Our Town Play Analysis

In both live and filmed performances, the performances will often differ in small ways from the plays. Whether this is due to the actors, the set, or to a change in the story itself, these often small differences can have great impacts on the finished product. In Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” play and “Our Town” performance there are various differences and similarities between the two. These come out in how well the performance follows the play, in the actors interpretations of their parts, in the scripts, props, and in the setting. The “Our Town” performance viewed in class was one of the more faithful of performances in regards to following the play.

Emily’s death adds to this theme of celebrating the mundane. When Emily visits her twelfth birthday again, she realizes that humans just “don’t understand” (111). George and Emily had lots of plans together but didn’t look at the things they already have like the farm, fountain, and 4 year old child they have. Through this, Wilder explains how humans don’t acknowledge the simple actions and life goes on too quickly to witness these beautiful things. The author attempts to explain how simple things in life are passed by the rush of humans.

Our Town is about the daily lives of two families living in Groves Corner, New Hampshire. It follows the budding relationship between Emily Webb and George Gibbs. We see the family go through a daily ritual just as other American families. The mother cooks breakfast, children go to school, and father goes to work. The paperboy delivers the newspaper and the milkman delivers milk.

In the playbill, it informs you about eight individual characters as they are part of the Cornley University Drama Society that will be presenting its debut tragedy play, The Murder at Haversham Manor. The writers capture your attention by incorporating a stage manager, Annie, and Trevor a lighting/sound operator that make you believe anything can go wrong. Each character is not just funny, they are all hysterical, and if you don’t watch it then that is your loss. Everything throughout the play is intentional, such as while Trevor is on a balcony operating the lighting and sound, there is a spotlight on him, so come with an open mind. The show begins with the newly elected director of the Drama Society, Chris Bean, who is on stage to introduce the murder mystery play, The Murder at Haversham Manor. The spotlight is misplaced on him and the laughs begin because of how careless Trevor is while operating the

Our Town is a play written by Thornton Wilder set in a small town known as Grover’s Corners. Wilder conjured the Stage Manager to be a representation to the theme of the play. The theme of universality placing Grover’s Corners in view with the rest of the world. Wilder makes a point to the audience that people have a big impact and influence over the next person, whether they were important or insignificant to that individual’s life. Therefore, the Stage Manager emphasizes on this very viewpoint that the lives of certain people are overlooked so are their influences. The Stage Manager himself is a physical embodiment of Wilders own views and opinions of humans and life itself. Throughout the play, the Stage Manager plays various of roles in order to force the realization to the audience into understanding the importance human life and the influence of others.

Our Town is different from most plays. It starts with barely any scenery, forcing the viewer to use their imagination. In the beginning the set manager comes on stage and describes the scene while also making sure that everything is under control; he plays an oversoul or God-like figure. Act I describes birth. The play commences before dawn and the first call Dr. Gibbs receives that morning is for the

The play also highlights that individuals may enter their relationships with certain expectations. However, what they gain from these relationships may not always be as they initially expected. This is shown as Muriel catches the bouquet of pink and white flowers, which symbolises marriage, happiness and success. The stage directions “Muriel pulls a face, something she does when she’s feeling self-conscious” reveals how Muriel believes that marriage will help her attain an identity she desires and lead her to a successful path in life. Furthermore, her statements after her wedding with David, “…and here I am famous and they’re at my wedding. I showed them.” and “I’m as good as they are” convey how Muriel believed marriage to be a sign of success, which was her expectation. However, her realisation “I thought I was so different. A new person. But I’m not. I’m just the same as him” indicates how Muriel finds out that marriage itself has not changed her nor lead to the success which she desired. (needs evaluation sentence to conclude paragraph like “Hence we are shown how expectations of a relationship…blahblahblah)

3. The use of different settings throughout the play Our Town not only relates to the Stage Manager, but he is also the one that introduces them in every act. For example, the setting in the very beginning of the play sets the tone of the book and allows the reader to get an understanding that the Stage Manager is not only in the play, but sees it from the audience’s perspective as well. The Stage Manager says, “This play is called ‘Our Town.’ It was written by Thornton Wilder … The name of the town is Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire … The first act shows a day in our town. The day is May 7, 1901. The time is just before dawn.” The Stage Manager then begins to describe some of the shops and people of the town, explaining that not much goes

The Stage Manager, which is known to the narrator, also shows up in many different scenes as a character. For example, he comes into a scene as Mr. Morgan the drugstore owner who serves ice cream to Emily and George. The play had a lot of objects that were not presently there, the characters did their best trying to symbolize what it would be like using those objects. An example,

Play character, Emily Webb, as a ghost-seeing her living father, contributes a meaningful reflection to discuss, as she says, “I never realized before how troubled and how...how in the dark live persons are” (57). In this world of Emily’s, the dead can visit memories, and look on only from the grave’s perspective at the present, where she pities the living. Those alive never truly know what comes of the dead, and thus mourn and churn at the sight of the unknown, as she correctly states. As death will always stay the same in the past as the future, this ignorance of death provides a similarity. Similarly, life’s fragility, flaws too, hold the same constancy of death; as Wilder’s orchestrations of his characters emphasize both the rapidity at which life can seize, and how blind the living pass through it.

In a nutshell she was just a young girl, then got married and died. The message I personally got from the play was to live life to the fullest because I personally wouldn’t want three relatively short acts to describe my life from start to

The idea of marriage that is presented in the play differs from what we see marriage as

Overall, I thought the performance was thoroughly enjoyable. The actors, scenery, costumes, and music all came together to create a memorable show. The production had a light, comedic feel at times, and a sad, melancholy tone in others. The play showcases the harsh reality of relationships, that they are not always as happy and carefree as you would believe. In the end, Robert and the audience come to the realization that even though relationships and marriages can be tough, sometimes it is worth it to have someone special in your life. The play ends with Robert still single, but he has a more positive outlook on his life, perhaps he is now ready to get married if the right woman comes along in his

The performance had a mix of dancing and singing along with acting. It was performed in the University Theater, Directed by Marla Ladd, and Choreographed by Sarah Cashmore. One of the main characters of the play is the groom which is a young happy man and last surviving child to his mother. Leonardo is the bride's first and only love, he is also short tempered and irrational. The bride is a young woman who loves Leonardo but wants to make her father happy. The groom's mother is an elderly woman who is old fashioned, her husband and son were murdered by a knife. The bride's father is an elderly wealthy conservative man. The bride's servant is someone who is constantly giving her advice and making sure she is happy. Then there is the bride's cousin naive women that don't know what Leonardo feels for her cousin.

This function of marriage endured throughout much of human history, even transcending different cultures, so often, in plays from past centuries, marriage plots function not like a familiar Katherine Heigl romantic comedy but rather like a business deal. This disparity leaves modern audiences who grew up on these movies unable to understand the at times strange, clinical nature of marriage in plays such as Goldoni’s A Servant To Two Masters. Furthermore, without this knowledge of the historical practice of marriage, audiences cannot clearly understand the dynamic between fathers and daughters like Pantaloon and