1938 first edition cover from the Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division
Written by
Thornton Wilder
Characters
Stage Manager
Mrs. Myrtle Webb
Mr. Charles Webb
Emily Webb
Joe Crowell Jr.
Mrs. Julia Gibbs
Dr. Frank F. Gibbs
Simon Stimson
Mrs. Soames
George Gibbs
Howie Newsome
Rebecca Gibbs
Wally Webb
Professor Willard
Woman in the Balcony
Man in the Auditorium
Lady in the Box
Constable Warren
Si Crowell
Three Baseball Players
Sam Craig
Joe Stoddard
Date premiered
January 22, 1938
Place premiered
McCarter Theatre Princeton, New Jersey
Original language
English
Subject
Life and death in an American small town
Genre
Drama
Setting
1901 to 1913. Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, near Massachusetts.
Our Town is a three-act play written by American playwright Thornton Wilder in 1938. Described by Edward Albee as "the greatest American play ever written",[1] it presents the fictional American town of Grover's Corners between 1901 and 1913 through the everyday lives of its citizens.
Wilder uses metatheatrical devices, setting the play in the actual theatre where it is being performed. The main character is the stage manager of the theatre who directly addresses the audience, brings in guest lecturers, fields questions from the audience, and fills in playing some of the roles. The play is performed without a set on a mostly bare stage. With a few exceptions, the actors mime actions without the use of props.
The first performance of Our Town was at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, on January 22, 1938.[2] It went on to success on Broadway and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and remains popular today with frequent revivals.
^"Origin Theatrical | Our Town".
^"Our Town: A History". Masterpiece Theatre. PBS. Archived from the original on February 21, 2015. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
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