Our Town
(Thornton Wilder)

The play in narrated by the stage manager who introduces the audience to Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire and the families of the Gibbs’ and Webb’s. The set is quite sparse except for a few chairs and tables to signify each family’s home, and continues to be sparse for the remainder of the play, even props are often forgotten. The audience is introduced to a typical day in Grover’s Corners; Howie Newsome delivers the milk, Joe Cowell Jr. delivers the papers, and Dr. Gibbs delivers babies. Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb send their children to school and meet in their yards to gossip.

George Webb and Emily Gibbs meet outside Emily’s house after school lets out and it is obvious they have a romantic connection. In the second act, George and Emily are preparing for their wedding, having realized one year earlier their mutual affection for one another. In the third act, it is nine years past the day of the wedding and Emily is being prepared for burial, as she has died in childbirth. The characters in this act are mainly the souls of the people buried in the cemetery, including Emily, who take center stage.

The dead people observe and comment on the funeral, urging Emily not to revisit her earlier life as she wishes to do, but she does not listen. Emily flashes back to her life as a twelve-year-old, and, when she returns to the present, she understands a nostalgia that the living cannot possibly comprehend; she understands her difference from them. The play ends as the stars appear in the sky.