Our Town at Lake Country Playhouse

Presented through special arrangement with Samuel French, in cooperation with the Thornton Wilder Family.

Production Sponsor Kit Seidel Directed by Artistic Director Sandra Baker-Renick Producer Nancy Hurd Stage Manager Lori Albers Prop Design Michelle Dayton Sound & Light Design Breanne Brennan Costume Design Sarah Jo Martens Hair Design Nancy Hurd

RATING: Appropriate for all audiences RUNTIME: 2 hours, 15 minutes, with intermission ADMISSION: $25.00 GROUP (10+) TICKETS $22.00

Performance Dates and Times: Thursday, July 6, 2023, 7:30pm Friday, July 7, 2023, 7:30pm Saturday, July 8, 2023, 7:30pm Sunday, July 9, 2023, 2:00pm

Thursday, July 13, 2023, 7:30pm Friday, July 14, 2023, 7:30pm Saturday, July 15, 2023, 7:30pm Sunday, July 16, 2023, 2:00pm

“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.” — DONALD MARGULIES IN THE FOREWORD TO OUR TOWN.

ACCOLADES

• Winner! 1938 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Winner! 1989 Tony Award for Best Revival Winner! 1989 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival

OUR TOWN by Thornton Wilder (1897-1975), born in Madison, Wisconsin, and educated at Yale and Princeton, was an accomplished novelist and playwright whose works explore the connection between the commonplace and the cosmic dimensions of human experience.

This timeless drama of life in the mythical village of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, has become an American classic with universal appeal. Thornton Wilder’s most frequently performed play, Our Town appeared on Broadway in 1938 to wide acclaim, and won the Pulitzer Prize. From the very beginning, Our Town has been produced throughout the world.

Our Town explores the relationship between two young Grover’s Corners neighbors, George Gibbs and Emily Webb, whose childhood friendship blossoms into romance, and then culminates in marriage. When Emily looses her life in childbirth, the circle of life portrayed in each of the three acts of Our Town–growing up, adulthood, and death–is fully realized.

Wilder offers a couple of chairs on a bare stage as the backdrop for an exploration of the universal human experience. The simple story of a love affair is constantly rediscovered because it asks timeless questions about the meaning of love, life and death. In the final moments of the play, the recently deceased Emily is granted the opportunity to revisit one day in her life, only to discover that she never fully appreciated all she possessed until she lost it. “Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you,” she says as she takes her place among the dead.

THE CAST

Dick Natrop Stage Manager

Sarah Jo Martens Emily Webb

Angelique Tober Mrs. Webb

Dave Somerscales Mr. Webb

Michael Ortin Wally Webb

Brian Maxwell George Gibbs

Mack Bates Dr. Gibbs

Paula Nordwig Mrs. Gibbs

Evie Maassen Rebecca Gibbs (14)

Talen Marshall Simon Stimson

Elisabeth Markman Mrs. Soames

James Marlega, Jr Howie Newsome

Ali McCloud Joe Crowell, Baseball Player

Grace Kamin Si Crowell, Baseball Player, U/S Wally

Amy Wickland Professor Willard, Man Among the Dead

Ralph Netzel Constable Warren

Abby Fuchs Sam Craig , choir

Angie Rodenkirch Joe Stoddard, Choir Lead

Mikael Hagerstread Farmer McCarty, Baseball Player, Choir, U/S Howie

Natalie Wanasek Woman/Dead, Woman in the Balcony, Choir. U/S Emily

Noah Marlega Choir/person among the dead

Sarah Yudkovitch Ensemble, choir, woman of the dead. U/S Rebecca

Terri McIntosh-Zigan Choir/person among the dead

Susan Nakigane Choir/person among the dead + Beligerant Person

Mary Kirby Lady in the Box, U/S Mrs Gibbs, Mrs. Webb