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The People of |
Activities for Further DiscussionIntroduction to the Play: 1. When setting out to write Our Town in 1937-8, the playwright attempted “to
find a value above all price for the smallest events in our daily life.” Why
do you think he wanted to do this? Before you read the play, think
about an average day in your own life. Make a list of some of your
own daily activities and the people in your life. Don’t leave
out the small stuff like eating breakfast, taking a shower, walking
to the bus stop with friends, driving to work. Hang onto this list
for an activity later on. 2. What major inventions and events in the twentieth century have made your life easier or more difficult? Use the timelines in this study guide for ideas. [SS.A.3.4 and SS.B.2.4] 3. Before any characters enter the stage, the Stage Manager describes the environment of Grover’s Corners. Read this section once or twice, paying special attention to the details of the town, it’s people and events. Think about your own hometown or a town you know well. Re-write the Stage Manager’s introduction to Grover’s Corners using the description the town you selected. How different to Grover’s Corners is your town? What accounts for these differences? For further exploration, pick other spots in the script where the Stage Manager describes something in detail. What similarities can you draw between what the Stage Manager describes and your own town’s environment? [LA.B.2.4] 4. The Stage Manager is often described as an “omniscient narrator.” What does that mean? What clues in the first few pages of the script suggest he’s omniscient? [LA.A.1.4 and LA.A.2.4] Further Exploration of the Play: 1. The title of the play is Our Town. Whose town is it? What is the name of the town? Throughout the play, Thornton Wilder uses several real New England town names. Why do you think he chose a fictional name for the main setting instead of a real location in New Hampshire? [LA.A.2.4] 2. Throughout the play we hear several references to marriage. Write down specific lines in the play that relate to the following issues of marriage in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century: a. Marriage laws for teachers (hint: Teachers were often required to sign a contract that would discourage marriage during the school year. Many teachers would not return to work after marriage). b. Arranged marriages. What lines in Act II suggest that 2 of the characters were part of an arranged marriage? How common were arranged marriages? c. Wedding superstitions. What superstition is discussed? Where did that superstition begin? [SS.A.1.4 and SS.B.2.4] 3. Think about the character of Simon Stimson. Who is he? What do other characters in the script say about him in Act I? What do we learn about him in Act III from the undertaker? What do people’s reactions to him in these areas of the script tell us about society’s treatment of alcoholism and depression in the early twentieth century? How would such characters as Dr. Gibbs, Mrs. Soames and Sam Craig react to him and his illness today? [SS.A.1.4 and SS.B.2.4] 4. In Act I, we meet Joe Crowell, Jr. Here’s what the Stage Manager tells us about him: Stage Manager: Want to tell you something about that boy What war is the Stage Manager referring to? What events led up to this war? What “seemed perfectly clear” to Americans at the time of this war? Why did the the playwright include this information in the play? [LA.A.2.4, SS.A.3.4 and SS.A.5.4] 5. Thornton Wilder was exposed to several wars. He served in the Coast Artillery Corps in 1918 and he wrote Our Town on the cusp of World War II. What impact do you think his exposure to war had on the themes in Our Town? Use examples from the script and/or biographical details of his life to support your answer. [SS.A.1.4] 6. In 1945 a production of Our Town was taken on tour to American G.I.’s in Europe, just after the fighting had stopped. It was reported that “tears streamed down the faces of hardened soldiers.”* What do you think caused this reaction? What significance does the play have with respect to today’s current political and social climate? What was significant to you when reading or seeing this play? [SS.A.1.4 and LA.A.2.4, and TH.D.1.4] 7. What are the significant themes in Our Town? How have these themes contributed to the popularity of productions of Our Town throughout the world since 1938? What else do you think has contributed to its lasting success? How many movie versions have there been of the play? What differences are there between the movie and stage versions? [TH.C.1.4, TH.D.1.4, LA.A.2.4 and SS.A.1.4] 8. What is the definition of allegory? What is the definition of archetypes? Find examples of these terms in Our Town [TH.D.1.4 and LA.A.2.4] 9. As a young man Wilder spent some time in Rome, living among and working with archeologists. Later, he wrote about that experience: …ever since I find myself occasionally looking at the things
about In what ways did this experience influence his writing of Our Town? Find an example or two from the script (either lines of text or symbols in the play) to support your answer. [TH.C.1.4, TH.D.1.4, LA.A.2.4 and SS.A.1.4] 10. Thornton Wilder wrote a novel called The Woman of Andros before he wrote Our Town. In it, a storyteller tells the story of a hero who dies and asks the god Zeus if he could return to earth for a day in his fifteenth year. Wilder also wrote a play called The Matchmaker which was later developed into the musical Hello Dolly. Compare the scene from The Woman of Andros to Act III in Our Town or any scenes in The Matchmaker to Hello Dolly. How did Thornton Wilder develop one form of his writing into another? What are the similarities and differences between the different forms? [LA.A.2.4] 11. According to contemporary playwright Donald Margulies, Thornton Wilder: …exploded the accepted notions of character and story and catapulted the American Drama into the twentieth century. He did for the stage what Picasso and Braque’s experiments in cubism did for painting and [James] Joyce did for the novel. To mistake him for a traditionalist is to do Thornton Wilder an injustice. He was, in fact, a modernist who translated European and Asian ideas about theatre into the American idiom…Thornton Wilder was a radical! A visionary! Research some of the major work of Thornton Wilder (plays and novels).
What made his work unique for its time? What kind of “European
and Asian ideas” did he incorporate into his work? For additional
help, refer to the “Theatrical Influences in Our Town” in
this study guide. [TH.C.1.4 and TH.E.1.4] 13. In Act III, the Stage Manager tells us that “…the dead don’t stay interested in us living people for very long. Gradually, gradually they lost hold of the earth and the ambitions they had and the pleasures they had and the things they suffered and the people they loved.” Go back to the list you made earlier (Intro activity #1) of daily activities and people in your life. Using Emily Webb’s famous “goodbye” in Act III as a model (see below), write your own farewell to the things you’d miss most from that list. Emily: Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by, Grover’s Corners… [LA.B.1.4 and LA.B.2.4]
** ibid |