OUR TOWN by Thornton Wilder

Pittsburgh Public Theater’s education and outreach programs are
generously supported by BNY Mellon Foundation of Southwestern
Pennsylvania. Funding for Open Stage is provided by the Grable
Foundation, the Buhl Foundation, and Mike & Steffie Bozic.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 1
Contents
Characters……………….……………………..………………………...3
Synopsis….……………………………………..………………………..4
About the Author: Thornton Wilder….………….…………………….6
Lines and Quotes from Thornton Wilder…….…….…………………..7
The Bridge of San Luis Rey…………….………...………………………8
Our Town and Playwriting…………………….………………………9
Other Famous Plays from the 1930’s and 40’s………...……………...11
America from 1901-1913……………………………….……………...14
Minimalist Sets………………………………………………………...15
Pantomiming………………………….……………………………… 16
Meet the Director………...……………………………………………17
About the Cast………………………………..………………………...18
Theater Etiquette…………………………...….………………………30
Discussion Questions…………………..………………………………31
P.A. Academic Standards………………...…….………………………33
References………………………………….…………………………..37
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 2
Characters
Stage Manager - Narrates and observes the play with occasional interaction with the other characters
Dr. Gibbs - Father of George and Rebecca and husband of Mrs. Gibbs, Dr. Gibbs is the medical doctor
of Grover’s Corners.
Joe Crowell - The local paperboy and older brother of Si Crowell
Howie Newsome - The town milkman
Mrs. Gibbs - Mother of George and Rebecca and wife of Dr. Gibbs, Mrs. Gibbs works around the
house, cleaning, cooking and taking care of the family.
Mrs. Webb - Mother of Emily and Wally and wife of Mr. Webb, Mrs. Webb spends her time taking
care of her children, her husband and her house.
George Gibbs - A young man who loves baseball, farms and Emily Webb
Rebecca Gibbs - George’s little sister
Wally Webb - Emily’s little brother
Emily Webb - Emily is a very smart girl who dreams of starting a family with George Gibbs
Professor Willard -A university professor well-versed in the historical and scientific details of Grover’s
Corners
Mr. Webb - Father of Emily and Wally and husband of Mrs. Webb, Mr. Webb is the editor of the town
paper, the Grover’s Corners Sentinel.
Woman in the Balcony
Man in the Auditorium
Lady in the Box
Simon Stimson - The leader of the church choir and town drunk
Mrs. Soames - A member of the church choir who is very interested in gossip
Constable Warren - The town policeman
Si Crowell - Paperboy and Joe Crowell’s younger brother
Three Baseball Players
Sam Craig - Nephew of Mrs. Gibbs
Joe Stoddard - The undertaker at the Grover’s Corners graveyard
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 3
Synopsis
Act I
As a few elementary pieces of furniture are brought out, the Stage Manager introduces the
setting: Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. It's May 7, 1901, just before dawn. Establishing the
layout of the town, he focuses on the homes of Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs and Mr. and Mrs. Webb.
From the beginning, the Stage Manager sets a tone of ordinariness: "Nice town, y'know what I
mean? Nobody very remarkable ever come out of it."
As the day begins, we hear bits of gossip and news about the town: a marriage, a birth, a
milkman's reluctant horse. We get acquainted with the children in the two families: George and
Rebecca Gibbs, Emily and Wally Webb. George, age 15, is proud of his prowess at baseball;
Emily, a year younger, is a top student at school and not shy about it.
After morning segues to afternoon, George walks Emily home from school. The Stage Manager
describes what's going to be put in the time capsule cornerstone of the new bank, so "people a
thousand years from now" will know what life in Grover's Corners was like. As evening takes
over, the action switches back and forth between George and Emily doing homework and their
mothers at choir practice, where organist Simon Stimson seems unable to mask his tipsiness.
The women return home and the Stage Manager announces the end of the first act.
Act II
It's July 7, 1904, just after high school commencement. In the Stage Manager's words, "Nature's
been pushing and contriving," and many of the young people in town are planning weddings -George Gibbs and Emily Webb among them. Over breakfast Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs fret that
George may not be old enough for marriage, and they reminisce about their own wedding day.
The Stage Manager then takes us back a year to an exchange between Emily and George. She
criticizes him for changes she sees in him and George, struck by her observations, invites her to
join him in an ice cream soda at the drugstore. He admits that he's torn between going away to
agricultural college or staying in Grover's Corners. As he realizes that Emily's opinion means
more to him than anyone's, Emily admits that she feels the same way about him. "So,"
concludes George, "I guess this is an important conversation we've been having."
Doubling as minister, the Stage Manager gives a brief sermon about marriage. After Mrs. Webb
reveals her thoughts on the subject, Mrs. Gibbs and then Mr. Webb must calm the wedding
jitters of George and Emily, respectively.
As the wedding tableau freezes, the Stage Manager recalls the many couples he's married and
what typically comes after: "the cottage, the go-cart, the Sunday-afternoon drives in the Ford,
the first rheumatism, the grandchildren, the second rheumatism, the deathbed, the reading of
the will -- Once in a thousand times it's interesting." And as George and Emily run up the aisle,
the second act ends.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 4
Act III
The stage has changed, with three rows of chairs representing graves in the cemetery. Among
the dead are Mrs. Gibbs, Wally Webb, and Simon Stimson. It's nine years later, the summer of
1913, and the Stage Manager updates us on Grover's Corners. He reflects on how there's
something eternal about every human being and how the dead gradually let go of their earthly
lives.
Emily, who has just died in childbirth, appears in the cemetery. She can't resign herself to death,
and wants to know why she can't go back and live some of her life over. The dead try to
dissuade her, but she insists. Mrs. Gibbs urges her to choose the least important day in her life:
"It will be important enough." Emily relives the day of her twelfth birthday, experiencing the joys
of everyday life but also the pain of seeing the precious, fleeting moments of her youth now lost
forever. Increasingly distraught, Emily asks the Stage Manager to take her back to her grave.
In the cemetery, Stimson snarls about the follies and ignorance of human beings, but Mrs.
Gibbs comes to their defense, although she agrees with Emily that,"they [living people] don't
understand." As a grieving George Gibbs throws himself at Emily's grave, the Stage Manager
announces that almost everyone's asleep in Grover's Corners, takes one final look at the stars,
and wishes us a good rest, too.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 5
About the Author: Thornton Wilder
Born in Madison, Wisconsin, and
educated at Yale and Princeton,
Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) was an
accomplished novelist and playwright
whose works explore the connection
between the commonplace and the
cosmic dimensions of human
experience. The Bridge of San Luis Rey,
one of his seven novels, won the
Pulitzer Prize in 1928, and his next-tolast novel, The Eighth Day received the National Book Award (1968).
Two of his four major plays garnered Pulitzer Prizes, Our Town (1938)
and The Skin of Our Teeth (1943). His play, The Matchmaker ran on
Broadway for 486 performances (1955-1957), Wilder's Broadway
record, and was later adapted into the record-breaking musical Hello,
Dolly!
Wilder also enjoyed enormous success with many other forms of the
written and spoken word, among them translation, acting, opera
librettos, lecturing, teaching and film (his screenplay for Alfred
Hitchcock's 1943 psycho-thriller, Shadow of a Doubt remains a classic to
this day). Letter writing held a central place in Wilder's life, and since
his death, three volumes of his letters have been published. Wilder's
many honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American
Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and
the National Book Committee's Medal for Literature. On April 17,
1997, the centenary of his birth, the US Postal Service unveiled the
Thornton Wilder 32-cent stamp in Hamden, Connecticut, his official
address after 1930 and where he died on December 7, 1975.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 6
Lines and Quotes from Thornton Wilder
“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are
conscious of our treasures.”
“The highest tribute to the dead
is not grief but gratitude.”
“The knowledge that she would
never be loved in return acted
upon her ideas as a tide acts
upon cliffs.” (The Bridge of San
Luis Rey)
“We all know that something is
eternal. And it ain’t houses and
it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth,
and it ain’t even the stars . . .
everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that
something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived
have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be
surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way
down deep that’s eternal about every human being.” (Our Town)
“Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any
human beings ever realize life while they live it -- every, every minute?”
(Our Town)
“Now he discovered that secret from which one never quite recovers, that
even in the most perfect love one person loves less profoundly than the
other. There may be two equally good, equally gifted, equally beautiful,
but there may never be two that love one another equally well.” (The
Bridge of San Luis Rey)
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 7
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
The Bridge of San Luis Rey was a Pulitzer
Prize winning book written by Wilder in
1927. It is widely acclaimed and notably
different from his other works, like Our
Town.
“On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714,
the finest bridge in all Peru broke and
precipitated five travelers into the gulf
below.” With this celebrated sentence
Thornton Wilder begins The Bridge of San
Luis Rey, one of the towering achievements
in American fiction and a novel read
throughout the world.
By chance, a monk witnesses the tragedy. Brother Juniper then
embarks on a quest to prove that it was divine intervention rather than
chance that led to the deaths of those who perished in the tragedy.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 8
Our Town and Playwriting
(Source: Delaware Theatre Company Teacher Resource Guide)
In an article entitled "Some Thoughts
on Playwriting,"* Thornton Wilder lists four
fundamental conditions that separate drama
from other art forms. Wilder maintains:
1) theatre depends upon the
collaboration of playwright, actors, director,
costume, set and property builders, and
audience;
2) theatre addresses the "group" rather
than individuals;
3) theatre is based on pretenses"agreed-upon falsehood(s), permitted lie(s)";
4) the action of drama always takes
place in present time.
In Our Town, Wilder exploits these
conventions to their fullest. He takes theatre
back to the basics found in ancient Greek
plays and Shakespeare. The play is set on a
bare stage, and the actors use very few props.
The audience, then, must collaborate to
furnish bedrooms, kitchens, soda fountain,
and graveyard. The character of the Stage
Manager is the audience's guide into the play,
never letting us forget our status as an
audience watching fictitious characters act
out made-up events.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
“There are those rare people
who look at the world and see
things the rest of us don’t see
until they show us. These are
the writers. There are a special
few who can take that and turn
it back into a world, these are
the directors, the designers.
There are fearless beings who
can live in that world and
show us who we are, those are
our actors. They are dedicated
people who know why that
world matters so very much.
Crew, theater staff, producers,
investors, managers,
marketers, and then there are
the people who step forward
and say, ‘show me this world.
Open, change me.’ These are
our audiences. And when all of
these people come together
and say, ‘yes,’ there is theater.”
-The speech producer Jordan
Roth gave when receiving a
Tony Award for Clybourne
Park in 2012 is very similar to
Wilder’s first point detailing
what separates drama from
other art forms.
2013-2014 Season
Page 9
Our Town is not just about the everyday lives, marriages, and
deaths of its characters; it is a celebration of human life. The mundane
events that we see depicted in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, in
the first part of the last century are the same events that happen to all
of us in Delaware in the first part of the new century. The characters
are not unusual people; as an audience we do not need to delve into
their motivations and desires. Their motivations and desires are our
motivations and desires. Instead of following an additional plot, Wilder
shows us snapshots of life in the three acts entitled "Daily Life," "Love
and Marriage,'' and "Death." Wilder has stripped life to its essentials of
routine, love, death, weddings and funerals, holding up a mirror so that
we can see ourselves and each other.
Writing about Romeo and Juliet, Wilder said that "when the play
is staged as Shakespeare intended it, the bareness of the stage releases
the events from the particular and the experience of Juliet partakes of
that of all girls in love, in every time, place, and language." In Our
Town, Wilder has performed the same magic.
*Published in Intent of the Artist, edited by A. Cen!ento, by Princeton University Press in 1941.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 10
Famous Plays from the 1930’s and 40’s
Our Town came out in the year 1938. Here are some other famous
plays from that era.
1937
You Can’t Take It with You - Kaufman
and Hart
An eccentric family allows each member to pursue
his own ambition in the home, but their routine is
disrupted when a daughter with a regular job
wants to bring her fiancé and his Wall Street
family to dinner in George S. Kaufman and Moss
Hart's Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy, produced
by Pittsburgh Public Theater in 2000.
Tom Atkins is Granpa Vanderhof and
Amanda Serkasevich is Alice Sycamore
in Pittsburgh Public Theater's
production of You Can't Take It With
1939
The Iceman Cometh - Eugene O’Neill
You
Harry Hope's saloon is home to a ragtag band of drunks and dreamers who
celebrate the arrival of Hickey, the charismatic traveling salesman whose
raucous presence always ensures a grand good time. But when a newly
sober Hickey blows in with a renewed outlook on life, his zealous attempts
to fix the lives of his old friends leads to a series of events that are at once
devastatingly comic and heartbreaking-and a revelation that threatens to
shatter the tenuous illusions that fuel their lives.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 11
The Little Foxes - Lillian Hellman
The Little Foxes is a drama in three acts by Lillian Hellman, a chronicle of
greed and hate in a ruthless family in the American South, and was
produced and published in 1939. The play is set in the South at the turn of
the 20th century and concerns the manipulative Regina Giddens and her
two brothers, Ben and Oscar Hubbard, who want to borrow money from
Regina’s rich, terminally ill husband, Horace, so that they can open the first
cotton mill in town, produced by the Pittsburgh Public Theater in 2009.
1942
The Skin of Our Teeth - Thornton Wilder
Combining farce, burlesque,
and satire, and elements of
the comic strip, Thornton
Wilder depicts an Everyman
Family as it narrowly
escapes one end-of-theworld disaster after another,
from the Ice Age to flood to
war.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 12
1944
The Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams
Amanda Wingfield lives in a St. Louis
tenement, clinging to the myth of her early
years as a Southern belle, repeating
romantic stories of those years to her two
children. Her daughter, Laura, who wears a
leg brace, is painfully shy and often seeks
solace in her collection of small glass
animals. Amanda’s son, Tom, through
whose memory the action is seen, is
desperate to escape his stifling home life
and his warehouse job. The Glass Menagerie
was the first play ever produced by
Pittsburgh Public Theater in 1975 and was
produced again in 1999.
Carol Teitel, David Snell and Amy Wright in a
scene from The Glass Menagerie, the first
production of the Pittsburgh Public Theater's
1975 inaugural season
No Exit - Jean-Paul Sartre
A mysterious valet ushers three people into a shabby hotel room, and they
soon discover that hell isn't fire and brimstone at all—it's other people.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 13
America from 1901-1913
It has been over one hundred years since the first act of the play takes
place. When the play starts it is 1901, William McKinley is
president of the United States. In that same year, McKinley is
shot, leaving Theodore Roosevelt, the vice president, to become
president.
It would be one year before the
first movie theater, Tally’s Electric
Theatre in California, was built.
The Wright brothers first
managed to fly in 1903, but it will
be twenty whole years before
women would be given the right
to vote.
1903 Flyer
As noted in Our Town, cars would soon
become a common sight. The first
assembly line, created by Henry Ford,
was in 1913. Before then, each car had to
be made separately, making the process a
much longer and more complicated one.
With the assembly line, cars became
cheaper and easier to make. Ford’s
famous Model T took only 93 minutes to
assemble. Over the next fourteen years,
because of the convenience and quickness
of the assembly line, 15 million Model T’s were made.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 14
Minimalist Sets
Our Town is known for its minimalist
staging. The setting is usually only two
tables, two ladders for a short period of
time, and some chairs. Here are some other
plays that work magic with minimal sets.
Shakespeare
Shakespeare wrote in a way that encouraged audiences to imagine sets.
The empty space, that was extended out into the audience and could be
viewed from three sides, could be a small prison cell, a battlefield, a
royal court, a crowded city street, an ocean, and any other place, in
rapid succession, without changing a thing. There were certain design
aspects of the Elizabethan stage that offered some realism as well. The
upper gallery could be a tower, a battlement, a bedroom window, a
hilltop or, most famously in Romeo and Juliet, a balcony. But it was just
a gallery, always the same: the playwright used language to dress it up
as a battlement or a hillside and the audience’s imagination would
complete the illusion.
Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot is the story of
two men who are waiting around
for someone named Godot. As they
wait, they discuss philosophy, play
games and meet a traveling theater
troupe. The story is minimal and so
is the set, which usually consists of
a single tree.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 15
Pantomiming
To pantomime is to pretend to do something without actually doing it. It is
defined as the art of conveying emotions, actions and thoughts by gestures
without speech. In an interesting way, pantomiming persuades and draws the
audience in to participate. The characters of Our Town often pantomime, doing
things such as cooking breakfast, reading, snapping peas and playing catch
without actually doing them. They simply pretend.
Here are some different activities that you can practice pantomiming:
-Drinking a mug of hot chocolate
-Reading the newspaper
-Texting on your phone
-Picking up a heavy box
-Jumping rope
-Playing a video game
-Peeling a banana
-Walking a dog
-Shooting a basketball
A version of Our Town depicting the Stage Manager getting
Emily and George their strawberry phosphates
-Doing homework
-Eating pancakes
-Jumping over puddles
- Tying a rope
Remember to try to keep it looking as real as you can!
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 16
Meet the Director
TED PAPPAS celebrates his 14th season as
Producing Artistic Director of Pittsburgh Public
Theater and his 21st year of close association
with the company as a director. He has staged
more than 40 productions for The Public,
including the works of Euripides, Shakespeare,
Schiller, Wilde, Gilbert & Sullivan, and
Sondheim. Some highlights include Sophocles’
Electra, Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Kaufman &
Ferber’s The Royal Family, Peter Shaffer’s
Amadeus, Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses,
Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret, the American premiere
of Alan Ayckbourn’s RolePlay, and the world premiere of Rob Zellers &
Gene Collier’s The Chief, which played The O’Reilly for seven seasons and
was filmed. His career began in New York City where he worked at
Playwrights Horizons, Joseph Papp’s Public Theater, John Houseman’s The
Acting Company, New York City Opera under the leadership of Beverly
Sills, and shows on and off Broadway. His regional credits are numerous and
varied and include productions for Williamstown Theatre Festival, Arena
Stage in Washington DC, the Kennedy Center, the Canadian Opera
Company, Toronto’s Royal Alexandra, and Goodspeed Musicals. He staged
a hip-hop concert hosted by Harry Belafonte which galvanized the Cannes
Film Festival, directed a Las Vegas extravaganza for impresario Steve
Wynn, and served as choreographer for NBC’s legendary series “Saturday
Night Live.” He studied Shakespeare with Samuel Schoenbaum and modern
drama with Eric Bentley, and holds degrees from Northwestern University
and Manhattan’s Hunter College. He is a past president of the Stage
Directors and Choreographers Society, the national labor union.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 17
Meet the Cast
Tom Atkins (Stage Manager) is a Pittsburgh native and
returns for his 18th Public Theater production. He most
recently appeared at The Public as Arthur J. Rooney, Sr.
in The Chief and Phil Hogan in Eugene O'Neill's A Moon
for the Misbegotten. Mr. Atkins first appeared in The
Public's inaugural season in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Nest. His other Public Theater credits include A Moon for
the Misbegotten (James Tyrone, Jr.), Macbeth, Vikings, Cobb,
The Steward of Christendom, Long Day's Journey Into Night,
The Weir, You Can't Take It With You, and The Drawer Boy. He has made
numerous television appearances, from "The Rockford Files" to "Oz," and
has performed in regional theaters across America. On Broadway he
appeared in The Changing Room and The Front Page; Off-Broadway
in Whistle in the Dark and Long Day's Journey Into Night. Film credits include
Escape from New York, The Fog, Creepshow, Lethal Weapon, Bob Roberts,
Striking Distance, Night of the Creeps, My Bloo
Tony Bingham (Sam Craig) is thrilled to be returning
to the Pittsburgh Public stage. He was recently seen in
The Nerd at St. Vincent. Other recent roles include:
Doug - Gruesome Playground Injuries, Robert F. Scott Antarktikos, Joe - Becky's New Car, and Stanislaw Lem in
800 Words which was produced by Caravan Theatre (for
which Tony is the Producing Director). He has appeared
on "As the World Turns," in several commercials, and a
number of local indies including the feature film Trapped
(2009 Winner of NY International Independent Film Festival for Best
Crime Feature) starring Tom Atkins. Later this fall you can see Tony
in Well at Off the Wall. He holds a BA from Point Park and a MFA
from the University of Iowa.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 18
WESTON BLAKESLEY (Constable
Warren) arrived in Pittsburgh last year
and was welcomed into the company of
August: Osage County with The REP
directed by John Shepard. He played
George in Moon Over Buffalo at The
Theater Factory in Trafford. Prior to
moving to Pittsburgh he spent 18 years in
Los Angeles. Movies include Gus the barber in Pleasantville, the title
character in the horror movie The Mangler Reborn, and numerous lowbudget features that will never be available on Netflix (he hopes). TV credits
include "The West Wing," "iCarly," "Monk," "Chuck," and "In Living
Color." Favorite theater performances: The Tempest in Miami, Little Murders
in Stockholm, Sweden, How to Explain the History of Communism to Mental
Patients in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Much Ado at a little winery in the Santa
Ynez Valley, delicious.
KEN BOLDEN (Professor Willard) is very pleased to
return to The Public where he has previously
appeared in Born Yesterday (the Assistant Manager),
Amadeus (Valet), The Comedy of Errors (Angelo), and
The Odd Couple (Vinnie). Most recent appearances in
local theaters include Mnemonic (Spindler), and John
Gabriel Borkman (Fodol) both for Quantum Theatre.
For television, he had a guest spot on Nickelodeon's
"Supah Ninjas" (the Vice Principal) and was the
principal actor in this past winter's PA Lottery
commercial. His last film appearance was in Sorority Row (Dr. Rosenberg).
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 19
CHARLOTTE BUSH (Rebecca Gibbs) is thrilled
to be performing at the Public Theater.
Charlotte is currently in the 7th grade at
Pittsburgh CAPA for musical theater. For the
last three years she was a finalist in The Public's
Shakespeare Monologue & Scene Contest. She
studied theater and piano at Hope Academy for
Music and the Arts and sang with the Children's
Festival Chorus of Pittsburgh for three years. In
her free time she loves to swim, downhill ski,
spend time with friends and family, sing, play
with her dog, listen to One Direction, and eat bacon. Charlotte lives in Point
Breeze with her parents, brother Ian, and adorable dog Elphie.
PATRICK CANNON (George Gibbs) is
ecstatic to collaborate with such beautiful
artists and people on this wonderful play.
Patrick, son of Edward and Margaret
Cannon, was born and raised in
Pittsburgh. Patrick was last seen as
Eteocles in Oedipus and the Foul Mess in
Thebes with No Name Players. Other credits include Curly in Oklahoma!, JP
Finch in H2$, Billy Flynn in Chicago, the Dentist in Little Shop of Horrors,
Denny in The War Plays, John Adams in 1776, Fred/Narrator in A Christmas
Carol, Silva in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, Jim in Gift of the Magi, and Crow in
A Tooth of Crime. Patrick is a recent graduate of Columbia College Chicago
and proud member of AEA.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 20
JULIA COBLIN (Rebecca Gibbs) is thrilled to be a
part of Pittsburgh Public Theater's production of
Our Town. She is a 7th grade student at the
Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts school.
Julia won first place in The Public's 2013
Shakespeare Monologue & Scene Contest and she
recently played Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew
as part of The Public's Summer Shakespeare
Intensive. Julia has appeared in the Pittsburgh
Shakespeare in the Parks productions of The Merry
Wives of Windsor and The Tempest. She has also
performed with Pittsburgh Musical Theater, Gemini Theater, and in the
CAPA school musical, Seussical.
BRIDGET CONNORS (Mrs. Gibbs) is thrilled
to be back at the Public Theater having last
appeared in Circle Mirror Transformation. She
has also performed in Pittsburgh with
Quantum Theatre, City Theatre, Pittsburgh
Irish & Classical Theatre, and The REP.
Additional regional theater credits include
South Coast Repertory Theatre, Indiana
Repertory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company,
New Mexico Repertory, PCPA Theatrefest,
New Theatre, Gable Stage, Mosaic Theatre, Florida Stage, A Noise Within,
and the Oregon, Santa Cruz, Colorado, and Idaho Shakespeare Festivals.
Bridget is a Professor in the Conservatory of Performing Arts at Point Park
University and program coordinator of Voice and Movement.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 21
MARC EPSTEIN (Mr. Webb) is very excited to make
his debut on the Pittsburgh Public stage in Our Town.
Previous Pittsburgh appearances include: Othello: Noir,
The Constant Prince, Out of This Furnace and The
Tempest: or The Enchanted Isle for Unseam'd
Shakespeare, and A Lie of the Mind, Arms and the Man,
Scapin, and The Insect Play at Pitt Rep. He has also
appeared at theaters around the country including the
Arena Stage, Mark Taper Forum, South Coast
Repertory, New York Shakespeare Festivals Public
Theater, Coconut Grove Theater, Westport Country Playhouse, and many
others. He has also taught theater at universities around the city. After
being in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, he and his family now call
Pittsburgh their home.
JAMES FITZGERALD (Citizen) is most happy to
return to the Public Theater. Other Pittsburgh
appearances include Pittsburgh Irish & Classical
Theatre, Quantum Theatre, and Bricolage. James has
performed 16 seasons with Chicago Shakespeare
Theater. Other Chicago credits include Marriot's
Lincolnshire Theater, Second City, ETC., The Royal
George, Apple Tree, among others. Regional: Cape
May Stage, Milwaukee Rep, Baltimore, Nebraska and
North Carolina Shakespeare Festivals. Off-Broadway:
Rose Rage directed by Edward Hall. Awards: two Jefferson Awards (Best
Supporting Actor), a Jeff Citation (Best Actor), and Chicago's After Dark
Best New Work Award as the author of Two for the Show. James recently
completed filming Progression and The Mercury Men and next will appear at
City Theatre in Charles Ives Take Me Home.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 22
LINDA HASTON (Citizen) is a performer, director,
and teaching artist who is thrilled to be back at The
Public having made her debut in The Little Foxes as
Addie. She has performed with City, Bricolage,
Quantum, and Off the Wall Theatre, to name a few.
In the past few seasons at Off the Wall she has
directed and/or performed in several productions.
Recent favorites being Without Ruth, an original play
based on stories about her mother written by
Virginia Wall Gruenert, and Henry in The Club.
Other favorite roles include Irene Page in Bubbling Brown Sugar starring
Vivian Reed, and Tituba in Quantum's production of The Crucible. Film
credits include the recently released film Won't Back Down with Viola Davis.
WALI JAMAL (Howie Newsome) is honored to be
in his third performance at The Public. Previous
performances include Tracy Letts' Superior Donuts
(James) and Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes (Cal).
He has appeared in eight of the 10-play cycle by
August Wilson: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Toledo),
Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Seth), The Piano Lesson
(Avery), Two Trains Running (Wolf), Seven Guitars
(Hedley/Canewell), Jitney (Doub), Gem of the Ocean
(Caesar), Radio Golf (Sterling). Wali is a community television producer at
PCTV 21 and is launching his educational show, "History's Flipside."
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
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ANDY KIRTLAND (Citizen) is making his debut
with Pittsburgh Public Theater. Pittsburgh credits:
The Complete Works... (Abridged) (Unseam'd
Shakespeare Company), Walk Two Moons (Prime
Stage), The Tempest (Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the
the Park), and The Festival in Black and White with
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre. New York credits
include: Macbeth (Raised Spirits Theatre), A
Christmas Carol (13th Street Rep), and Thieves
(Amerinda/Public Theater). He has acted regionally in Chicago, Baltimore,
and with the New England Shakespeare Festival and Cincinnati Shakespeare
Company. Andy is a member of Unseam'd Shakespeare Company. He
studied Theater at Dickinson College and the British American Drama
Academy.
DANIEL KRELL (Simon Stimson) is happy to return
to The Public for his 21st appearance with the
company. His performances here have encompassed
contemporary works, classics, and musicals. Favorites
include Born Yesterday, As You Like It, Circle Mirror
Transformation, A Moon for the Misbegotten,
Metamorphoses, Amadeus, Cabaret, Oedipus, Much Ado
About Nothing, Sweeney Todd, and last season's
acclaimed 1776. He has played a variety of major roles
with the region's professional theaters, such as City Theatre, CLO,
Quantum, Bricolage, PICT, and The REP as well as with theaters around
the country, including Clarence Brown Theatre, PlayMakers Repertory, and
Gateway Playhouse among others. Mr. Krell is also a veteran of many films,
commercials, industrials, and voice-overs.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 24
ERIN LINDSEY KROM (Emily Webb) is
thrilled to be playing Emily Webb in Our Town
as her Pittsburgh Public debut! A native
Pittsburgher now based in New York, Erin has
worked extensively in Pittsburgh as well as
across the country in theaters such as Pittsburgh
Irish & Classical Theatre, Everyman Theatre,
Tuacahn Amphitheatre, City Theatre, The
Pittsburgh Playhouse, Playhouse on Park, Civic
Light Opera, the New York Musical Theatre
Festival, the Secret Theatre, and Totem Pole
Playhouse. Selected credits include Sibyl in Private Lives, Daisy in Rhinoceros
(Best Supporting Acress, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), Sally Bowles in Cabaret,
Wendy in Peter Pan, and Daisy in Side Show. For more information, visit
www.erinlindseykrom.com
KAREN MERRITT(Citizen) feels honored to return a
third time to Pittsburgh Public Theater, having also
appeared in Born Yesterday and The Royal Family. Other
theatrical credits include: Romeo and Juliet, A Wrinkle in
Time, The Music Lesson (Prime Stage); Shadowlands, Anne
of Green Gables, You Can't Take it With You, The Book of
Ruth, Murder in the Cathedral (Saltworks Theatre); The
Three Sisters, The Winter's Tale, Shrew, The Comedy of
Errors (Unseam'd Shakespeare); Trojan Women, The
Wedding, Lower Depths (Moscow Art Theatre); Steel Magnolias
(Pennsylvania Centre Stage). Training: MFA in Acting from Carnegie
Mellon University and the Moscow Art Theatre School.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 25
LARRY JOHN MEYERS (Joe Stoddard)
continues a long and happy association with
the Pittsburgh Public after appearing in last
season's favorites, Born Yesterday and 1776.
He also has had the distinct pleasure of
performing Mr. Wilder's remarkable Our
Town twice before: in 1999, playing the
"Stage Manager" as a guest artist at Pitt;
and in 1990, for PPT's earlier acclaimed
staging, as a replacement for "Mr. Webb."
Larry lives near the Turner Cemetery in
Squirrel Hill, and harbors a furtive desire to move to the riverbanks of Duck
Hollow. His first "real job" was as an undertaker's assistant, driving the
hearse for Mr. Harris.
EDGAR O'CONNELL (Si Crowell) is in seventh
grade at Pittsburgh CAPA. His Malvolio from Twelfth
Night received an honorable mention in Pittsburgh
Public Theater's Shakespeare Monologue & Scene
Contest. Edgar's other credits include CAPA's Seussical
Jr. (Who), Shakespeare in the Parks' The Tempest
(Sailor, Demon) and The Merry Wives of Windsor
(Spirit), as well as many Gemini Theater Camp
productions. He enjoys playing cello and reading.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 26
ELLIOT PULLEN (Wally Webb) is proud to
join the cast of Our Town as Wally Webb.
Elliot is a homeschooled sixth grader from
Mt. Lebanon. He enjoys art, drama, and
writing, and is a classical guitarist and Boy
Scout. Elliot recently appeared in the role of
Charlie Bucket in Little Lake Theater's
production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as Malvolio in Falstaff's
Fellows' production of Twelfth Night, and as a member of Pittsburgh
Shakespeare in the Parks Young Company in The Tempest. Elliot's acting
mentors are Erin Fleming, Sunny Disney Fitchett, and Cat Aceto.
JOHN SHEPARD (Dr. Gibbs) is thrilled to be back
at The Public where he has appeared in Born
Yesterday, Circle Mirror Transformation, The Little
Foxes, and Mary Stuart. Other credits at Pittsburgh
theaters include Reed in Electric Baby for Quantum
Theatre (among many others), Willy Loman in
Death of a Salesman for The REP (among many
others) for which he was named Pittsburgh PostGazette Performer of the Year, and productions at
City and PICT. He's been seen on Broadway
(American Buffalo and A View from the Bridge), OffBroadway and at some of the finest American regional theaters including
four seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Long Wharf, Yale Rep,
Actors Theatre of Louisville, and many others. He'll be seen in the
upcoming films Homemakers, Exterior/Night, and Sisteria. He also directs and
teaches. www.johnshepard.info.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
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RYAN SHOWALTER (Joe Crowell) is 12 years old
and in 7th grade at North Hills Middle School. This
is his first performance in a Pittsburgh Public
Theater play and he is very excited. Ryan, along with
two of his classmates, won the Shakespeare
Monologue & Scene Contest Lower Division Scene
for The Comedy of Errors in 2013. He lives in Ross
Township with his parents, older sister, two dogs,
and two cats. Ryan plays ice hockey for North Hills
and dek hockey for DekStar. He is an active member
of Boy Scout Troop 83 in West View. He holds the rank of Star Scout and is
working towards achieving the highest honor in scouts: Eagle Scout.
CARY ANNE SPEAR (Mrs. Webb) is delighted to
return to Pittsburgh Public Theater where she
previously performed in Dancing at Lughnasa and
How I Learned to Drive. Cary is from Pittsburgh,
but began her theater career in Washington, DC, as
a member of the Arena Stage acting company. She
enjoyed a multitude of projects and roles, including
John Guare's Women and Water, for which she was
chosen by the playwright as his indomitable
heroine, Lydie Breeze; Sally in A Lie of the Mind;
and Anne Stanton in All the King's Men. After moving to New York, Cary
performed Off-Broadway and in regional theaters around the country. She is
grateful to have worked in many fine Pittsburgh theaters, including City
Theatre, The REP, Jewish Theater of Pittsburgh, PICT, and St. Vincent
Summer Theatre.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 28
ANDREW SWACKHAMER (Citizen) is a recent
graduate from Point Park University. Credits
include No Name Players: Viva Los Bastarditos
(Dancin' Eddie Danson); Pittsburgh Public:
Amadeus (Salieri's Servant); Prime Stage: The Great
Gatsby (Nick Carraway), The Glass Menagerie
(Understudy Tom/Jim); Quantum: Twelfth Night
(Captain/Officer/Priest/Ukulele Minstrel); Point
Park: A Child's Christmas in Wales (Dylan Thomas),
Light in the Piazza (Giuseppe Naccarelli), Parade
(Young Soldier).
TERRY WICKLINE (Mrs. Soames) happily
returns to Pittsburgh Public Theater for this
special Masterpiece Season. Previous credits for
The Public include The Importance of Being Earnest
(Miss Prism), Much Ado About Nothing (Ursula),
and Man of La Mancha (Maria). Regional credits:
Nunsense (Rev. Mother) for Theatre By The Sea;
Chekhov Festival (Ivanov, Drama!) for PICT; The
Sound of Music, Me and My Girl, Anything Goes,
Hello, Dolly!, Funny Girl, Always...Patsy Cline, and
A Musical Christmas Carol (Mrs. Dilber/Mrs. Fezziwig, 13 seasons!) for
Pittsburgh CLO; Splendour (Genevieve) for Quantum Theatre; The Caucasian
Chalk Circle (Narrator) for Unseam'd Shakespeare; and Andrew Previn's
opera A Streetcar Named Desire (Nurse) for Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
She's proud to be part of a cast of Pittsburgh artists.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
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Theater Etiquette
When you visit the theater you are attending a live performance with actors that
are working right in front of you. This is an exciting experience for you and the
actor. However, in order to have the best performance for both the audience and
actors there are some simple rules to follow. By following these rules, you can
ensure that you can be the best audience member you can be, as well as keep the
actors focused on giving their best performance.
1. Turn off all cell phones, beepers, watches etc.
2. Absolutely no text messaging during the performance.
3. Do not take pictures during the performance.
4. Do not eat or drink in the theater.
5. Do not place things on the stage or walk on the stage.
6. Do not leave your seat during the performance unless it is an emergency.
If you do need to leave for an emergency, leave as quietly as possible and
know that you might not be able to get back in until after intermission.
7. Do clap—let the actors know you are enjoying yourself.
8. Do enjoy the show and have fun watching the actors.
9. Do tell other people about your experience and be sure to ask questions and
discuss the performance.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
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Discussion Questions
1) What is the importance of the Stage Manager? For what purpose is he
watching, narrating and interacting with the play? How does he add to the
play for the characters as well as for the audience?
2) What are the challenges and the advantages of having a minimal set and
few props?
3) How would the play be different if it took place a hundred years later, in
2001? How would it be the same?
4) The citizens of Grover’s Corners are leaving a group of things in a time
capsule to be dug up in one hundred years. They choose a copy of the New
York Times and a copy of the Grover’s Corners Sentinel, a bible, a constitution
of the United States, a copy of Shakespeare’s works and a copy of this play,
Our Town. What would you suggest be left in a time capsule that would be
opened one hundred years from today?
5) Thornton Wilder makes good use of small town, early 1900’s New
England vernacular. Phrases like “hush-up-with-you” and “you gave me
such a turn!”, as well as spelling words like stomach and get, as stummick
and git, provide an insight into the background of the people of Grover’s
Corners. Think of some regional phrases from our hometown, Pittsburgh.
What other interesting sayings have you heard when visiting other places?
6) Wilder makes many references to time and numbers in Our Town. He
makes a point of using the words ‘hundreds,’ ‘thousands,’ and ‘millions’
quite frequently. Some examples of this are “M… marries N… millions of
them,” “Once in a thousand times it’s interesting,” and “They’ve asked a
friend of mine what they should put in the cornerstone for people in a
thousand years to dig up.” What is Wilder up to with these constant
numerical references?
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
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7) Towards the end of act three, Emily asks the Stage Manager “Do any
human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every, every minute?”
The Stage Manager’s response is “No,” then after a pause he adds, “The
saints and poets, maybe- they do some.” What about saints and poets might
make the Stage Manager think they are more capable of “realizing life?”
8) If you were able to ask Mr. Webb, the editor of the Grover’s Corners Sentinel,
a question about Grover’s Corners, what would you ask?
9) How was marriage viewed in the play? Do you think it is viewed
differently today?
10) What do you think it is about Our Town that has made it such a classic and
timeless play?
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
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Pennsylvania Academic Standards
The plays of Pittsburgh Public Theater’s 39th season, subtitled the Masterpiece Season, are a
wonderful celebration of some of the greatest works in theatrical history, with rich benefits for
school students. The 2013-2014 line-up features a six-play subscription series, all by world
renowned composers and playwrights that hold a special place in any theater enthusiast’s heart.
The Masterpiece Season will provide examples of the wittiest dialogue, the sharpest characters,
and the most captivating scores.
Applicable to All Plays and Productions:
Arts and Humanities Standards and Reading-Writing-Speaking-Listening Standards
Attendance and participation by students at any play produced by Pittsburgh Public Theater
bears direct applicability to the PA Education Standards in Arts and Humanities and ReadingWriting-Speaking-Listening (RWSL). These applicable standards are summarized first. Then,
each play for Season 39 is taken in turn, and its relevance to standards in other Academic
Content Areas is cited. All standards are summarized by conceptual description, since similar
concepts operate across all the grade levels served by The Public’s Education-Outreach
programs (Grades 4 through 12); the principal progressive difference is from basics such as
Know, Describe and Explain, moving through grade levels towards more mature activities such
as Demonstrate, Incorporate, Compare-Contrast, Analyze and Interpret.
9.1: Production, Performance and Exhibition of Dance, Music, Theatre and Visual Arts
Elements
Scenario • script/text • set design • stage productions • read and write scripts • improvise
• interpret a role • design sets • direct.
Principles
Balance • collaboration • discipline • emphasis • focus • intention • movement • rhythm •
style • voice.
Comprehensive vocabulary within each of the arts forms.
Communicate a unifying theme or point of view through the production of works in the
arts.
Explain works of others within each art form through performance or exhibition.
Know where arts events, performances and exhibitions occur and how to gain
admission.
9.2: Historical and Cultural Contexts
The historical, cultural and social context of an individual work in the arts.
Works in the arts related chronologically to historical events, and to varying styles and
genres, and to the periods in which they were created.
Analyze a work of art from its historical and cultural perspective, and according to its
geographic region of origin.
Analyze how historical events and culture impact forms, techniques and purposes of
works in the arts.
Philosophical beliefs as they relate to works in the arts.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
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Historical and cultural differences as they relate to works in the arts.
Common themes, forms and techniques from works in the arts.
9.3: Critical Response
Know and use the critical process of the examination of works in the arts and
humanities.
o Compare and contrast
o Analyze
o Interpret
o Form and test hypotheses
o Evaluate/form judgments
Analyze and interpret specific characteristics of works in the arts within each art form.
Identify and classify styles, forms, types and genre within art forms.
Evaluate works in the arts and humanities using a complex vocabulary of critical
response.
Interpret and use various types of critical analysis in the arts and humanities.
Contextual criticism.
Formal criticism.
Intuitive criticism.
Apply the process of criticism to identify characteristics among works in the arts.
Compare and contrast critical positions or opinions about selected works in the arts and
humanities.
9.4: Aesthetic Response
Compare and contrast examples of group and individual philosophical meanings of
works in the arts and humanities.
Compare and contrast informed individual opinions about the meaning of works in the
arts to others.
Describe how the attributes of the audience’s environment influence aesthetic
responses.
Describe to what purpose philosophical ideas generated by artists can be conveyed
through works in the arts and humanities.
Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening
Make inferences and/or draw conclusions based on information from text.
Cite evidence from text to support generalizations.
Identify the author’s intended purpose of text.
Summarize the key details and events of a fictional text as a whole.
Identify and apply meaning of content specific words used in text.
Explain, interpret, compare, describe, analyze, and/or evaluate character actions,
motives, dialogue, emotions/feelings, traits, and relationships among characters within
fictional and literary nonfictional text.
Explain, interpret, compare, describe, analyze, and/or evaluate:
o The relationship between characters and other components of text.
o The setting of fiction or literary nonfiction.
o Elements of the plot (conflict, rising action, climax and/or resolution).
o Relationship between the theme and other components of text.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
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Educational Standards From Other Areas Applicable to Individual Plays and Their
Themes
OUR TOWN. September 26-October 27, 2013.
Written by Thornton Wilder (1938). Directed by Ted Pappas.
A story that is simple yet profound. A work of unparalleled imagination and heart – and
arguably Americas’s greatest play. The theme of this bittersweet tale is the speed of life itself,
and how it all too quickly passes us by. The Public’s production of this beloved work will mark
the 75th Anniversary of the play’s premiere (1938), and will serve as the perfect gateway to the
Masterpiece Season. Our Town is an exquisitely-expressed slice of quintessential Americana,
bearing witness to the cycle of daily life in a tiny New England town at the dawn of the brave
new 20th century – still a time in which milk was delivered by horse cart, automobiles were a
gleam in the eye of the future, weddings were brief and marriages forever, and the daily weather
formed the core of a profound cosmic conversation. Producing Artistic Director Ted Pappas has
announced that the cast of Our Town – 24 actors in all – will be comprised exclusively of actors
who reside in the Pittsburgh region or who have resided previously in the Pittsburgh region, or
attended school here. Much revered Pittsburgh actor Tom Atkins, known for his many fine
performances at The Public, including Arthur J. Rooney, Sr. in The Chief, will play the pivotal
role of the Stage Manager in Our Town.
Civics and Government
Evaluate the roles of political parties, interest groups, and mass media in politics and
public policy.
Economics
Evaluate the economic reasoning behind a choice.
Environment and Ecology
Analyze how humans influence the pattern of natural changes in ecosystems over time.
Evaluate the effect of consumer demands on the use of natural resources.
Family and Consumer Sciences
Solve dilemmas using a practical reasoning approach: identify situation, identify reliable
information, list choices and examine the consequences of each, develop a plan of
action, draw conclusions, and reflect on decisions.
Contrast past and present family functions and predict their probable impact on the
future of the family.
Geography
Explain the physical characteristics of places and regions, including spatial patterns of
Earth’s physical systems.
Explain the human characteristics of places and regions using the following criteria:
Population, Culture, Settlement, Economic activities, Political activities.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
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Health, Safety, and Physical Education
Analyze the factors that impact growth and development between adolescence and
adulthood: relationships (e.g., dating, friendships, peer pressure), interpersonal
communication, risk factors (e.g., physical inactivity, substance abuse,
intentional/unintentional injuries, dietary patterns), abstinence, STD and HIV prevention,
and community.
History
Apply examples of the rule of law as related to individual rights and the common good.
Evaluate the importance of historical documents, artifacts, and sites which are critical to
world history.
Evaluate the role of mass media in setting public agenda and influencing political life.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
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References
Special thanks to Madeline Kushner for her contributions to this resource guide.
Bochi, Patricia. “The Bridge of San Luis Ray.” Photograph. Washington Independent. Fall 2013.
<http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/features/january-slow-read-thebridge-of-san-luis-rey>.
Gallagher, Ashley. “The Bridge of San Luis Ray.” Thornton Wilder Society. Web. Fall 2013.
<http://www.twildersociety.org/works/the-bridge-of-san-luis-rey>.
Howitt, Nadine. Skin of Our Teeth. Photograph. Stage Magazine. 26 Apr. 2012. Fall 2013.
<http://www.stagemagazine.org/2012/04/getting-by-with-more-than-the-skin-of-ourteeth/>.
“No Exit.” Hearst Communications, Inc. Web. Summer 2013.
< http://events.sfgate.com/san_francisco_ca/events/show/136322365-no-exit>.
“Our Town.” Insights. Delaware Theatre Company. 2. Print.
“Our Town: Plot Summary.” PBS. Web. 16 Aug. 2013.
< http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/ourtown/tg_summary.html>.
Robertson, Hamish. “Biography.” Thornton Wilder. Web. Summer 2013.
<http://www.thorntonwilder.com/about/biography.html>.
“The Glass Menagerie.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Web, Summer 2013.
< http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/235016/The-Glass-Menagerie>.
“The Iceman Cometh.” Theatre in Chicago. Web. Summer 2013.
<http://www.theatreinchicago.com/the-iceman-cometh/5017/>.
“The Little Foxes.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Web. Summer 2013.
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/344075/The-Little-Foxes>.
“The 1900’s- The World Begins to Fly” americasbesthistory.com. Web. Summer 2013.
<http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1900.html>.
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Our Town
2013-2014 Season
Page 37
“The Skin of Our Teeth.” The Thornton Wilder Society. Web. Summer 2013.
<http://thorntonwilder.com/full-length-plays/the-skin-of-our-teeth.html>.
“Tally’s Electric Theatre.” Cinema Treasures. Web. 28 Aug. 2013.
<http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/8855>.
“Thornton Wilder Quotes.” Goodreads Inc. Web. Summer 2013. Retrieved from
<http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/44061.Thornton_Wilder>.
“Wright 1903 Flyer.” Photograph. NASA.Web. 28 Aug. 2013.
<http://wright.nasa.gov/airplane/air1903.html>.
“You Can’t Take it With You.” Playbill, Inc. Web. Summer 2013. Retrieved from
<http://www.playbillvault.com/Show/Detail/1799/You-Cant-Take-It-With-You>.
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Our Town
2013-2014 Season
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