Auditions and Rehearsals黄瓜视频

Synopsis
Described by Edward Albee as “the greatest American play ever written,” Our Town follows the Webb and Gibbs families as their children fall in love, marry and eventually – in one of the most famous scenes in American theatre – die. Narrated by a stage manager and performed with minimal props and sets, Our Town depicts the small town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, through three acts: “Daily Life,” “Love and Marriage” and “Death and Eternity.”

In the next step for a play that Wilder conceived from the beginning as a play about everywhere, Our Town is published here for the first time in three languages—English, Spanish and Creole. Infused with layers of culture and community, this new Acting Edition celebrates Grover’s Corners as an international address.

Character Descriptions

Stage Manager
The host of the play and the dramatic equivalent of an omniscient narrator. The Stage Manager exercises control over the action of the play, cueing the other characters, interrupting their scenes with his own interjections, and informing the audience of events and objects that we cannot see. Although referred to only as Stage Manager and not by a name, he occasionally assumes other roles, such as an old woman, a druggist, and a minister. Interacting with both the world of the audience and the world of the play’s characters, he occupies a godlike position of authority.

George Gibbs
Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs’s son. A decent, upstanding young man, George is a high school baseball star who plans to attend the State Agricultural School after high school. His courtship of Emily Webb and eventual marriage to her is central to the play’s limited narrative action. Wilder uses George and Emily’s relationship to ponder the questions of love and marriage in general.

Emily Webb
Mr. and Mrs. Webb’s daughter and Wally’s older sister. Emily is George’s schoolmate and next-door neighbor, then his fiancée, and later his wife. She is an excellent student and a conscientious daughter. After dying in childbirth, Emily joins the group of dead souls in the local cemetery and attempts to return to the world of the living. Her realization that human life is precious because it is fleeting is perhaps the central message of the play.

Dr. Gibbs
George’s father and the town doctor. Dr. Gibbs is also a Civil War expert. His delivery of twins just before the play opens establishes the themes of birth, life, and daily activity. He and his family are neighbors to the Webbs.

Mrs. Gibbs
George’s mother and Dr. Gibbs’s wife. Mrs. Gibbs’s desire to visit Paris—a wish that is never fulfilled—suggests the importance of seizing the opportunities life presents, rather than waiting for things to happen. At the same time, Mrs. Gibbs’s wish for the luxurious trip ultimately proves unnecessary in her quest to appreciate life.

Mr. Webb
Emily’s father and the publisher and editor of the Grover’s Corners Sentinel. Mr. Webb’s report to the audience in Act I is both informative and interactive, as his question-and-answer session draws the audience physically into the action of the play.

Mrs. Webb
Emily’s mother and Mr. Webb’s wife. At first a no-nonsense woman who does not cry on the morning of her daughter’s marriage, Mrs. Webb later shows her innocent and caring nature, worrying during the wedding that she has not taught her daughter enough about marriage.

Mrs. Soames
A gossipy woman who sings in the choir along with Mrs. Webb and Mrs. Gibbs. Mrs. Soames appears in the group of dead souls in Act III. One of the few townspeople we meet outside of the Webb and Gibbs families, Mrs. Soames offers a sense of the interrelated nature of the lives of the citizens of Grover’s Corners.

Simon Stimson
The choirmaster, whose alcoholism and undisclosed “troubles” have been the subject of gossip in Grover’s Corners for quite some time. Wilder uses Mr. Stimson’s misfortunes to explore the limitations of small town life. Mr. Stimson appears in the group of dead souls in Act III, having committed suicide by hanging himself in his attic. He is perhaps most notable for his short speech in Act III, when he says that human existence is nothing but “[i]gnorance and blindness.”

Rebecca Gibbs
George’s younger sister. Rebecca’s role is minor, but she does have one very significant scene with her brother. Her remarks in Act I—about the location of Grover’s Corners in the universe—articulate an important theme in the play: if the town is a microcosm, representative of the broader human community and the shared human experience, then this human experience of Grover’s Corners lies at the center of a grand structure and is therefore eternal.

Wally Webb
Emily’s younger brother. Wally is a minor figure, but he turns up in Act III among the group of dead souls. Wally dies young, the result of a burst appendix on a Boy Scout trip. His untimely death underscores the brief and fleeting nature of life.

Howie Newsome
The local milkman. Howie’s reappearance during every morning scene—once each in Acts I, II, and III—highlights the continuity of life in Grover’s Corners and in the general human experience.

Joe Crowell, Jr.
The paperboy. Joe’s routine of delivering papers to the same people each morning emphasizes the sameness of daily life in Grover’s Corners. We see this sameness continue when Joe’s younger brother, Si, takes over the route for him. Despite this sameness, however, each of the conversations Joe has while on his route is unique, suggesting that while his activities are monotonous, daily life is not.

Si Crowell
Joe’s younger brother, also a paperboy. Si’s assumption of his brother’s former job contributes to the sense of constancy that characterizes Grover’s Corners throughout the play.

Professor Willard
A professor at the State University who gives the audience a report on Grover’s Corners. Professor Willard appears once and then disappears. His role in the play is to interact with the audience and to inform theatergoers of the specifics of life in Grover’s Corners. His reference to Native Americans reflects Wilder’s understanding that the European ancestors of the current population in Grover’s Corners replaced and extinguished the existing Native American populations.

Constable Warren
A local policeman. Constable Warren keeps a watchful eye over the community. His personal knowledge of and favor with the town’s citizens bespeaks the close-knit nature of the town.

Sam Craig
Emily Webb’s cousin, who has left Grover’s Corners to travel west, but returns for her funeral in Act III. Though originally from the town, Sam has the air of an outsider. His unawareness of the events that have occurred in Grover’s Corners during his absence parallels the audience’s own unawareness.

Joe Stoddard
The town undertaker. Joe prepares Emily’s grave and remarks on how sad it is to bury young people. This statement emphasizes a theme that grows ever more apparent throughout the play and receives its most explicit discussion in Act III: the transience of human life.

These Sides Will Be Used For Preliminary Auditions.  

There Will Additional Sides Provided At Callback Auditions.

OUR TOWN SIDES 1

Our Town by Thornton Wilder

No curtain. No scenery.

The audience, arriving, sees an empty stage in half-light. Presently the Stage

Manager. When the Stage Manager reaches his place, the lights come to black.

After one count, the lights come to full.

Stage Manager

This play is called "Our Town." The day is May 7, 1901. The time is just before dawn.

(A rooster crows.)

The sky is beginning to show some streaks of light over in the East there, behind our mount'in. Well, I'd better show you how our town lies. Up here is Main Street. Way back there is the railway station. Polish Town's across the tracks.  Over there is the Congregational Church; across the street's the Presbyterian. Methodist and Unitarian are over there. Baptist is down in the holla' by the river. Catholic Church is over  beyond the tracks. Here's the Town Hall and Post Office combined; jail's in the basement. Here's the grocery store and here's Mr. Morgan's drugstore. Most everybody in town manages to look into those two stores once a day. Public School's over yonder. High School's still farther over. Quarter of nine  mornings, noontimes, and three o'clock afternoons, the hull town can hear the yelling and screaming from those schoolyards. This is our doctor's house, Doc Gibbs'. This is the back door. This is Mrs. Gibbs' garden. Corn…peas...beans...hollyhocks…heliotrope… and a lot of burdock. And this is Mrs. Webb's garden. Just like Mrs. Gibbs'. Only it's got a lot of sunflowers, too. Nice town, y'know what I mean? Nobody very remarkable ever come out of it, s'far as we know. The earliest tombstones in the cemetery up there on the mountain say 1670-1680. 

There are Grovers and Cartwrights` and Gibbses and Herseys;  same names as are around here now.

Well, as I said; it's about dawn.

George and Emily #1

 

George Gibbs enters.

George

Hello, Emily.

Emily

H'lo.

George

You made a fine speech in class.

Emily

Well... I was really ready to make a speech about the Monroe Doctrine, but at the last minute Miss Corcoran made me talk about the Louisiana Purchase instead. I worked an awful long time on both of them.

George

Gee, it's funny, Emily. From my window up there I can just see your head nights when you're doing your 黄瓜视频work over in your room.

Emily

Why, can you?

George

You certainly do stick to it, Emily. I don't see how you can sit still that long. I guess you like school.

Emily

Well, I always feel it's something you have to go through.

George

Yeah.

Emily

I don't mind it really. It passes the time.

George

Yeah. Emily, what do you think? We might work out a kinda telegraph from your window to mine; and once in a while you could give me a kinda hint or two about one of those algebra problems. I don't mean the answers, Emily, of course not . . . just some little hint...

Emily

Oh, I think hints are allowed. So…ah…f you get stuck George…you whistle to me and I'll give you some hints.

George

Emily, you're just naturally bright, I guess.

Emily

I figure that it's just the way a person's born.

George

Yeah. But, you see, I want to be a farmer, and my Uncle Luke says whenever I'm ready I can come over and work on his farm and if I'm any good I can just gradually have it.

Emily

You mean the house and everything?

Mrs. Webb enters.

George

Yeah. Well, thanks. I better be getting out to the baseball field. Thanks for the talk, Emily. Good afternoon, Mrs. Webb.

George and Emily #2

 

George

Hssst! Emily!

Emily

Hello.

George

Hello!

Emily

I can't work at all. The moonlight's so terrible.

George

Emily, did you get the third problem?

Emily

Which?

George

The third?

Emily

Why, yes, George. That's the easiest of them all.

George

I don't see it. Emily, can you give me a hint?

Emily

I'll tell you one thing…the answer's in yards.

George

In yards? How do you mean?

 

Emily

In square yards.

George

Oh…in square yards.

Emily

Yes, George, don't you see?

George

Yeah.

Emily

In square yards of wallpaper.

George

Wallpaper. Oh, I see. Thanks a lot, Emily.

Emily

You're welcome. My, isn't the moonlight terrible? And choir practice going on. I

think if you hold your breath you can hear the train all the way to Contoocook.

Hear it?

George

M-m-m…what do you know!

Emily

Well, I guess I better go back and try to work.

George

Good night, Emily. And thanks.

Emily

Good night, George.

George and Emily #3

 

George, enters.

George

Can I carry your books 黄瓜视频 for you, Emily?

Emily (Coolly)

Why . . . uh . . . Thank you. It isn't far.

Silence

George

I'm awfully glad you were elected, too, Emily.

Emily

Thank you.

George

Emily, why are you mad at me?

Emily

I'm not mad at you.

George

You've been treating me so funny lately.

Emily

Well, since you ask me, I might as well say it right out, George, I don't like the whole change that's come over you in the last year. I'm sorry if that hurts your feelings, but I've got to—tell the truth and shame the devil.

George

A change? Wha…what do you mean?

Emily

Well, up to a year ago I used to like you a lot. And I used to watch you as you did  everything… because we'd been friends so long…and then you began spending all your time at baseball…and you never stopped to speak to anybody any more. Not even to your own family you didn't… and, George, it's a fact… you've got awful conceited and stuck-up, and all the girls say so. They may not say so to your face, but that's what they say about you behind your back, and it hurts me to hear them say it; but I've got to agree with them a little. I'm sorry if it hurts your feelings…but I can't be sorry I said it.

George

I…I'm glad you said it, Emily. I never thought that such a thing was happening to me. I guess it's hard for a fella not to have faults creep into his character.

Emily

I always expect a man to be perfect and I think he should be.

George

Oh, I don't think it's possible to be perfect, Emily.

Emily

Well, my father is, and as far as I can see, your father is. There's no reason on earth why you shouldn't be, too.

George

Well, I feel it's the other way round. That men aren't naturally good; but girls are.

Emily

Well, you might as well know right now that I'm not perfect. It's not as easy for a girl to be perfect as a man, because we girls are more…more…nervous. Now I'm sorry I said all that about you. I don't know what made me say it.

George

Emily…

Emily

Now I can see it's not the truth at all. And I suddenly feel that it isn't important, anyway.

George

Emily…would you like an ice-cream soda, or something, before you go 黄瓜视频?

Emily

Well, thank you…I would.