further Reading


Documents

Our Town - The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Town...Our Town by Thornton Wilder Know-the-Show Audience Guide ... one-act dramas were all published during this time. In 1936, Wilder