SPT's Youth Program to Present OUR TOWN, 11/1-9

Seattle Public Theater's (SPT) Youth Program presents Thornton Wilder's classic of American theater, Our Town.

Six [free] performances: Friday, November 1 @ 7pm, Saturday, November 2 @ 7pm, Sunday November 3 @ 2pm, Friday, November 8 @ 7pm, and Saturday, November 9 @ 2pm and 7pm. Admission to all youth performances are free to the community. Donations are encouraged to support SPT's Theater Education Program and to offer student tuition assistance.

Two people meet, fall in love, and get married. What does it all add up to? Set in a fictional American town, Our Town is the story of an average town citizen's everyday lives, told by an omniscient Stage Manager who sees the greater historical forces at play. Both a simple love story, and a complicated look at what it means to grow up, live, and die in a single community, Our Town is an unsentimental classic that examines what is trivial and what is significant about any one person's breakfast.

"Tough times and bad weather open up a hunger for nostalgia," says director Shana Bestock,"we to turn to the stories of the past as a way of being meaningful instead of actively searching for meaning. We have nostalgia for familiar forms of storytelling...it's practically comfort food. Thornton Wilder understood this, but he also wanted to bust our chops by making us stop looking to the past for comfort or to the future for hope-he wanted us to focus on the now. That's where real risk and reward lie, this is the beauty of Our Town."

Directed by Shana Bestock and assistant directed by Isabelle Moore, Our Town features the acting talents of Alex Helme, Alexandra Varriano, Annika Prichard, Charlie Tadlock, Frank Garland, Inga Phlegar, Ingamar Christophersen, Julia Marshall, Julia Schoemig, Karinna Gerhardt, Kayla Brooks, Laura Rude, Leo Campbell-Klein, Mitzi Adler-Wachter, Nathanial Mascis, Nora Hammen, Olivia Sterne, Sarah Rowley, Sophie Von Veh, Torin Record-Sand, with the additional talents of Gabe Airth (Lighting Design), Ruby Powers (Costume Design), Jake Gordon (Stage Manager), Francesca O'Fallon and Gabriel Klein (Assistant Stage Managers).