Sometimes life’s most important insights need to be repeated, over and over, so that we humans have a chance to experience them. Maybe this is why Thornton Wilder’s 79 year old classic, Our Town, has become America’s most produced play. Shedding light on the ordinary and extraordinary aspects of life, it has been produced over 4,000 times in the last decade alone.
I think the insight from the play that touches me the most, is delivered in Act Three by Emily when she asks, “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?-every, every minute?” It’s a great question that can shape the quality of our lives...if we ask it. Am I realizing life, right now, in this moment? Am I present to the people and circumstances around me? Or am troubled, worried, and “shut up in a little box?”
In posing these challenging questions, this play was revolutionary in 1938, and it remains revolutionary today. Inspired by Pirandello and Brecht, at the turn of the 20th century, Wilder blended the experimental theatre of transcending time and space with traditional theatre - telling the story of ordinary people in an ordinary town. Thank you Thornton for giving the world the gift of your words, and thank you actors, production team and crew for giving the gift of your talents.
Actors, break a leg!
Ms. Mapes-Chrzanowski
