Students took on Our Town as the school’s fall play with student led experience. The play, Our Town by Thornton Wilder, was produced and published in 1938. The three acts “Daily Life,” “Love and Marriage,” and “Death and Eternity” dives into the life of the female lead, Emily Webb, and the male lead, George Gibbs. Living in the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, which is based on the small town of Peterborough, New Hampshire, Webb and Gibb’s story is narrated through the Stage Manager. The two characters develop a friendship that soon blossoms into a romantic relationship, leading to a marriage and eventually death.

The cast and backstage crew members were a diverse group of high school students. Emily Webb, played by Aine Pawlik, is a freshman and George Gibbs, played by Cameron Kidwell, is a senior. Students worked hard during and after school by painting sets, blocking scenes, and rehearsing lines, creating a show for students, staff, and family members to watch. “Our Town is a wonderful show where students are able to gain experience, make memories, and be a part of something awesome,” said Avery Erdei, a sophomore in backstage crew.

Through this process of announcing the school play and building a community of talented students, student director, Audrey Peck, has been given the opportunity to student lead the play with special guest Todd Avery, a retired language arts/theater performance director. In addition seniors, Anna Bush and Hatteras Woodring were stage managers, who helped cue running crew, supervise set changes, and provide a smooth production for everyone.

“This show is an era that none of the students lived in and many of the themes delivered in the show are very deep and meaningful,” said Landyn Martin, a junior who performed as Dr. Frank Gibbs, George Gibbs’ father. With simple set pieces like ladders to represent the levels of a house and chairs in certain scenes, Our Town is a play that has little to no props throughout each act. This is called minimalism, which is a stylistical feature in theatre. According to Mental Floss, an online website which focuses on trivia games and interesting facts, Thornton Wilder wanted the audience to fill in the blanks when the characters were acting on stage. Due to this, it opens a window of opportunity to think about the head-on themes like life and death that are told throughout the story of the characters.