Show and Tell Post - Our Town

I chose to do my Show and Tell post on a play called Our Town. I read this when I was younger and fell in love with it! It has three acts and was written in 1938 by Thornton Wilder, an American playwright. Our Town was first performed in Princeton, New Jersey at the McCarter Theater on January 22, 1938. It later was produced on Broadway and won a Pulitzer Prize for drama. In 1989, it received the award of Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival and also a Tony Award for Best Revival. Obivously, this is a very well-known play and many people like it, as do I.
Our Town set in the thirties in a fictional town, Grover's Corners. The Stage Manager introduces the audience to this town. In Act 1, many people are introduced and tell about the history of this town. Then Emily and George are introduced as young students at school. Emily proceeds to ask her mom if she's pretty right after she had just finished talking to George. The Stage Manager then tells the audience about how a time capsule is being placed in the cornerstone of a bank. He says that a copy of this play will be placed in it. Towards the end of this Act, Emily exchanges answers to a test with George; Doc Gibbs teaches George a lesson about responsibility; some ladies talk about the drunkard choir teacher; and Rebecca talks about how she's scared the moon will hit the earth and cause a big explosion.
Act 2 rolls along and three years have passed. George and Emily are now getting ready to be married. The whole day is filled with complete stress: Howie is delivering milk in the rain, Si Crowell is telling George that his baseball talent will go to waste if he marries, and George visits his future in-laws and it's a bit awkward. The Stage Manager then interrupts and takes the audience back a year. It's so confusing when you keep going back and forth through years while reading a play. It's hard to keep up and that's one thing I don't really like about this play. Other than that, it's amazing! Anyways, it's George and Emily's junior year. They have an ice cream coke together and discuss their future with each other. Emily talks about George's pride. George tells her that he did want to go to college, but now he wants to take over his uncle's farm instead. The wedding follows and we see George telling his mom about how he's not so sure he's ready to marry anymore. After this, I keep reading so fast wanting to know what's going to happen next. This Act definitely kept me on my toes. So exhilarating!
In Act 3, it's been nine years since Act 2 and the Stage Manager begins with a long monologue about eternity and then we proceed to be in a cemetery. Many characters have died since: Mrs. Gibbs got pneumonia in her travels, Wally Webb, Emily's brother, had a burst appendix while camping and Emily wishes he wouldn't have gone, Mrs. Soames and Simon committed suicide by hanging themselves, and Emily died while giving birth to her second child. Emily doesn't want to be forgotten or forget her home town. She wants to live among everyone else. Emily decides to return and relive one day even though she was told not to. She realizes they were right because it's too painful to see everyone not appreciating life truly for what it is. She then returns to her grave and watches George cry at it. The Stage Manager then ends the play with talking about how life isn't really lived on earth and then tells the audience "good night".
The end is sort of depressing, but this play truly makes one think about life. It makes you think about whether you're living it while you can and telling everyone you love, that you do love them. I performed a monologue of this for an acting class last year and it completely moved me. Our Town is a must read!