Events

By Davis Robinson

Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Our Town, presents a timeless tale of the universal experience of being human. Teenagers George and Emily meet, fall in love, and marry; enduring both the joys and sorrows of everyday life. Wilder transforms their ordinary story into a poignant and captivating exploration of mortality and the wonder of living. Mark S. Cartier plays the Stage Manager who invites us to the mythical Grover’s Corners in celebration of the play’s 75th anniversary.

For more information, please visit the 2013 schedule on the Theater at Monmouth website.

Wilder’s uproarious farce about love and money stars the irrepressible busybody, Dolly Gallagher Levi. Through Dolly’s subtle machinations, several unlikely couples come together to find happiness in 19th-century New York.

The Indiana Festival Theatre is the professional summer theatre of Indiana University’s Department of Theatre and Drama in Bloomington, Indiana. This summer the IFT will present Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker on the following dates: July 12, 13, 14(matinee), 17, 19, 20(matinee), 21, 23, 25, 27, 28. Performances begin at 7:30 p.m., and matinees begin at 2:00 p.m.

Visit the Theatre and Drama area of Indiana University’s website for forthcoming details.

Thornton Wilder’s classic American play has been transformed into an opera and tells the story of the ordinary and extraordinary events in the lives of those in Grover’s Corners, a small New Hampshire town in 1901. The story delves into three critical components of the human experience – daily life, love/marriage and death/loss.

For further details, please visit the Our Town Opera page on the Central City Opera website.

By George Farquhar
Adapted by Thornton Wilder and Ken Ludwig

A raucous romp through the trials and tribulations of love, money, and marriage, The Beaux’ Stratagem follows the adventures of Archer and Aimwell, two young gents who are short on cash and long on schemes. The duo travel from village to village in search of wealth and women. When they happen upon the lovely Dorinda and the equally beautiful Mrs. Kate Sullen, they devise a plan to woo and win them. But, as in every great love story, obstacles abound! A hysterical Restoration comedy, in the style of The School for Scandal, this delightful adaptation by Thornton Wilder and Ken Ludwig is a true comic gem.

For more information, please visit The Beaux’ Strategem entry on the Everyman Theatre’s website.

Described as “…the greatest American play ever written,” the audiences follow the Webb and Gibbs families as their children fall in love, marry and live out their lives. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1938, this true American classic is reimagined for Phoenix Theatre’s stage, complete with Americana music from the turn of the 20th century. Our Town speaks to the core of our American values and reminds us that no matter the generation, we are all searching for the same things. This look at ordinary people living extraordinary lives has never been more extraordinary.

For more information, please visit the Our Town page on the Phoenix Theatre website.

Marietta College’s popular Esbenshade Series, which provides captivating cultural experiences to the campus and the community, will host the event Signposts, Footprints, Clues: Discovering and Rediscovering Thornton Wilder.

Thornton Wilder wrote in a 1928 lecture that the great letter writers left “signposts, footprints, clues of the life of their more-than-usual, their extraordinary hearts.” In his drama and fiction, as well as in his letters and journals, Wilder left “signposts, footprints” and “clues” that can guide us in an exploration of his life and work. Join noted author, Penelope Niven, as she shares the work of her latest book, Thorton Wilder: A Life.

Further event details can be found on Marietta College’s Esbenshade Series webpage.

About the Esbenshade Series
Established through a generous gift in 1980, the series is endowed by the Frederica G. Esbenshade Memorial Fund to bring lectures, performing artists, and programs in the humanities to the Marietta community. All Esbenshade Series performances start at 7:30 p.m. and will be held in the Alma McDonough Auditorium unless specified otherwise. All performances are free and open to the public. To learn more, visit the Esbenshade Series page on the Marietta College website.

About Penelope Niven
Penelope Niven is the critically acclaimed author of Carl Sandburg: A Biography, Steichen: A Biography, and, most recently, Thornton Wilder: A Life. She and James Earl Jones co-authored Voices and Silences, praised as a classic on acting, and she has written a memoir, Swimming Lessons. Carl Sandburg: Adventures of a Poet, her biography for children, was awarded an International Reading Association Prize “for exceptionally distinguished literature for children,” one of six books honored among publications from 99 countries. Visit Penelope Niven online.

An examination of the work and theories of one of the most prolific and influential American writers, of the 20th century.

Leviathan
- After a night of destruction, a prince is left alone at sea to face his worst nightmare, a mermaid that wants to steal his soul.

Love and How to Cure It
- Love is a complicated emotion and experience for humans. Finding and retaining it is hard and yet it is extrememly easy to lose. No matter the age, the hold of love on a person is difficult to cure. Thornton Wilder opens up the question of whether or not a person can be cured of love.

The Angel That Troubled the Waters
- As humans we can suffer from physical pain, but also mental pain and depression. Sometimes our emotional baggage can seem too much to carry. In The Angel That Troubled the Waters, Thornton Wilder emphasizes the importance of all of our experiences, the good and the bad. These experiences make us who we are.

Such Things Only Happen In Books
- There is a poor author searching for a plot and he cannot seem to find it. He is surrounded by a wife having an affair with the debonair town doctor, a maid sheltering her fugitive brother, and a murderer who returns to the scene of the crime. Too bad books and plays are not reflective of life.

Mozart and the Grey Steward
- The musical genius is struggling with writing his greatest piece yet! However, will he get to finish it?

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came
- Have you ever thought about what your life will be worth at the end? When you get to the end of your road will you have done anything great or important? How will you be remembered? In Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came Wilder asks these questions and challenges you to live like there is no tomorrow.

Further event details can be found on the Festival of Short Plays 2013 page of the Simpson College website.

Set in the small town of Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire, Our Town is Thornton Wilder’s classic tale of American life in the early 20th Century. A story about ordinary citizens and their everyday lives, the play takes us through twelve years in the story of the town, and centres around two families and their experiences of life, love and loss.

Apollo Theatre Company presents this exciting new production celebrating the classic play’s 75th anniversary. For more information, please visit the Our Town page on the Apollo Theatre Company website

Apollo Theatre Company is a professional theatre company based in Guildford, Surrey, in the South East of England, and aim to produce brand new productions of classic plays.

On Monday, March 4th, the Actors Fund will host a one-night-only benefit reading of Our Town in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the play’s premiere on Broadway.

Directed by Peter Flynn, the all-start cast includes S. Epatha Merkerson, Blythe Danner and B.D. Wong as the Stage Manager, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Adriane Lenox, Martin Moran, Leslie Odom Jr., Rebecca Luker, Julia Murney, Howard McGillin, Jose Llana, Jerry Dixon, Wally Dunn, Philip Hoffman and Tyrah Skye Odoms.

Described by Edward Albee as “…the greatest American play ever written,” Our Town won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Tappan Wilder, nephew and literary executor of the playwright stated, “My uncle loved actors–he was an actor himself, you know–and he was mighty proud to have written a popular large-cast play that provided his fellows with so many jobs! What a great pleasure it is to partner with The Actors Fund, which Thornton Wilder supported throughout his life, on the occasion of a major milestone in the history of his most famous work.”

Further details can be found on the The Actors Fund Our Town webpage.

About The Actors Fund
The Actors Fund is a nationwide human services organization that helps all professionals in performing arts and entertainment. The Fund is a safety net, providing programs and services for those who are in need, crisis or transition. To learn more, visit The Actors Fund website.

The play follows the saga of an American family’s survival in the face of incredible obstacles: the ice age, fratricide, adultery, the great flood, and war. The story highlights the strength and endurance of the American family as they persevere through life’s extraordinary challenges.

The Skin of Our Teeth won Thornton Wilder his second Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1942, following his previous win for Our Town in 1938.

The play’s production will be supplemented by an Outreach Project, which will reinforce the universality of the play’s themes. The face and make up of the modern American family has changed dramatically since 1942, and the Outreach Project endeavors to connect Wilder’s view of the American family to the reality of families today. The Outreach Project will also partner with local organizations that support families.

Produced in conjunction with the 75th anniversary celebration of Our Town at Ford’s Theatre, the cast of The Skin of Our Teeth will also perform The Long Christmas Dinner, one of Wilder’s short plays, at the Ford’s Theatre on Monday, February 11, 2013.

For more information about the production, please visit The Skin of Our Teeth Greenberg Theatre event listing on the American University website.

Further details about the cast’s performance of The Long Christmas Dinner can be found by visiting the event webpage on the Ford’s Theatre website.

Let’s Look at One Another
On his mother’s side Thornton Wilder was the great-grandson of Arthur Tappan, co-founder with his brother, Lewis, of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and on his father’s side he was related to the Lincoln family. In a most appropriate setting, this pre-performance seminar features Tappan Wilder, the playwright’s nephew and literary executor, in a dialogue with Penelope Niven, author of a major new Wilder biography.

In Act 3 of Our Town, Emily pleads with her mother: “Oh, Mama, just look at me one minute as though you really saw me … Let’s look at one another.” Wilder and Niven will explore the themes and perspectives of family in Our Town and other plays as well as novels by Thornton Wilder—looking at his own family history, from his abolitionist ancestors to his parents and siblings to the great human family.

A copy of Niven’s newly released biography, Thornton Wilder: A Life, and a light dinner are included in the price of admittance. Tickets to Our Town sold separately.

This event is presented in conjunction with the 75th anniversary production of Our Town, playing at Ford’s Theatre from January 25 until February 24, 2013.

Read The New York Times review of Niven’s book.

Tickets are on-sale to members and groups now for $40. Tickets go on sale to the public on January 6, 2013, for $45.

For more information, please visit the event page on the Ford’s Theatre website.

Ford’s Theatre presents an evening of classic one-acts by Thornton Wilder read by students from American, Georgetown and Howard universities. The evening includes The Long Christmas Dinner, Pullman Car Hiawatha, and The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden. Tickets are free but required.

This event is presented in conjunction with the 75th anniversary production of Our Town, playing at Ford’s Theatre from January 25 until February 24, 2013.

Support provided by Samuel French.

For more information, please visit the event webpage on the Ford’s Theatre website.

Join us for a special evening in celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Broadway opening of Our Town. The evening includes a short film about the play’s 75-year history, selections read from Thornton Wilder’s works and letters, and the presentation of The Thornton Wilder Society’s “Thornton Wilder Prize” on stage at Ford’s Theatre. Tickets are free but required. The event does not include a performance of Our Town.

For more information, please visit the Our Town 75th event webpage on the Ford’s Theatre website.

Win $1000 during the Wilder Wilder Everywhere Video Contest!

As part of the ongoing celebration of the 75th anniversary of Our Town, and in recognition of Thornton Wilder’s position as one of the preeminent chroniclers of American life, Playscripts, Inc. and The Wilder Family LLC have created the Wilder Wilder Everywhere Video Contest.

To enter, create a video that either faithfully dramatizes, or adapts one of the playlets listed below into a short film. Wilder’s plays present a universal and timeless vision of American life; your videos are an opportunity to stage his work in your America. Playscripts and the Wilder Family would love to see videos filmed in unexpected, intriguing or iconic settings all over America- from the top of Mount Rushmore to the bottom of your neighborhood swimming pool.

Entrants may use any of the following Wilder playlets for their entry:
- Nascuntur Poetae…
- Proserpina and the Devil
- Fanny Otcott
- Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came
- The Penny that Beauty Spent
- Brother Fire
- The Angel on the Ship
- The Message and Jehanne
- Centaurs
- Leviathan
- The Christmas Interludes II
- Flamingo Red
- Mozart and the Gray Steward
- The Angel that Troubled the Waters

Playscripts has collected the complete versions of these playlets into a single document for the contest. Download the playlets document from the Playscripts website – please note that the file is in PDF format.

During the submission period (January 14th-28th) you may upload your video to Playscript’s Facebook event page, and encourage your friends and family to “like” your video on the page.

 
The Rules

• Your video must use all the original characters from the selected playlet, but feel free to add characters.
• Your video must contain at least 5 lines of dialogue (one line is defined as at least one sentence long) from the selected playlet. The lines of dialogue do not have to be consecutive.
• Your video must be between 90 seconds and 3 minutes.
• The videos with the most “likes” will advance to the finals.
• Please review the full contest rules on Playscript’s website.

The Timeline

• October 8, 2012 – The contest begins
• January 14, 2013 – Submissions open and public voting begins at 12:00 AM EST.
• January 28, 2013 – Submissions and public voting are closed at 12:00 PM EST. Finalists will be announced later that day.
• February 8, 2012 – The Winner is announced!

The Reward

$1000 cash prize to the creator(s) of the winning video!

*Persons under the age of 18 may appear in or collaborate on the video, however, videos featuring minors must be submitted by a person over the age of 18, and a video release form must be signed by the guardians of all minors appearing in the video.

 
For complete information, please visit the Wilder Wilder Everywhere Video Contest webpage.

 
Playscripts, Inc. is an independent publisher of new plays and musicals, established in 1998 by brothers and playwrights Doug and Jonathan Rand for the mutual benefit of playwrights and theaters worldwide. Visit the Playscripts, Inc. website for more.

The Wilder Family LLC manages the literary and media rights to Thornton Wilder’s works around the world. Visit The Wilder Family LLC website for more.

A tribute to life’s little blessings.

Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama presents a timeless commentary on the transience of human existence.

Teenagers George and Emily meet, fall in love, marry—and suffer the slings and arrows of everyday life. Wilder transforms their ordinary story into a poignant and captivating exploration of mortality and the interconnectivity of human beings.

In celebration of the play’s 75th-anniversary year, Stephen Rayne (The Heavens Are Hung In Black, Sabrina Fair and Parade) returns to direct a diverse cast, creating an Our Town for our time.

“Our Town is a play which transcends differences in culture, class and race, and speaks to the great themes common to all great art: love, death and marriage,” Rayne said. “From its first production in 1938, the play struck a powerful chord with the American psyche, and it is as fresh and relevant today as it was then. I am hoping to bring a fresh perspective to this great classic and present a production that Ford’s and Mr. Wilder will be proud of.”

Ticket Sales
Pre-Sale: August 6, 2012, at 10 a.m.
Public Sale: August 20, 2012, at 10 a.m.

For more, please visit the Our Town event listing on the Ford’s Theatre website.

In May 2013, The Thornton Wilder Society will once again take part in the American Literature Association Conference.

In conjunction with other drama societies we invite proposals for a panel on Thornton Wilder and the Theater of Engagement. The topic includes historical, cultural, philosophical and/or political engagement in collaboration with other artists and/or the audience. The Society solicits proposals dealing with both Wilder’s dramatic (including production case studies) and non-dramatic texts (screenplays, novels, essays, speeches, correspondence), as well as proposals prompted by Penelope Niven’s just published biography Thornton Wilder: A Life (HarperCollins).

Please send 300-word proposals, including name, academic affiliation, e-mail address, paper title, and abstract to:

Park Bucker, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English
University of South Carolina Sumter
psbucke@uscsumter.edu

Deadline: January 15, 2013 January 25, 2013

Graduate students and beginning scholars are encouraged to submit a proposal.

The 24th annual American Literature Association Conference will be held May 23-26, 2013 at the Westin Copley Place Hotel in Boston, MA. For more information, please visit the 2013 ALA Conference webpage.

Visionary director and MacArthur “Genius” David Cromer brings his groundbreaking and critically acclaimed new version of the beloved, Pulitzer Prize-winning Our Town to the Huntington. In 1901 Grover’s Corners, George and Emily fall in love, marry, and live out their lives as one New England town becomes a microcosm of everyday life. An Off Broadway smash playing for more than 600 performances, this wonderfully intimate staging marks the Huntington’s first production in the Roberts Studio Theatre at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.

“Wilder’s play mines the depths of our relationship to home and community, and so I find it fitting and deeply satisfying that in addition to directing and reprising his role as the Stage Manager, David will be engaging a company of actors comprised of Boston’s best talent alongside company members from his original Barrow Street production.” — Artistic Director Peter DuBois

For more, please visit Huntington Theatre Company’s David Cromer’s Our Town event listing on their website.

Through the events that mark the life of Tom (Romulus Assereto) and Emmy (Gisela Ponce de León), Wilder invites us to observe our own life: breakfast daily, the meeting of father and son, holding wedding, death … Incorporated in the scene, close to the actors, we will witness the big and small rituals that make the lives of our people.

Our Town, Pulitzer Prize 1938, since its creation remains one of the most represented in the United States.

Cast
Paul Vega, Gisela Ponce de León, Romulo Assereto, Sofia Rocha, Gabriela Velasquez, Ricardo Velasquez, Alfonso Santistevan, Haydeé Caceres, Andres Salas, Germán Gonzales, Alejandro Escudero Rolando Reano, Jose Miguel Arbulú, Oriana Cicconi, Emanuel Soriano.

Author
Thornton Wilder

Directs
Chela De Ferrari

For more, please visit Teatro La Plaza’s Nuestro Pueblo event listing on their website.

Note: you may also use Google’s translate function to display the Teatro La Plaza’s Nuestro Pueblo webpage in English.