A Dramaturgy Blog for OUR TOWN at TTS

Here you can ask questions, explore topics, and discover the world of Thornton Wilder and Grover's Corners, NH.

[indypendenthistory]

One-room school, Marion County, WV about 1900

[televisionmusicals]

Our Town. 90 minutes. Musical. Producer’s Showcase. Broadcast September 19, 1955 (Monday, 8-9:30 pm) NBC.

Producers: Fred Coe, Henry Jaffe; Director: Delbert Mann; Writer: David Shaw (based on the Thornton Wilder play); Lyricist: Sammy Cahn; Music: James Van Heusen; Music Director: Nelson Riddle.

Cast: Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Frank Sinatra, Ernest Truex.

More information in Television Musicals, by Joan Baxter (2012).

[gcdramaturgy]

Here it is. The FIRST Musical version of Our Town. 

[paigeypaige19]

"But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning."

—Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey (via paigeypaige19)

[gcdramaturgy]

"It's on a hilltop - a windy hilltop - lots of sky, lots of clouds, - often lots of sun and moon and stars." 

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Girl’s party, 1899. 

[gcdramaturgy]

playing a horseshoes-esque game. similar to a party Emily and Rebecca might have experienced.

[gcdramaturgy]

Bird's eye view drawing of Peterborough, NH, the town that served as Wilder's inspiration for Grovers Corners.  Mt. Monadnock is seen in the distance.

[gcdramaturgy]

New England drugstore with soda fountain

[gcdramaturgy]

Fun Fact:  Geography - By surface area, New Hampshire is less than half the size of Lake Michigan!

[gcdramaturgy]

View of the White Mountains

[gcdramaturgy]

Carl Sagan the Stage Manager?

[gcdramaturgy]

Our Town as a sitcom trope over the years

[gcdramaturgy]

Finely detailed and unused 1901-1907 postcard of Main St. in downtown Pittsfield, NH, as photographed by H. W. Osgood.  Plentiful, fanciful gingerbread trim on the white foreground false-front building, with a dry goods store next door.  Large building in the distance appears to be a hotel or inn.

[dinosaurparty]

Perhaps there’s no greater freedom than to live life with a healthy relationship with Death. That healthy relationship allows you embracing each moment, realizing that we are not promised tomorrow. This good relationship with Death has been given to me by the funeral profession.

CONFESSIONS OF A FUNERAL DIRECTOR » Ten Reasons I’m a Funeral Director

Some insight. 

(via dinosaurparty)

[sondheimvevo]

Visit Original Link

The aforementioned song “I Notice You” from GROVER’S CORNERS: THE MUSICAL, a musicalization of Thornton Wilder’s OUR TOWN. Schmidt & Jones turn out OUTSTANDING work, as is to be expected. Featuring a young Scott Waara and Liz Callaway

[gcdramaturgy]

Yet another musical adaptation of Our Town called Grover's Corners. This song is from the soda shop scene.

[francisalbertsinatra]

Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, and Frank Sinatra during rehearsals for their performance of Our Town, which aired as an episode of the television series Producers’ Showcase, 1955

[gcdramaturgy]

Edit map Our Town Locations created with ZeeMaps

Here is an interactive map created by assistant dramaturg, Ben Falk, that pinpoints each of the locations discussed in Our Town. Take a look!

To navigate the list of pinned locations (instead of aimlessly clicking around) hover over the "View" tab second to the left and then click "Show List" second down the drop-down list. We have as a reference point the approximate location of Grover's Corners were it to exist. The coordinates Wilder gives have also been pinned, just outside of New Hampshire on the Massachusetts coast. The pins have the line with the location mentioned and its page number in the description. Each location has the initials of the character who mentions the location in parentheses next to them. They are not exhaustive is regards to which other characters are associated to those locations but it was neater to restrict it to direct mentions only. That key is:

SM: Stage Manager

JG: Mrs Gibbs (Julia Gibbs)

MW: Mrs Webb (Myrtle Webb)

ASM: Alumni Stage Manager

JS: Joe Stoddard

SC: Sam Craig

WW: Wally Webb

RG: Rebecca Gibbs

CW: Mr Webb (Charles Webb)

EW: Emily Webb

GG: George Gibbs

I've also connected the following locations as reference points on their distance to Grover's Corners: Antietam, Boston, Buffalo, Canton, Clinton, Gettysburg and Paris. No locations within New Hampshire have been connected.

[gcdramaturgy]

A spoof of Our Town done on the [adult swim] show, Children's Hospital