With its simple set and complex story line, “Our Town,” written by Thornton Wilder took Broadway by storm in 1938. Fellow playwright Edward Albee called it the greatest American play ever written, and it opens at the San Juan Community Theatre Oct. 4.
“Our Town certainly makes a case for that, [being the greatest American play] as it continues to be widely produced a century after it first opened,” San Juan Community Theatre’s Artistic Director Nathan Kessler-Jeffery responded when asked whether he agreed with Albee’s assessment. “Themes of simplicity, joy, sorrow, and the fleeting nature of life continue to resonate. Do I agree with Albee? I don’t think I believe there is a ‘greatest’ American play—simply plays that are great.”
Directed by Margaret Hall, and starring a full cast of islanders, some new to the stage, “Our Town” takes place in the fictional town Grover’s Corners in New Hampshire. The audience watches as the citizens fall in love, raise families, and in some cases pass on. Small towns across America were very similar in the early 1900’s – before WWI, Hall explained when asked if she saw connections between Grover’s Corner and Friday Harbor. Prohibition, the Roaring Twenties, WWII, TV, women’s lib, computers, the internet, cell phones, social media, 9/11, have affected rural Americans in every state…