Discussion Questions & Activities: Our Town [This play] is an attempt to find value above all price for the smaller events in our daily life.       -- Thornton Wilder This production of Our Town was originally produced in 2002 by the Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut, where Joanne Woodward is the Artistic Director. The play then began a limited, sold-out engagement on Broadway. This special taping of Our Town was directed by James Naughton, who also directed the stage production. Background Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, tells the story of a small, fictional town, Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, during the first few years of the twentieth century. Act I paints a picture of the inhabitants of this ordinary town -- the milkman, the town doctor, and young George and Emily, who live next door to each other. Act II describes how George and Emily fall in love and marry. Act III takes place in the Grover's Corners cemetery. After Emily dies in childbirth, she joins others who have passed on as they discuss the meaning of life and death. Our Town lends itself to debates about what is valuable in life, the "something that is eternal" in all of us, and the ways that human beings relate to one another. These themes make the play ideal for a discussion group. Thornton Wilder was a popular teacher and a prolific writer, winning the Pulitzer Prize three times (for The Trumpet Shall Sound in 1927, Our Town in 1938, and The Skin of Our Teeth in 1942). Many believe Wilder used Peterborough, New Hampshire, as a model for Grover's Corners. Our Town first opened in New York in 1938 and has enjoyed success ever since. Discussion Questions 1. How is your town or neighborhood similar to Grover's Corners? Describe the similarities and differences between the two places. Are the characteristics of the people and the town of Grover's Corners universal? If so, how? 2. How significant is the setting in Our Town? Could this play have taken place anywhere or at any time? Why do you think Wilder set Our Town in small-town New Hampshire? Could it be set in a big city? Another country? What would the play gain or lose in those settings? 3. Why has the American small-town setting become such a literary and cinematic icon? Compare Our Town to other works set in a small town (see The Small Town Setting for suggestions). What, if anything, do they have in common? 4. What do you think is the essential message of Our Town? Why has the play endured and remained perennially popular? Do you think it should be considered a classic? 5. The Stage Manager summarizes the play when he says, "This is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying." Contrast Wilder's portrayal of marriage with marriage today. How has it changed? How has it remained the same? 6. The play contains few dramatic events, and offers only these stage directions: "No curtain. No scenery." Does the lack of props and scenery add to or detract from the play? Why do you think Wilder chose to present the play this way? 7. Who do you think the Stage Manager is? What does Paul Newman's performance reveal about the character? What if the Stage Manager were played by a woman? A child? How would the play change? 8. The Stage Manager says the characters who have died, "stay here while the earth part of 'em burns away, burns out....Aren't they waitin' for the eternal part of them to come out clear." What do you think of Wilder's depiction of the afterlife? Contrast Our Town's portrayal of life after death with portrayals in other books or films that feature the afterlife (such as Beetlejuice, Defending Your Life, Heaven Can Wait, City of Angels, The Sixth Sense). 9. In Act III of Our Town, Emily decides to revisit one day in her life. She chooses a day that is somewhat happy and somewhat ordinary: the day of her twelfth birthday. If you could relive a time in your past, what time would you choose and why? Knowing what you know now, would you want to relive a special occasion, or just an ordinary day? 10. Compare reading the play Our Town to watching the Masterpiece Theatre production. Why do you think the filmmakers chose to film it without an audience? Do you agree with the way the actors interpreted their parts? Activities The events in Our Town span from 1901 to 1913. Research the history of your town, city, or neighborhood at that time. Find out your town's population and other local statistics at the turn of the century. Interview senior citizens about geographic, technological, and social changes that occurred in their lifetime. With their permission, add the information to a timeline exhibit about your town. Include books about local history and families, old photographs, letters, and diaries. Host an "our town" trivia contest or scavenger hunt at your library. Team up with your community paper, historical society, or local businesses to develop the questions. Stage an informal reading of Our Town in your library. A high school drama club and/or a community theater group might want to join in. Each group could take a turn acting out the same scene so that the audience can experience different interpretations of the play. Coordinate with a drama club or community theater to mount a production of the play once the discussion groups have ended. See the Our Town Teacher's Guide for ideas about dramatic readings or producing the play. Contact the historical society and organize a walking, house, or garden tour that focuses on interesting historical or architectural highlights. Host an ice-cream social or an old-fashioned potluck dinner at the library. Patrons can bring food, as well as family recipes and menus to share. Recreate the atmosphere of a social gathering at the beginning of the twentieth century with costumes, recipes, and sample menus. Consider the items Grover's Corners puts in the bank cornerstone time capsule for people "a thousand years from now." Hold a Time Capsule Contest and ask for suggestions about what patrons think the contents of your town's time capsule should be. (You may also want to research whether or not the town has created time capsules in the past.) Post the results at the library, on your Web site, or in the local newspaper. What is the essence of your town? Hold an Our Town essay or poetry contest for young people and/or adults to submit entries that express something about your town. Invite local artists, teachers, and politicians to be judges. Post the winning entries at the library and hold a celebratory reading. Read the Wakefield Reads... Our Town account to learn about the ways one community used this play for a citywide reading campaign. 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