OUR TOWN Celebrates 125 Birthday Of Thorton Wilder At Dallas Theater Center

Dallas Theater Center (DTC) celebrates the 125th birthday of Our Town playwright Thorton Wilder with its newest production at the Kalita Humphreys Theater starting January 27. DTC will present the production with English and Spanish spoken throughout the production. It features translated passages by Nilo Cruz and Jeff Augustin. DTC's production is the first Wilder production in the 125th year-long celebration in 2022.

Tatiana Pandiani, the director of Our Town is a Latina director-choreographer who works in Spanish and English. She currently serves as the Associate Director for the National Broadway tour of What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck.

Recent: Blood Wedding (Yale). Upcoming: Torera (The Alley / Long Wharf). Tatiana has directed and developed new work at the Park Theatre (London), Cleveland Playhouse, NYTW, IATI, Primary Stages, Signature. As a choreographer, Tatiana collaborates with Latine artists in concerts & music videos. Tatiana is the New Works Director at Miami New Drama, and a professor at Yale School of Drama and the Atlantic Acting School. Member of SDC. MFA: Columbia. Reps: Brillstein Entertainment Partners. www.tatianapandiani.com

"Millions of people in the United States lead bilingual and bicultural lives. Some lead multilingual experiences on a day-to-day basis. And for some reason, the American theater has shied away from using multiplicity of language as a tool for connection and engagement. My own life has been bilingual and bicultural from a very young age, and these experiences are, in some regards, uniquely American experiences: The reality of living in multiple worlds at one and creating an identity under an ever-changing umbrella of multiplicities," said Tatiana Pandiani, Director, Our Town. "One of the reasons this play has been celebrated so long is that it reminds us to be present, ... to truly be awake while living, to take in the world around us and realize that everything is fleeting and changing."

All of the performances feature a mixture of both spoken Spanish and English. Select performances held February 4-6 will feature live simultaneous translations in both languages voiced by bilingual voice actors. Our Town was written in English and first debuted on Broadway in 1938. Since then, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play has been taught in classrooms across the country and performed throughout the world. In 2017, the Wilder Estate approved the first official production featuring translated passages of the original text. The new show debuted in Miami with spoken English, Spanish, and Creole. To represent the people of Dallas, the Creole was removed, with the show presented about 20 percent in Spanish.

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 theater-die. Narrated by a stage manager and performed with minimal props and sets, Our Town depicts the fictional small town of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, through three acts: "Daily Life," "Love and Marriage" and "Death and Eternity." Filled with live music and infused with layers of culture and community, this special production celebrates Grover's Corners as an international address and finds the shared humanity in all its inhabitants. DTC staff are working with the Wilder Estate to promote the production.

"Against the backdrop of the cosmos, Thornton Wilder celebrated the individual human heart. His plays, novels, and essays offer one of world literature's finest treatments of our loves, hopes, struggles, and dreams. On the 125th anniversary of his birth, we honor his compassion, his understanding, and his radical imagination, which has opened doors for generations of artists to come," Tappan Wilder, Thornton Wilder's literary executor.

Dallas Theater Center's production of Our Town will also feature Dallas' very own Liz Mikel in the role of Stage Manager. Mikel is celebrating her 30-year anniversary with DTC as a member of the Brierley Resident Acting Company. She made her debut on the DTC mainstage in 1991, appearing in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Since then, Mikel has been featured in multiple DTC productions, including Cake Ladies, Working, Something Grim(m), In the Bleak Midwinter; Little Women; Penny Candy; Twelfth Night; Sweat; Steel Magnolias;, and more.

"Liz Mikel is one of my favorite actors in the American theater," said Kevin Moriarty, DTC's Enloe/Rose Artistic Director. "She fully invests each role she plays with her considerable humanity. She is equally adept at drama and comedy. She is an outstanding singer. And on top of that, she is the most generous of collaborators. For those reasons, she has earned the love and admiration of decades of fans in Dallas and across the country, and she is at the center of DTC's Brierley Resident Acting Company. As DTC celebrates 30 years of Liz's artistry on our stage, it's a special joy to see her take on the leading role of the Stage Manager in Our Town, one of the great roles in the American theater."

Beginning January 27, actors will be fully masked during live performances throughout the full run of the production. All DTC staff members and artists are also required to be vaccinated. Cast and crew members are required to submit to regular COVID testing. DTC requires audience members older than 12 to have a negative COVID-19 test or to provide proof of vaccination. Guests will not be required to show I.D. and DTC will not save patrons information. To view DTC's COVID-19 Guest Policy, please visit www.dallastheatercenter.org/covid-19-guest-policy.

Concessions will be sold before the show and during intermission for guests to consume in the lobby. Masks must be worn at all times throughout the theater unless concessions are being consumed while in the lobby. The production runs January 27 - February 20. To get more information or to buy tickets, please visit https://www.dallastheatercenter.org/show/our-town/.

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