DePauw set for 'Our Town'

Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Two characters, George and Emily, are part of the production "Our Town," being put on by the DePauw Theatre performers April 10-13. The players pictured are Nick Pearson and Mackenzie Travers.

DePauw Theatre will be concluding its 2007-08 season with Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer-Prize winning drama "Our Town."

The production will be staged in Moore Theater of the Green Center for Performing Arts. Evening performances are April 10, 11, 12 at 7:30 p.m. A matinee will be offered April 13 at 2:30 p.m.

Theater staff announce that they will offer half-priced tickets to Greencastle and Putnam County residents on Friday, April 11.

The special performance is offered in conjunction with "Our Town Evening," a philanthropic event sponsored by DePauw Theatre and DePauw's fraternities. Following the performance, patrons are invited to head outside to enjoy "Live on the Lawn" presented by DePauw fraternities. The free concert will include local band TGL, DePauw alumnus Dave Mcmillin, and up and coming artist Trevor Hall.

Written in 1938, "Our Town" concerns the small New England village of Grover's Corners. The lives and everyday experiences of two families, the Webbs and the Gibbses, are followed and scrutinized by the omnipresent narrator known only as the Stage Manager.

Universal issues such as everyday life, love, and death are covered in the span of three acts.

Regular price tickets for the production are $3 for students and $6 for adults, and available for purchase at the Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts Center Box Office.

Reservations and information may be obtained at (765) 658-4827 or greencenter@depauw.edu

Immensely popular since its opening, the production has been revived three times on Broadway. The Stage Manager has always been a coveted part with actors and has been played by such diverse talents as Henry Fonda, Marc Connelly, Hal Holbrook, Sinclair Lewis, and Spalding Gray.

The play has been filmed several times, the most popular version being the 1940 production with Craven reprising his Broadway premiere role as the Stage Manager and William Holden debuting as George Gibbs.

Paul Newman, who played George in a 1955 film, went on to play the Stage Manager in the most recent professional revival of the play in 2002.

The play is also notable as being the inspiration behind several musical compositions, ranging from Aaron Copland's 1940 film score to Frank Sinatra's standard "Love and Marriage", taken from a television musical adaptation in which Sinatra played the role of the Stage Manager.

Due to Wilder's desire to steer modern theatre back to the more simple traditions of Greek, Shakespearean and Kabuki theatre, the setting of the show is sparse; the play's opening stage direction is "No Curtain. No scenery."

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  • Any class of 85 Greencastle students remember doing this play in 6th grade at Jones School. Great play.

    -- Posted by HelloMcFly on Wed, Apr 2, 2008, at 10:06 AM
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