OUR TOWN THORNTON W ILDER
I reviewed the theatrical performance Our Town which was first produced and published in 1983, by Thornton Wilder. Wilders prize winning drama has become an American classic and is his most renowned and most frequently performed play. Upon further reading I will introduce to you some insight on what I believe the artist was trying to accomplish throughout the three scenes of the play. I will introduce the main characters and the main story line along with some of the scenery and how this performance flowed.
When writing the dialect for the play, Wilder uses typical country vernacular and has the Stage Manager speak directly to the audience, which makes the reader feel like they are part of the story. The stage
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Wilder's sets, or lack thereof, allow the audience to use their imagination, but not focus so much on scenery that they miss the message. The story is equally simple. The first act introduces us to the town, Grover's 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 families, children are friends. The second act which takes place three years later finds boy-next-door George and girl-next-door Emily with a friendship that has blossomed in to love and 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 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, …show more content…
Despite warnings from her fellow death that it is a terrible idea. Emily soon realizes that they are correct. Death has brought a heightened awareness of life; it is too painful for Emily to watch living people who take their time for granted. Wilder is reminding the audience of how precious daily life is, because it determines our true reality…our enduring identity is not derived from the things and the events because they are familiar and repeated, but from our ever-new, ever-fresh relation to them. Wilder also demonstrates that these aspects of daily life and their constant renewal are universal to all generations and