One of America’s best-known and most hailed plays is coming to the stage in Wilmington.
Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” premiered in 1938, and earned Wilder his second of three Pulitzer Prizes. Since then, the play has become a mainstay of American theater. Later this month, the New Light Theatre invites audiences to pay a visit to Grover’s Corners at the turn of the 20th Century.
The play follows the everyday moments of people in Grover’s Corner, a small town at the turn of the 20th Century. Director Megan Bellwoar said, even though the play is some 87 years old, its message is timeless.
“I think that, you know, our contemporary audiences will find what we've always found in this play - that it moves us, that it makes us laugh, that it just reminds us what it is to be present for this very short time we have on this very precious planet," she said.
Frank Jimenez plays George Gibbs.
“There's so much humanity in this, and for me it reminds me so much of community," he said. "And I think that is so important right now, and it's absolutely what everyone needs is to be reminded that we have community within each other.”
Bellwoar said that a portion of the proceeds from the show will go to benefit Delaware Hospice.
“This play examines life in a way that asks us to be very present at all [its] components and Hospice seems like a very natural fit," she said.
“Our Town” opens on Friday, February 28 at the studios of OperaDelaware in Wilmington and runs through March 9. Tickets and showtimes are online at New Light's website.
Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
