The Thornton Wilder Society had an exciting 2025. Here are some highlights:
Author Alvin Eng spoke with the Thornton Wilder Society’s Shoshana Greenberg about Our Town, its Chinese influences, and his memoir Our Laundry, Our Town at the Drama Book Shop on January 30th. Visit the Broadway Podcast Network website to listen to the accompanying Drama Book Show podcast episode for this event.
The Broadway revival of Our Town was nominated for Best Revival of a Play (details at Theatermania.com) at the Tony Awards in June.
The Thornton Wilder Society had an eventful November in New York City. First, we celebrated the publication of Our Town and the Cosmic One Acts (details at HarperCollins.com) at Symphony Space in NYC on November 10th, with a reading of The Long Christmas Dinner with an all-star cast (details at SymphonySpace.org).
Then, the musical adaptation of The Skin of Our Teeth, titled The Seat of Our Pants (details at PublicTheater.org), by Ethan Lipton and directed by Leigh Silverman, opened off-Broadway at The Public Theater on November 13th.
And on November 24th, we attended The Public Forum: Notes at The Public Theater, where Ethan Lipton and Dan Kluger shared how they created the songs for The Seat of Our Pants.
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We also held three Zoom Readings.
In March, Thornton Wilder Society members and enthusiasts gathered for a reading and discussion of Wilder’s 1926 short novel The Cabala.
“Thornton Wilder is an author to reread and re-read again. I gain new insights into his creativity and literary mastery each time I encounter his works.” — Steve Rojcewicz
In August, Thornton Wilder Society members and friends read Our Town and had a wonderful discussion afterward.
“What a fantastic experience! I’ve seen Our Town several times, and it moves me more and more each time. What is important? Everyday life and love…..courage in facing death…. Thanks so much for including me.” — Barbara Freed
And in December, Thornton Wilder Society members and enthusiasts gathered for our annual Zoom reading of The Long Christmas Dinner and Virtual Holiday Party. This year we had a special treat in that we also got to read and discuss the short play “Encircled With Ice, An Imagined Epilogue to Thornton Wilder’s The Long Christmas Dinner,” by Vicki Riba Koestler with Owen Brown.
“Attending the reading as a member of the audience was enlightening for me in two ways. Firstly, the characters in the play came into much sharper focus for me during the Zoom reading than when I read the text before the event. Secondly, the reading (and the discussion that followed) confirmed an impression I had already gained while reading the play. It very clearly expressed the ambivalence that arises from the acceptance of melancholic truths about the finiteness of human existence on the one hand, and the constant endeavours to face everyday life (and its highlights, such as a Christmas dinner) with dignity despite this knowledge on the other. I hope to be able to participate in the Zoom readings again in the future.” — Wolfgang Schwentker
Be sure to join the Zoom Reading email list by emailing thorntonwildersociety@gmail.com to be the first to get the info on all the Zoom readings.
Published by Penn State University Press
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Additionally, the tenth issue of the Thornton Wilder Journal, Volume 5, No. 2, was published. It features the first publication of Wilder’s early full-length play, The Dreamers.
For more information on the Journal, please visit our Journal page.
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We look forward to sharing Wilder with you in 2026!