Another Day's Begun

Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in the 21st Century

Another Day's Begun cover

Another Day's Begun

Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in the 21st Century

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Description

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. This unique and timely book shines a light on the play's continued impact in the 21st century and makes a case for the healing powers of Wilder's text to a world confronting multiple crises. Through extensive interviews with more than 100 artists about their own experience of the play and its impact on them professionally and personally – and including background on the play's early years and its pervasiveness in American culture – Another Day's Begun shows why this particular work remains so important, essential, and beloved.

Every production of Our Town has a story to tell beyond Wilder's own. One year after the tragedy of 9/11, Paul Newman, in his final stage appearance, played the Stage Manager in Our Town on Broadway. Director David Cromer's 2008 Chicago interpretation would play in five more cities, ultimately becoming New York's longest-running Our Town ever. In 2013, incarcerated men at Sing Sing Correctional Facility brought Grover's Corners inside a maximum security prison. After the 2017 arena bombing in Manchester UK, the Royal Exchange Theatre chose Our Town as its offering to the stricken community.

80 years after it was written, more than 110 years after its actions take place, Our Town continues to assert itself as an essential play about how we must embrace and appreciate the value of life itself. Another Day's Begun explains how this American classic has the power to inspire, heal and endure in the modern day, onstage and beyond.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: The Name of this Book is Another Day's Begun
2. Building Grover's Corners
3. Expanding Grover's Corners
4. The David Cromer productions
5. Westport Country Playhouse and Broadway
6. Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre
7. Montgomery County Emergency Services
8. Theatre Baton Rouge and Louisiana State University
9. Lookingglass Theatre
10. Intermission: The Church of Grover's Corners
11. Theatrical Outfit
12. Miami New Drama
13. Oregon Shakespeare Festival
14. Deaf West and Pasadena Playhouse
15. Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
16. Sing Sing Correctional Facility
17. Epilogue: 11 O'Clock in Grover's Corners
i. Notes and Sources
ii. Thanks and acknowledgments

Product details

Published Jan 28 2021
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 288
ISBN 9781350123434
Imprint Methuen Drama
Dimensions 234 x 156 mm
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Howard Sherman

Howard Sherman is a theatre administrator, writer,…

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