Happy Birthday, Thornton Wilder

[filkertom]

In 1897. Wrote a bunch of stuff, but is best known for The Bridges of San Luis Rey, Our Town, and The Merchant of Yonkers, which was eventually revised to The Matchmaker (which was eventually adapted into Hello, Dolly!). National Book Award, two Pulitzers, Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The fascinating factoid of the day regarding Mr. Wilder is that, while writing the first act of Our Town, he had a severe case of writer's block. Would that I ever should have such a case.

So, have any of you not seen Our Town at some point in your life, and how many of you have been in it?

Comments

[jenrose]

I've seen it in at least three flavors, and though I was not in it, a girlfriend of mine was while we were dating.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've seen a staging of it, but we certainly read it in a couple of English classes.

For what it's worth, my husband, while in college, was in a production of The Matchmaker. I think I recall he said his character was "Auguste", a waiter.

[folkmew.livejournal.com]

I love Our Town. I've read it several times, seen it a few, but never been in it.
The very idea of it fascinated me enough that I wrote a paper on it once years ago. What is interesting is that it is one play that I don't think would be helped at all by modern special effects. In fact I think it would ruin it. Intersting since I frequently defend modern animation and special effects when used well. :-)

[filker0.livejournal.com]

I was in it in community theater when I was in highschool. I played two roles, Joe Crowell (or was that Sye? The paperboy) and Farmer McCarthy (in the graveyard "Yup, a star's mighty fine company!").

[aiela.livejournal.com]

Never seen it, never read it.

I should probably fix that.

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Ditto that, actually.

[rms-butterfly.livejournal.com]

I was in Our Town in high school, my only high school play. A very small part, Mrs. Soames, who interrupts the wedding scene w/the ramble about being happy. Then I was also in the graveyard scene. My best friend did a wonderful job with the Stage Manager. It was quite an experience!

[isolde-deely.livejournal.com]

me too :)

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

I worked on the set crew in high school; does that count? It didn't have much of a set.

I don't think I ever did see it all the way through in one sitting, or read all of it. Parts of it, over and over again.... :-)

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Read it in high school, saw it in college.

[dubheach.livejournal.com]

Was Emily's Aunt in High school.

How the heck can I remember that and forget so much other stuff?

btw ::HUGS:: Thanks for the call. Didnt' get a chance to listen until almost midnight and thought that was too late to call back.

[orawnzva.livejournal.com]

I took part in a summer theater workshop the summer before high school in which we put on "Pullman Car Hiawatha" and "The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden". The theater company that was teaching the workshop did a production of "Our Town" shortly thereafter, which many of us attended.

[daundelyon.livejournal.com]

One of my English teachers in high school made us read "Our Town" out loud. Better than reading quietly I guess, but it was still rather bad.

[catalana.livejournal.com]

I've never seen it.

[salkryn.livejournal.com]

Never seen it.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Nope.

Never seen it.

Isn't Thornton Wilder also the name of that feller who wrote The Phantom Tollbooth?

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

No, The Phantom Tollbooth is by Norton Juster. (one of my favorite books)

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Well, "Thornton/Norton", they're easy names to confuse.

Great movie, too!

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

Oh, I can definitely see how they could get confused. I just wanted to get the proper info out there. And you're right - it was a great movie.

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

[raises hand shyly] I've never seen Our Town.

[eleri.livejournal.com]

Been in it. It was the proverbial straw, as far as the relationship I had with my director of 8 years.

[wouldyoueva.livejournal.com]

Does being a prompter count?

Our entire cast wept like fools at the ending but after watching performance after performance I just couldn't get that emotionally invested in it.

[musicmutt.livejournal.com]

I have actually been in two productions of "Our Town".

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

Haven't been in Our Town, but have seen it three or four times.

Have, however, survived being Sabina in The Skin of Our Teeth. Which I adore beyond the telling of it, such that I could even forgive him for six pages alone on stage, during which I had to relaunch the same speech in a different direction no less than four times.

:: raises a glass ::

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

I always thought "The Skin of our Teeth" was a better play than Our Town. The American Playhouse version with Blair Brown as Sabina was THE defining production as far as I'm concerned.

Our Town, it seems to me, owes a lot of its popularity to the fact that you can do it with minimum budget and technical considerations. I was in a reading of it once; I read the drunk choir director.

[andpuff.livejournal.com]

Never seen it. I had thought, until I saw some of your other responses, that not having seen it might be a Canadian thing -- but catalana hasn't and musicmutt has so...

[jss]

Never seen it, never in it, never read it, never staged it.

[isolde-deely.livejournal.com]

I was Mrs. Soames, the gossip

[darrenzieger.livejournal.com]

The Skin of Our Teeth is one of my favorite plays. My university theatre department did a production of it years ago and I absolutely fell in love with it.

In fact, I tried, unsuccessfully, to adapt it as a musical. I probably shouldn't have taken it on -- Sondheim tried it once and gave up. All I managed to salvage, eventually, from the effort was a pretentious (if melodically lovely) pop ballad that mixed themes from "Skin" and "Our Town."

Kander and Ebb managed to complete a musical version several years back (titled "Over and Over'), but it did not make it to New York. The reviews I have seen suggest that they (and script writer Joseph "Fiddler on the Roof" Stein) couldn't get much of a handle on it either, reducing it to a series of sitcom-like sketches. Yuck.

Damn, maybe I should take another crack at it.

Does a video/DVD of the American Playhouse version exist? I'd love to see it.

...okay, answered my own question: Available at Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006G8HN/ref=sr_11_1/002-8916370-8831254?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=130).

That one goes right on my wish-list :)

Confusion

[blaisedec.livejournal.com]

I thought Hello, Dolly was adapted from Pygmalion?

I did see Our Town but never had the opportunity to be in it.

Re: Confusion

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Nope, you're thinking My Fair Lady.

[the-dark-snack.livejournal.com]

I read it. Hated it (not a fan of Wilder in the least). Haven't been in it or seen it and don't intend to. The closest I can stand to come to it was Spaulding Gray's monologue about being in a production of it.

Our Town

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

Was Professor Willard in my high school's production-- was told to play him as very old and very distinguished; it worked; I got spontaneous applause. I was Professor Willard again (told to play him as a bit "rabbity" and a little nervous) in a production at high school summer camp for the arts, about a year and a half later, but got into a hideous disagreement with the director (a faculty member) and was axed from the show. Despite the fact that my father almost always supported the teacher when I had disagreements in school, this time he took my side completely and even suggested that, having been mistreated, I should just hop a Greyhound bus home (from Pullman, Washington, to Seattle, where Dad would pick me up and drive me across the ferryboat to Vashon Island). However, at this point I had also fallen on the stairs and broken a bone in my foot, so waiting another week or two to heal a bit better would have been a good idea anyway. In the 41 years since, I have never been offered the opportunity to see or be in another performance, and it's just as well.

Nate Bucklin