The Santa Ynez High School Theatre Group will stage Thornton Wilder’s 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning classic “Our Town” as its fall semester production. “Our Town” is arguably the most famous and oft-produced American play of the 20th century.
In his recently published study of the play, “Another Day’s Begun: Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in the 21st Century,” author Howard Sherman wrote:
“A work of startling originality when it debuted in 1938, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town evolved to be seen by some as a vintage slice of early 20th century Americana, rather than being fully appreciated for its complex and eternal themes and its deceptively simple form … the play’s continued impact in the 21st century makes a case for the healing powers of Wilder’s text to a world confronting multiple crises.”
With a cast and crew of 35 students, director Jeff McKinnon’s Theatre Group, in joining the thousands of other groups that have performed the play over the past 80 years, hopes to shine new light on what is ostensibly a simple story of early 20th century small-town American life.
The play’s universal themes of the cycles of life: birth, growing up, marriage, death, and what lies beyond, are finding resonance with McKinnon’s theater students, proving to McKinnon the “staying power” of the play and its universal themes.
“When one imagines which American plays might still be produced one hundred years from now. ‘Our Town’ might well be at the top of the list,” McKinnon writes.
There will be six performances of “Our Town” at the following times: 7 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays Dec. 2-4 and 9-11 in Santa Ynez High School’s Little Theatre, on the west end of campus, 2975 Hwy. 246 in Santa Ynez.
General admission tickets, at $10 for adults and $5 for students, will be available at the door. Audience members will be required to wear facemasks. For more information, call 688-6487 ext. 2361.