Our Town (Multilingual)

A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Our Town (Multilingual)

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  7w, 10m

by Thornton Wilder
Translations by Nilo Cruz and Jeff Augustin

Thornton Wilder’s iconic, Pulitzer Prize-winning play is reimagined for the 21st century. With new layers of language and culture, Our Town expands to encompass everyone in a quintessentially American – and human – story.

Image: 2017 Miami New Drama Production (Stian Roenning)

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    7w, 10m
  • Duration
    Duration
    More than 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Appropriate for all audiences
Accolades
Accolades
  • For the original Our Town:

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

Our Town (Multilingual)
Also Available

Details

Summary

Described by Edward Albee as “the greatest American play ever written,” 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 theatre – die. Narrated by a stage manager and performed with minimal props and sets, Our Town depicts the small town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, through three acts: “Daily Life,” “Love and Marriage” and “Death and Eternity.”

In the next step for a play that Wilder conceived from the beginning as a play about everywhere, Our Town is published here for the first time in three languages—English, Spanish and Creole. Infused with layers of culture and community, this new Acting Edition celebrates Grover’s Corners as an international address.

History
Our Town opened on Broadway at Henry Miller's Theatre on February 4, 1938, produced and directed by Jed Harris. The original cast featured Frank Craven, Martha Scott, and John Craven. The play returned to Broadway four times: in 1944 starring Marc Connelly; in 1969 starring Henry Fonda; in 1988 starring Spalding Gray; and in 2002 starring Paul Newman. In November 2017, the new multilingual version of Our Town debuted at the Colony Theatre in Miami, Florida, in a Miami New Drama production directed by Michel Hausmann.

Cast (In Order of Appearance)

STAGE MANAGER
MRS. GIBBS
MRS. WEBB
DR. GIBBS
JOE CROWELL, JR.
HOWIE NEWSOME
REBECCA
GEORGE
EMILY
WALLY
PROFESSOR WILLARD
MR. WEBB
WOMAN IN THE BALCONY
BELLIGERENT MAN
LADY IN A BOX
SIMON STIMSON
MRS. SOAMES
CONSTABLE WARREN
HOWIE NEWSOME
SI CROWELL
THE BASEBALL PLAYERS
TOWNSPEOPLE
WALLY WEBB
SAM CRAIG
JOE STODDARD
FOUR MEN
DEAD WOMAN
A MAN AMONG THE DEAD
ANOTHER MAN AMONG THE DEAD

Doubling and Understudy Plot

1) PROFESSOR WILLARD: sings in choir, plays A MAN AMONG THE DEAD, understudies STAGE MANAGER and MR. WEBB.
2) WOMAN IN BALCONY: sings in choir, plays A WOMAN AMONG THE DEAD, understudies MRS. WEBB, MRS. SOAMES.
3) MAN IN AUDITORIUM: plays BASEBALL PLAYER, is ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER, understudies GEORGE.
4) LADY IN THE BOX: sings in choir, understudies MRS. GIBBS.
5) BASEBALL PLAYER: is ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER, understudies SIMON STIMSON and SAM CRAIG.
6) FARMER MCCARTY: understudies CONSTABLE WARREN, JOE STODDARD, and A MAN AMONG THE DEAD.
7) STAGE MANAGER: plays SAM CRAIG, understudies HOWIE NEWSOME and PROFESSOR WILLARD.
8) CHOIR SINGER: understudies DOC GIBBS, and MAN IN AUDITORIUM.
9) CHOIR SINGER: understudies EMILY and REBECCA, and LADY IN BOX, and WOMAN IN BALCONY.

If no understudy is engaged for the THREE BOYS:
In case of illness of JOE CROWELL, scene must be cut and STAGE MANAGER’s succeeding speech also cut.
WALLY understudies SI CROWELL (STAGE MANAGER’s introductory line being changed accordingly to cover WALLY).
SI CROWELL understudies WALLY (with same change in Act II)

BASEBALL PLAYERS can be reduced from three to two without changes in lines.
Lines of A WOMAN FROM AMONG THE DEAD can be spoken by MRS. SOAMES.
Lines of A MAN FROM AMONG THE DEAD can be spoken by FARMER MCCARTY.

  • Time Period 1900-1910
  • Setting Grovers Corners, New Hampshire. 1901.
  • Features Contemporary Costumes / Street Clothes, Period Costumes
  • Duration More than 120 minutes (2 hours)

Media

“[A] theatrical meditation on life and eternity... Thornton Wilder’s Our Town has stood the test of time.” – WLRN, Miami, FL

“You have never seen an Our Town quite like [this] exquisite, emotionally potent production... The language differences give the families a special, specific way of communicating, of underscoring their bonds. You can hear the emotional resonance as the audience responds.” – Miami Herald

“A brand-new, compelling vision for Wilder’s play... [an] engaging, timely, thought-provoking work.” – Theatre Criticism

“Underscores the values of community in a time when our country seems as divided as it has ever been.” – Florida Theater On Stage

ON BREAKING CHARACTER

Bringing Our Town to His City: An Interview with Michel Hausmann
October 11, 2023

Videos

  • Promo for Our Town at Colony Theatre - Chantal  youtube thumbnail

    Promo for Our Town at Colony Theatre - Chantal

  • Thornton Wilder: It's Time youtube thumbnail

    Thornton Wilder: It's Time

  • Thornton Wilder Podcast: Our Town (Multilingual) youtube thumbnail

    Thornton Wilder Podcast: Our Town (Multilingual)

  • Promo for Our Town at Colony Theatre - Michel youtube thumbnail

    Promo for Our Town at Colony Theatre - Michel

  • Our Town at Colony: Table Read youtube thumbnail

    Our Town at Colony: Table Read

  • Promo for Our Town at Colony Theatre - Carla y Thallis youtube thumbnail

    Promo for Our Town at Colony Theatre - Carla y Thallis

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Photos

  • Our Town (Multilingual)

    Image: 2017 Miami New Drama Production (Stian Roenning © 2020 Miami New Drama)

  • Our Town (Multilingual)

    Image: 2017 Miami New Drama Production (Stian Roenning © 2020 Miami New Drama)

  • Our Town (Multilingual)

    Image: 2017 Miami New Drama Production (Stian Roenning © 2020 Miami New Drama)

  • Our Town (Multilingual)

    Image: 2017 Miami New Drama Production (Stian Roenning © 2020 Miami New Drama)

  • Our Town (Multilingual)

    Image: 2017 Miami New Drama Production (Stian Roenning © 2020 Miami New Drama)

  • Our Town (Multilingual)

    Image: 2017 Miami New Drama Production (Stian Roenning © 2020 Miami New Drama)

  • Our Town (Multilingual)

    Image: 2017 Miami New Drama Production (Stian Roenning © 2020 Miami New Drama)

Show more +

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $130 per performance

Authors

Thornton Wilder

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. The Bridge of San Luis Rey, one ...

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Nilo Cruz

Cuban-American playwright Nilo Cruz gained national prominence in 2003 when he won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for his play Anna in the Tropics, for which he also received a Tony Award nomination. The immigrant experience is a common theme in many of Cruz's plays and he has ...

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Jeff Augustin

Jeff Augustin is a Miami-born playwright. His plays include Where the Mountain Meets the Sea (Humana Festival of New American Plays); The New Englanders (Manhattan Theatre Club); Little Children Dream of God (Roundabout Theatre Company); The Last Tiger in Haiti (La Jolla Play ...
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