Our Town

It's been running over a year, and I can't for the life of me figure out why it took so long to get to it, but yesterday we went to see Our Town at the Barrow Street Theatre and were completely blown away.

This is my favorite American play, and one of the best period (in case you're wondering my favorites are - in no particular order - Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, Waiting for Godot, Our Town and Long Days Journey into Night. After that you could get to the Albees and what have you) but Our Town has long been a favorite of mine. I have been trying to remember when I first came to know the play and try as I might, I can't remember; in an acting class in college I did the opening monologue of the Stage Manager as a final exam type thing, so it had to be before that. Even if you come to the play knowing what you know about it, this production adds something new. We sat in one of the two rows that are on stage and that added even more power, you become part of the play, or very nearly especially when, in the third act, you have graves all around you and the voices come from every direction . . . boy was that ever powerful. So see it. My daughter, Laurette has gotten to senior year of high school without having been exposed to this play somehow . . . and she loved it. You might say she is the perfect age for it, what with the George and Emily relationship being central to the piece.

The power of this play comes from the universality of it. It cuts right to the heart of existence and cuts through all the layers of what we think are important to remind us of what really is important. If I could ever write a play with this kind of impact and insight . . . I could die happy. It's what I strive for. I always try to find ways of folding my general feeling about things into my plays, to give people something to think about when they leave the theater. Nothing wrong with just entertaining people I suppose, but that's not what I'm after. What am I after? Go see Our Town, then you'll know. If you can't strive for something as great as this, why bother!

I think Thornton Wilder says it very well in a preface to an addition of his three full length plays that I have: 'The response we make when we "believe" a work of the imagination is that of saying: "This is the way things are. I have always known it without being fully aware that I knew it. Now in the presence of this play or novel or poem (or picture or piece of music)I know that I know it".'

Is that too much to ask of the audience? I don't think it's asking anything of the audience. The audience, in coming to the theater, is asking something of you . . . to be entertained, yes, but I believe they're happiest when they leave knowing something they have always known but don't spend much time thinking about. I believe that giving the audience that kernel is what they come for . . . so give it to them . . . don't be shy . . . dare them to leave not just with a smile on their faces, with something burbling around inside them as well.

Enough pontificating . . . I've gotta go rehearse!