Skidmore Theater to Stage OUR TOWN This October

The Skidmore College Department of Theater is pleased to announce its Fall 2015 black box production, OUR TOWN by Thorton Wilder. This project is directed by international award-winning theater artist and veteran Skidmore Theater director/instructor Phil Soltanoff and will run October 22-28, 2015 at 8pm (Sunday matinee at 2pm) at the Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater on the Skidmore College campus.

Wilder's 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning play tells the story of the fictional American small town of Grover's Corners between 1901 and 1913 through the everyday lives of its citizens. In this Skidmore College Theater production, maverick theater director, Phil Soltanoff reexamines and resuscitates OUR TOWN as an "edgy innovative classic".

From the director: "OUR TOWN is an American play that everyone knows, and most everyone has seen. Maybe a spouse or parent, a high school girlfriend or boyfriend, have even been in a production. The play's ubiquity also creates its problem. OUR TOWN is done so much it's become a shadow of its once innovative self. An anesthetized version of the play exists in our psyche. Our ideas of OUR TOWN are homey -- sweet and saccharine -- about good ol' American values. Somehow (via perfunctory repetition) the play itself has disappeared into homespun worn-out notions. This production is an attempt to rescue OUR TOWN as an edgy innovative classic. I must confess, most folks who direct the play say this same darn thing. So let me join those rescuers in my attempt to hurl a life preserver to Wilder's text. I think there's a masterwork hidden in all the encrusted gobbledygook."

Tickets: $12 general admission and $8 for students and senior citizens. SEATING IS LIMITED. To reserve seats, call the Skidmore Theater Box Office at (518) 580-5439, email boxoffice@skidmore.edu or find us online on Facebook or at skidmore.edu/academics/theater.

The Skidmore Theater Department is a pre-professional program that offers students the opportunity to pursue the serious study of the theater arts within a liberal arts setting. Courses within the department afford training in the basic demands of the discipline -- physical and vocal control, technique in acting and directing, technical and design skills -- as well as the opportunity for advanced study, practical production experience, study abroad, and off-campus internships. The college liberal arts requirements help the student to understand the moral, intellectual, and political context in which any artist practices.

To post a comment, you must register and login.