Photo Flash: First Look at Long Wharf Theatre's OUR TOWN

Using a cast entirely comprised of alumni and members of the community, Long Wharf Theatre begins its 50th anniversary season with Our Town by Thornton Wilder, directed by Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein, through November 2, 2014 on the Claire Tow Stage in the C. Newton Schenck III Theatre.

Tickets are $25-$75. The press opening is Wednesday, February 26, 2014 at 7:30 pm. The theatre's 50th anniversary season community partner is The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

The cast includes James Andreassi (Joe Stoddard), Leon Addison Brown (Editor Webb), Robert Dorfman (Simon Stimson), Mateo Gomez (Sam Craig), JoJo Gonzalez (Howie Newsome), Jenny Leona (Emily Webb), Rey Lucas (George Gibbs), Ann McDonaugh (Mrs. Soames), Phil McGlaston (Constable Warren), Aidan McMillan (Joe Crowell), Dermot McMillan (Si Crowell), Linda Powell (Mrs. Gibbs), Christina Rouner (Mrs. Webb), Steve Routman (Professor Willard), Namumba Santos (Wally Webb), Don Sparks (Dr. Gibbs), Myra Lucretia Taylor (The Stage Manager), and Remy Welsh (Rebecca Gibbs). Every cast member has previously appeared in a Long Wharf Theatre production. In addition, Edelstein has invited members of the greater New Haven community to appear as the townspeople of Grover's Corners.

The creative team includes Eugene Lee (sets), Emily Rebholz (costumes), James F. Ingalls (lights), John Gromada (sound),Jonathan Berryman (musical direction), and Hope Rose Kelly (stage manager.)

A work of humanity and warmth, Our Town transports us to Grover's Corners, a place of secret wishes and disappointments, loves and losses, where the people we encounter are shockingly like the ones in our own lives. Meet Emily and George. They've grown up together in their small New England town, falling in love in a surprisingly complicated way. Their lives provide the lens through which the story is told, a story that focuses on a village but encompasses the eternal, finding the world in a grain of sand. "Indeed the play's success across cultural borders around the world attests to its being something much greater than an American play: it is a play that captures the universal experience of being alive," wrote the playwright Donald Margulies in his preface to the play.

For more information about Long Wharf Theatre, visit www.longwharf.org or call 203-787-4282.

Photos by T.Charles Erickson