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MSC04 2570
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
Tel: (505) 277-4332
fax: (505) 277-8921
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 26, 2015
MEDIA CONTACT
Kathleen Clawson: (505) 238-6029, [email protected]
UNM’s Department of Theatre and Dance
Presents
Our Town
By Thornton Wilder
Directed by Gregory S. Moss
WHAT: Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Our Town, transcends
differences in culture, class and time, as it explores the eternal questions of the human
experience.
WHEN: April 17, 18, 23, 24, 25 at 7:30pm and April 19 and 26 at 2:00pm
WHERE: Rodey Theatre, Center for the Arts, UNM Main Campus
HOW MUCH: $15 General, $12 Faculty & Seniors, $10 Staff & All Students
TICKETS: UNM Ticket Offices, Call 925-5858 or 1-877-664-8661, or online at
www.unmtickets.com
MORE INFO: http://theatre.unm.edu, or call 277-4332
Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Our Town, transcends differences in
culture, class and time, as it explores the eternal questions of the human experience. The
story of ordinary families in a small American town and their journey through love,
marriage and death is as relevant today as it was in 1938. With plain speech and a simple
story, the inhabitants of Grover’s Corners are brought to life by a diverse cast of UNM’s
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finest actors, to create an inspiring exploration of community, friendship and love.
Performances run April 17 through 26, 2015 in UNM’s Rodey Theatre.
Using what were then unconventional theatrical techniques; a simple setting and allowing
characters to “break the fourth wall”, Thornton Wilder changed forever the face of
American drama with his extraordinary play, Our Town. The piece follows the lives of
the Webb and Gibbs families and the other colorful inhabitants of the fictional small New
Hampshire town of Grover’s Corners. As the characters go about their daily lives,
audiences are drawn into their struggles, fears, joys, and losses with the character of the
Stage Manager (a role that Thornton Wilder himself played on Broadway) as a narrator
and guide. In a deceptively simple way, through their ordinary story we see ourselves.
Wilder wrote that Our Town “is an attempt to find a value above all price for the smallest
events in our daily life.”
Thornton Wilder, a proficient novelist, playwright, screenwriter, librettist, translator,
educator and actor, was born in 1897 in Madison, Wisconsin. He received the Pulitzer
Prize for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey in 1928 and for his plays, Our Town in
1938 and The Skin of Our Teeth in 1943. The themes of Our Town are universal, family,
marriage, and death. In a letter to Gertrude Stein in 1937, Wilder described Our Town as
“a little play with all the big subjects in it; and it’s a big play with all the little things of
life lovingly impressed into it.” It has been translated into thirty languages and its
publisher states that a performance is done almost every day, somewhere in the world.
Praise for this remarkable work has been lavish. Describing the original production the
New York Post said, “Beautiful and remarkable; one of the sagest, warmest and most
deeply human scripts to have come out of our theater . . . A spiritual experience.” The
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great playwright Edward Albee stated that Our Town “is probably the finest play ever
written by an American.”
The artistic staff for this production is lead by director Gregory S. Moss. Designers
include Dorothy Baca (costume design), Akili Gonzales (scenic design), and Steven
Maurer (lighting design). The cast of Our Town is made up of an ensemble of UNM’s
finest actors, with Nathan Chavez as the Stage Manager, Haley Henson as Emily Webb,
and Harrison Sim as George Gibbs. Also in the cast are Gino Gonzales, Dante MorningStar, Nick Pippin, Kim Jennings, Beatrice Lawrence, Veronica Apodaca, Joseph Gurule,
Henry Bender, Wesley Swedenburg, Kayla Grivois, David Belovarski, Liviana
Rodriguez, Lyle Frauenglass, Tabitha Tuckman, Rashaad Bond, J.D. Otsuka, Kevin
Hedrich, Miles Avery, William Dole, Helena Berry, Morgan Lowery,
Barbara Casseb, Jazzmin Zama, and Clara Johnson. Eddie Carrion is stage manager and
Jimmy Dayhoff and Forrest Sanchez are assistant stage managers.
Performances of Our Town are April 17, 18, 23, 24, and 25 at 7:30pm and April 19 and
26 at 2:00pm in Rodey Theatre, located in the Center for the Arts on UNM’s main
campus. Ticket prices are $15 General admission, $12 UNM Faculty & Seniors, and $10
UNM Staff & all Students. Tickets are available at the UNM Ticket Offices located at the
UNM Bookstore, Central and Cornell, or the Arena (The Pit), University and Avenida
Caesar Chavez, and by calling (505) 925-5858. Tickets may also be purchased online at
www.unmtickets.com. More information is available online at http://theatre.unm.edu or
by calling 277-4332.
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