Cast members Jessica Breda and Mitchel Kawash
For the past five year Valley Shakespeare Festival has presented one William Shakespeare’s comedies at its annual Free Outdoor Summer Park production. This summer however, for its sixth year, the company has decided to go in a different direction with the quintessential American play, Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.”
“Our Town” is a particularly intimate and eloquent portrait of life in a typical turn-of-the-century small New England town. Aside from the time frame, life in the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire is not that much different from that in the towns that make up our Valley today. It depicts the ups and downs of the everyday lives of its average working class families over the course of twelve years.
Despite its seemingly ordinary premise “Our Town” is decidedly not dull or ordinary; in fact, it was nothing less than groundbreaking when it debuted in 1938, acclaimed for its minimalist staging:
“No curtain. No scenery. The audience, arriving, sees an empty stage in half-light,” according to Mr. Wilder’s original opening direction.
Some producers and directors might find this limiting, but not VSF’s Executive & Artistic Director Tom Simonetti:
“I really don’t find the minimalist staging limiting. For me, the challenge is making sure that this play not only honors and recognizes what Wilder wrote, but also that it translates to today’s problems and struggles in our own community.”
It takes some very talented and skillful performers to convey the play’s universal and deeply emotional story without the usual array of colorful scenery and props. In fact, the actors even employ pantomime at times to express some of the play’s action. Fortunately, Mr. Simonetti is confident that he has assembled a cast that is more than equal to the task.
Ms. Kaia Monroe Rarick, Chairman of SCSU’s Theatre Department who is performing the role of Julia Gibbs, explains:
“I see this minimalism as an opportunity to physically story tell as an actor. I’ve got a good bit of specialized training in physical theatre that I, frankly, rarely get to use. So I’m excited to bring it to this production.”
Ms. Monroe-Rarick is excited to be a part of the production for another reason, too:
“And what I love about Wilder’s play is that he is commenting on the American character, but doing it so gently and respectfully, that it seems like a love letter.”
VSF’S Free Outdoor Summer Theater in the Park production of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” will take place on the evening of Thursday, July 12th through Sunday, July 15th at Shelton’s Veterans Memorial – Riverview Park, rain or shine, at 7:30pm. Audiences are encouraged to arrive at 6:00pm to picnic and enjoy live music and food trucks prior to the show.
Valley Shakespeare Festival is a professional nonprofit theater company dedicated to bringing free and low cost theater to the communities of the Naugatuck Valley. Funding for its productions is paid for in part through grants from The Katharine Matthies Foundation, Pitney Bowes, The Valley Community Foundation, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and private individual donations.
