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Our Town - Script

Script for Wilder's Our Town

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156 views76 pages

Our Town - Script

Script for Wilder's Our Town

Uploaded by

isabellam.shipman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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PY Thornton Wilder OuR ToWN A Playin Three Acts ose a oe opts ag am pvc fey mt Be ae Anges Fm racial be are 8 Sel he, Se te nk NY 1010, No anes eran ey 0, ‘eterno ewes pmo Sami Fen, riceant png he requ oy reser on ttok wpe y Coma Mn i819. Se ry ang ir de Wie Far LLC. srw, Gaga © 198,196 he Wilke Fai LLC Foren pi Fea eer es Newel cpp ©2003 by Tippin WOser AL Hee red Une Se fhe No pt ook mabe a ee any me whee ot Wien fermion a eect ines aes en ere, a hs ater In, 1 Eat Sr Stet, New Ya NY 1002, Hapa bok my te pusher edt, ies, fe poe ae maton fae ee Spc Nas Depry, Hur (CFs a shes Seen, New Yok NY 10002 Fine Rel iy dion pubibi 985, ut el Csi don pub 199; sd 203 own Cai pase y Peni spin of Huet ulin iis of mre Coin Pianos ‘Oust ay ine act / Thornton Wier —Carrert Precis Chas chen [Phot Hinplre ‘Dame iy oe Drama, 3. Young ne ‘roma Lie I Feel aaron aoo0ssre 1H 1815 WBRRD WO 958 573635 3 To Alexander Woolleor: ‘of Castleton Town, Rutland County, Vermont Contents Foreword by Donald Margulies x Our Town 3 ‘A playin she act ‘Aferword by Tappan Wilder 3 Acknowledgments 173 Foreword You ae holding in your hands a great American play. Possibly, the great American ply. If you think you're already familiar with Our Town, chances are you read it long ago, in sixth or seventh grade, when it was lumped in a tasting portion of sim, palatable vol ‘umes of American literature along with The Red Pony by Joba Steinbeck and Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome, You were com: pelled to read it, ike nasty medicine force-fed for your own, good, when you were too young to appreciate how enriching i might be. Or perhaps you sw one too many amateur pro: ductions that, to put it kindly, fled to persuade you of the play's greatness, You sneered atthe domestic activities of the sitizenry of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, and colled Your eyes at the quaine-seeming romance between George Gibbs and Emily Webb. You dismissed Our Town asa corny relic of Americana and relegated Thornton Wilder to the ‘isch bin along with Norman Rockwell and Frank Capra You may have come around on Capra (Ie a Wonderful Life sewally owes a great deal to Our Tewn), and you may fine illus soll for being 3 stator Roce rel to cll him an artist, but ng yours er mind be remains the eternal ed wales t0 mary pe doo, an 9 en ml Wis importzce 0 Arericn _steadast in YOUF tert ae ed alvas appre Tae or ‘Wilder, either. Like many of aces of Te 0 Unga a ries ou Bn an nth sik mck 1 et 1988 Lincoln Center Tha ig wt | Td Mosher, an experi a in cn deed by regY Meas te whi came BY i uDNERE PONCE, 19 ing ie ors, hatred by i hid 2 that eel te ame py ought Ta! own coe pa tment ome and read the Maser Soa eer on my sel along, and pored over te ext aa tote and is oupe of crs (Id by Sling oan Sage Manager fad done diferent. As fa 1 or ay had changed very ile, asthe one who ‘toned. Byte ne egies, Thad entered my tities me a cin, Thad buried bork my parents 1 tat rotted devastating wa; and {had fallen in owe. I ner wns Ihave enough of if to nally understand hat as rea about Our Tow “Therapie we make when we “cle” a work ofthe magn” Wie wrt, is that fying: This the 29 ofthe most memorable of my theater ee things are. Thave always known it without being filly aware that I knew it. Now in the presence of this pay or novel or poem (oF picture or piece of music) {know that I know it” Wilder was right: I believed every word of i. dents red and together we dest, any of comempo Sitewtry ne tee Slane aT Foreword pot ial won she thar hyve gore a TONG, cis is true: Our Town is any. E it is simple, but also profound; ich nthe SIE 2 i bing uneven, wel sie slo vet rene can be dee pal hares “Out Spend Wir wrote, ay with No cor ti No cr ume coir he content: The A in wen sag esos swe ve ret unheard fin Amenicandramaturey. Te season “with responsibility.” (Has our theater really changed all that Foreword =v bbe made today, given the “soothing” fare that dominates a Broadway where the “serious” pay is the anomaly.) Stripping the stage of fany artifice, Wilder set himself a formidable challenge. With two ladders, afew pieces of fur ture, and a minimum of props, he attempted “to find a value above all price fr the smallest events in our daily life.” Actors rmimed their stage business, a “stage manager” functioned as both omniscient narrator and player, These ideas were star tlingy modern for American drama in 1937. Trae, Pirandello ‘broke down the conventions ofthe pay fiteen years eae, in Europe, in Six Characters in Search ofan Author (the world premiere of which Wilder attended), and inthe United States in the decade before Our Town, O'Neil tested the bounds of theatrical storytelling, with mixed results, in Strange Inter: ‘ude. Bor with Our Town, Wilder exploded the accepted notions of character and story and catapulted the American cdama into the twentieth century. He did for the stage what Picasso and Braque’s experiments in cubism did for painting and Joyce's stream of consciousness did forthe novel. To mis ‘ake him fora tadlitionalis isto do Thornton Wilder an injus tice. He was, in fact, a modernist who trnsated European and Asian ideas about theater into the American idiom By 1930, Wilder, who started his writing career a8 4 now: st, had begun experimenting with dramatic form. Ina ‘enced by the economy of storyteling of Noh drama, he boldly compressed ninety years of a family’s history into ‘twenty minutes of stage time in The Long Christmas Dinner His 1931 one-act, Pullman Car Hiamatha, which brings to life with a minimum of scenery a section of a train car and some of its passengers, reads as a marvelous rehearsal for ‘many ofthe ideas he put to confident use in Our Town itis rd rower rn sight. In it, Willer is in ee hs inthe Pullman verve as bert wd passing elds and towns hia) a stage manager i {including * oe ete Hap Journey 28 Trenton and anc, that of Ger sot makes an aPPeHNCE hom persed while png 10 bud it wags: ad, perhaps most ska; + Tor mily-dies unexpectedly eso the archangels Gabel Fr weaved to scorer 10 Sia ch one ating why He sein edging ee scene f° eo aly Te nw Tundra vey Ping nies On Tn a ee ve ac the pits and bypass sob, Mama you neve el sth voher mother on the joa tnd Michaels American ie depicted in Wilder's trath about anything” Emly bemoans ven sino, ee alcoholic chormaser, isa bilan cremun,bffoon and tragic gure all at once. He ib not 3 peering wn drunk designe fo sy laughs ater, he is Sure, sefdestuctive soul whose cries for help are Ignored by 4 provindal people steeped in denial, In the ‘eget of Simon Stimson—a suicide, we learn in Act HI— ‘Wilder iusrates the fiure of society 1 hep its own andthe insiiousnes of systematic ignorance, “The only thing the rest of us cn do,” Mrs, Gibbs opines about Stimvon's public drunkenness, is just not to notice it.” We may laugh a her ‘Yankee pragmatism but itis also ciling ‘The perfection of the play starts with its title, Grovers Comes belongs to all oF us itis indeed our toven, a micro ‘coum of the human family, genus American, But in that speci feity it becomes all towns. Everywhere. Indeed, the play’s socess across cultural borders around the world atest t0 its ting something much greater than an American play: it is 8 ply thar eaprures the univer experience of being ait "The Stage Manager tells us the play’s action begins on May 7, 1901, but i is at specific to that time as it was, no doubt, to 1937, and as itis to the time in which we're livin. ‘The thrce-act structure is a marvel of economy: Act 1 is dubbed "Daily Lite,” Act II, “Love and Marriage,” and Act 11, “I reckon you can guess whar that’s about.” “The simultancity of life and death, past, present, and ature pervades Our Town, As soon as we are introduced £0 Doc and Mrs. Gibbs, the Stage Manager informs us oftheir deaths. Minutes into the play and already the long shadow ‘of death is cast, ironizing ll that follows, With the specter of| mortality hovering, the quotidian business of the people of Grover’: Corners atains a kind of grandeur. When cleven-yearold Joe Crowell, the newsboy, enters, making his rounds, he and Doc Gibbs chat about the either, the boy's teacher's impending marriage, and the condition of his pesky knee, The prosaic turns suddenly wrenching when the Stige Manager casually fils us in on. young Joe's future, his scholarship to MIT, his graduating at the top of his class, “Goin’ to be a great engineer, Joe was. Bur the war beoke out and he died in France. —All that edu cation for nothing.” How could anyone accuse Wilder of whet he, like ite, is capable of such cruelty? Ta just few eloquent sentences he caprures both the capricious ness of life and the futility of war, The war Wilder eeferred sentimental rover . ne Geet Ware WD AS begs sox 0 Pr Tomb PANE of cin sen eas en OE Nai, ring HE ed etn the Wo ey sess sping wi Wy ners eat Dow ya rr Wiad te ne ele fn aad ewe ie sn nc Fn Don Poe tee eng Hedy The Stage Mange ier sore and Emily's wedding day. etn es 10 80W ws “he al 1 aed in how big igs tt sn tsk in tne to be dopa a” A ine ad “when they fist knw won er te one frome anche” Once ht te weed ne ean the wei leh le piney sr fit aa via ra whl as Tam expen he seri, als who prolong the heed toda eof he hanes of the vo Tepaigtfon Lone and Mange o Deis lwo atnve eTe pople we se to fama str nero 20 oh ‘Selim tm ean. Mr i Se Se Pi Ferewsed sor, and Mrs. Soames, “who enjoyed the wedding so,” areal dead now, 38s Wally Webb, whose young life was cut short by 2 burst append while on 2 Boy’ Scout camping trip. ‘Much asthe sada-ountsn fashback i the centerpiece of the second act, Emily’s posthumous vist to the past in the mide of Act ITI provides the emotional climax of the play Newly deceased while giving birth to her second child, Emily wishes to go bick to a happy day and chooses her twelfth biethday. The dead warn ber that such a return can only be punfal. The job ofthe dead, they tell her is to forget the lv ing. Emily learns all too quickly that they are right and decides to join the indifferent dead, Her farewell i one ofthe {immortal moment in all of American drama Goodby, Goodby, world. Good: by, Grover's Cor: ners...Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks tick ing... and Mama’s sunflowers. And food and cof fe. And newironed dresses and hot baths... and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth you're t00 Woo: erful for anybody to realize you Wilder modesly wrote, “I am not one of the new dramatists we aze looking for. I wish I were, I hope I have played a part in preparing the way for them.” He was wrong about not being one of the “new dramatists.” In some respects he was the fire American playwright. The part he played! in preparing those who followed—Willisms, Miller, Albee, Wilson (Lanford), Wilson (August), Vogel, to list a few—isincaculable “The cottage, the go-cart the Sunday-afternoon drives ae oe Foren the grandchildren, thes. inthe or the Bs EUS in Ei, ces reading of the will” i's on in On Tom ate PSE offi eo aoe, Lr YOU: A JOvOUS dco you arene ae oc wccome back —t0 Onr To Donald Margulies New Haven, Connecticut OuR ToWN ‘Doe first performance of this play ook place atthe McCarter ‘Theatre, Princeton, New Jersey on January 22,1938. The fist, [New York performance was at the Henry Miler Theater, Feb ruary4, 1938. Iwas produced and directed by Jed Haris. The technical director was Raymond Sovey; the costumes were designed by Madame Héléne Pons. The role of the Stage Man ager was played by Frank Craven, The Gibbs family were played by Jay Fassett, Evelyn Varden, John Craven and Marilyn Erskine; the Webb family by Thomas Ross, Helen Carew, Martha Scott (as Emily) and Chatles Wiley, Jes Mrs. Soames, was played by Doro Merande; Simon Stimson by Philip Cookie, order oftheir appearance) uaRacTeRs fine os race MANAGER Dx. Ginss jor CxOWELL Hos NEWSOME ss. Gt Mas. We GGzotae Gans esses GIBBS ‘Wau Wen vy Wess Proresson WILLARD Ma, Want Wows Is THE BALCONY ‘Mavis THe AUDITORIUM apy 1s THE BOX SiON STIMSON Mas. Sows CCoxstante WARRES S1 Crowe ‘Tins BASEBALL PLAYERS Sass Crate Jot Sroopann ‘The entire play takes place in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. ActI No curtain, Noscenery ‘The audience, arriving, es an empty sage in bal light. Presently the STAGE MANAGER, dat on ad pipe in mouth, centers and bepins placing a table and three chairs downstage ‘ef and a rable and three chair: downstage right. He alo place low bench at the carner of what will be the Webb bows, lp ‘Left™ and “right” are from the point of view of the actor facing the andience. “Up” i toward the back wall As the bonse lights go down he bas finshed ezing the nage 4nd leaning against the right proscenium pillar watcher the late arivalsin the audience When the auditorium isin complete darknes be speaks This play is called “Our Town.” It was writen by Thornton Wilder, produced and directed by A... (or produced by A. slireted by B....). In it you will see Miss C....: Miss D. a_—_~"~ i... § — sie i= Mle HL and many and Me is Gs Mis Eo af the TH we The nae asachwsts ine: nude 42 rovers Comer Neu we ge mint Th oso es longitude ays May7, 1901. The tine vor se see Aree ow some steaks oFight ver inthe ‘The skys begin 7 jount’in. ee ent rp woe ih wins ‘mei va 6 efi e has 1 67 sao memes De MPT nr town lies, Up here— ye, beer stow you Row our own Hes UP “ha ic paral wit bck al i the railway station; tacks go ia src Wayback hee ee ‘s ‘the tracks, and some Canuck sary, Plsh Town's 3085 fa. Toward the i ‘er there isthe Congregational Church the Presbyterian, Methodist and Unitarian are over tere across the streets Sapisis down in the hol” by the ier Catholic Church over beyond the tracks ‘Here's the Tou Hill and Post Office combined; i's in the ‘emer. Bryan once made a speech from these very steps her ‘Along here's a row of stores, Hitching posts and horse blocks in front of them. Fist automabile’s going to come alongs in about five years—beloniged to Banker Cartwright, our richest ‘Grizen «lives inthe big white house up on the bil Here's the grocery store and here's Me. Morgan's drugstore. ‘Most everybody in town manages 10 look into those 60 sores once a day Public School’s over yonder, High Schoo! still farther over. Quarter of nine mornings, noontimes, and three o'clock afiernoons, the hull own can hear che yelling and screaming from those schoolyard “He approaches the table and chairs downstage right “This is our doctor's house, Doc Gibbs. This is the back door. Tivo arched tei, covered with vines and flowers, are pushed ont, one by each proscenium pillar. “There's some scenery for those who think they have to have ‘This is Mes. Gibbs ganden. Corn peas. beans... hall hocks heliotrope ... and a lot of burdock, Croser the age tn shoe day our nevgaper come out eice 2 week—the ver’s Corners Sentine!—and this is Editor Webb's hous. ‘And this is Mrs. Webb's garden, Just like Mrs. Gibbs’, only ies got alot of sunflowers, r00, our Tow acter 1086 tn ain haley proven pl ad fora mie ugh bee ‘Heres tsa tani Aanow what Tent? Nice tous sta very em ae vrbones inte cemetery UP ETE 09 the The es oy eshte Grover ad Caron Meyr—same ames a8 are around Hee out oft, sar a8 we know be ever come out oF i's about dawn. intown ar in a cottage over by the tacks wins. And in the Joe Crow sing up #0 a8 t0 deliver the ‘elas sit “Te only lights oi aber Posh mote’ just ad ti hose, where Joe Juniors Bet : supe Aa inthe depot, where Shorty Hawkins is et ead to fag he 5:4 for Boston takes om bis “Atrain wise is heard The ta MANAG ‘atch and nod ‘Nau, outin the country—allaround—there've been is cn frcme time, what with mikin’s and so oa, But own peo pleleep ae So~another day's begun. ‘There's Doe Gibb comin? down Main Street now, comin’ buck fom tat bby ese, And here’ his wife comin’ downstats © etre, as. cs, «plump, pleasant woman in the middle dirtes eames “evnstairs” right She pute mp an imaginary window ‘Shade in ber kitchen and sarts to make a fire in her sore Doc Gibbs died in 1930. The new hospital's named after him. Mrs. Gibbs died frst—long time ago, infact. She went out ro visi her daughter, Rebecca, who married an insurance man in ‘Canton, Ohio, and die there ~pneumonis—but her body was brought back here. She's up in the cemetery there now—in with a whole mess of Gibbses and Herseys—she was Julia Hersey "fore she married Doc Gibbs in the Congregational (Church over there In our town we like ro know the facts about everybody “There's Mrs. Webb, coming downstairs to get her breakfast, —Thar’s Do Gibbs, Got that call at halfpast one this morning, And there comes Joe find, well Jr delivering Mr. Webb's Sen DR. teas fins been coming along Main Street fom the lf. At the point where be would turn to approach his house, he stops, set down his—imaginary—black bag, taker aff bis ha, ‘and rubs his fee with faigme, sing an enormous handkerchief 2s wn thi, ser erp woman, has enter er Aico fh ping on onion. Se ge rng min ef ting mod ite, ing and prepa breakfast. a ‘ sagan leven, starts 4% Main iy sudden 108 HON en minen Foe Gibbs pinary newspapers inte doory, seeing. BOE Morin, J Semebybee sick, DOC? come eins born oven Posh Town, Do yu want your paper 908? ri eke c-~Anyting serious goin’ on inthe world sine Yes Wedocsy? Yes My schookeacher, Mis Foster, "s getting married ros fl oer in Concord | declare —How do you boys fel about tha? Well ofcoane, i's none of my business—but I think pe son tars out to be a teacher, she ought to stay one How's your tne, Joe? ee Fine, Doc, I never think about it at all Only like you said it always els me when it’s going t0 rain, ‘What's it eling you today? Goin’ to ean? No, sit. Sure? Yess. No, sin 108 goes off DR. GINS stands reading bis paper ‘Want to tell you something abour that boy Joe Crowell there Joe was awful bright—graduated from high school here, head Of his class, So he got a scholarship to Massachusetts ‘Tech, Graduated head of his clas there, 0, Ie was all wrote up in the Boston paper atthe time. Goin’ to bea great engineer, Joe was But the war broke out and he died in France.—All that educa ‘ion for nothing. cour Ton owe newsomt ‘ matter with you toda ssp, Bese! Wha E™ Guts ener pie Newsom elves’ the mil re comes Howie * ne tout hire i overalls, comer along se Se walking Beside vibe hr Main oe Fm imag rac thik of enting ilk bres beard He an eb’ rls she, eosin the stage crt talk 20 Dr. Gib. Mn. i’ be 098 8 Mosing, Dos Morning, Howe Somebody sick? Pair of twins over to Mrs. Goruslawsk' “Twins, ch? This town’s getin’ bigger every year: Goin’ rin, Howie? No, no. Fin day—tha'l buen through. Come on, Bess Hello Bessie, He strokes the hore, whic bas remained up center How old i she, Howie? Going on seventeen. Besse's ll ied up about the route ever since the Lockhars stopped takin’ their quart of milk every ay. ‘She wants to lave "om a quart just the same—bkecps scolding. re the hull ip He reaches Mex. Gibb! back doo. Se is iting for bin Good morning, Howie, ‘Morning, Mrs. Gibbs. Doc’sjust comin’ down the street. 1s he? Seems like you're late roy Yes. Somep’a went wrong with the separator. Don’t know what "ews, He pases Dr. Gis np center, Doct Howie! cating wos case olen! some 1 -Time to get UP. owe we come on, Bess! egos 1 Rebecca! arrive at ick oor and pastes throngh the George! reli bse verthingal sight Frank? Yes 1 declare easy 25 tens Bacon be ready in : ‘Yosean cach a couple hour” slep this morning, cant you minute. Set down and drink your cole Ha... Mis. Wennworth’s coming at eleven. Guess 1 knot what i's about, too, Her stummick ain’ what it ought tobe [Alto you won't get more'a three hours’ sleep. Frank Gibbs [don't what's goin’ to become of you. Ido wis coo ‘1 yout goaway someplace and take a rest. I hink it wos do you good, Emilee! Time to get up! Waly! Seven o'clock! I declare, you got to speak to George. Seems like something's come over him lately, He's no help to me at al. can’t even get him co cue Wishing and drying bis hand a the sink, MRS. Claas is busy atthe soe. Ise sassy to you? No. He just whines! All he thinks about is that baseball— George! Rebecca! You'll be late for school Mmm George! George, look sharp! Yes, Pat Ashe goes off the sage Don’t you hear your mother calling you? 1 " y y er calling you? 1 guess 1 Upstairs and get forty winks, . efor schoo! Walleee! You ic mysell ns. 0H ees ben Onl ht ad ney oe sc ned ee iginm frou yey bissleep- wa a, hate tha ees ‘op, husrup-with 70% ser day gp choo deed ke ack rk. ‘iow, Rebecca, you always look 677 nic, Mama, George's throwing soap a me 1" come and slap the both of you,—that’s what I'l do, Afar white nds ‘econ dash nd ake tir lacs th abl Rigi, cconc, abot ten, and REBECCA, leven 2 LY and WALLY, sume ages. They carry strappel ch foot, We've gota factory in our town too—hear it? Makes blan: kets, Cartwrights own and it br ‘em a fortune (Children! Now I won't have it, Breakfasts just as good as any other meal and 1 won't have you gobbling like wolves. 1 stunt your growth, —tha's fat. Put away your book, Wall ‘Aw, Mat By ten o'clock I got to know all about Canada. ‘You know the rue’ wel as I do—no books at table. As for me, Pd eather have my children healthy than bright. Vm both, Mama: you know Iam, I'm the brightest gel in school for my ag. Ihave a wonderful memory Eat your breast. 1'm bright, to0, when I's looking at my stamp collection Tl speak to your father about it when he's rested. Seems to -me twenty-five cents a week's enough for & boy your age. 1 declare I don't know how you spend ital ‘Aw, Ma,I gotta lota things to buy. ones 1 you spend it on, ses sw ION ses cxonot somes to have 50 much money s soo ez wow tee dont pen u's go ing sen 0 8 andthe a what Hove mostin the workd—do you Mana, doyoutnow what Mone: aryour breaks Mana, ere’ Bebe gotta hutry—T don't want = snore I goa hur Tiecii.ones rise, ze her boos and das ons trangh ie nls, Tey meet, down center and chattering Main Sect, then tr ef Thestac sanatn goes off; nobrrasively, right Wak fs, but you don't have to run. Wally, pull up yout ans at the knee. Stand up straight, Ely ll Mise Foner I send er my’ best ongratulations—

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