#Thornton Wilder American Playwright

[suetravelblog]

Thornton Wilder - The Skin of Our Teeth at Very Little Theatre

A mellow summer continues to provide peaceful space for pondering past and future travel adventures. With the havoc and devastation of deadly wildfires, floods, and wars currently happening in the world, it feels good to be hidden away in leafy Oregon. I’m slowly working my way through a “to do” list, and diligently trying to tame the woodsy landscape that surrounds my home. Letting things go…

[uwmspeccoll]

Tragically Greek

This 1955 edition of Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles, features the original Greek text alongside the English verse translation. Offering a rich, immersive reading experience results from hard work, dedication, and creative minds coming together to create this masterpiece.

Jan van Krimpen (1892-1958), Dutch typographer, book designer, and type designer, designed the two typefaces. The Greek type is named “Antigone,” and the English type is called “Romulus.” The translator for this work was Francis Storr (1839-1919), a British classicist, translator, and teacher.

The paper was specially manufactured at the historic Dutch Pannekoek Papermill, a mill with a rich history that unfortunately met its end in a fire in 1944. This exclusive feature adds a touch of rarity to your reading experience. Printed in the offices of Johannes Enschedé, under the supervision of Mijnheer van Krimpen, it was for the members of the Limited Editions Club. 

Adding to the richness of this edition is the detailed and insightful introduction provided by Pulitzer Prize winner Thornton Wilder (1897-1975), American playwright, novelist, and native of Madison, WI. His esteemed perspective offers an enlightening preface to the classic tale.

The illustrations are black and terra-cotta wood engravings designed by Greek artist Demetrios Galanis (1879-1966). He was the trailblazer of modern Greek engraving and was once touted as one of the greatest living Greek artists at the time of the book’s release. 

Sophocles (c. 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC) was an ancient Greek playwright born in Colonus near Athens. He is one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, along with Aeschylus and Euripides. Sophocles wrote over 120 plays during his lifetime, although only seven have survived in their entirety. His works are characterized by their complex characters, well-crafted plots, and profound exploration of moral and philosophical themes. 

Among his most famous plays is the tragedy Oedipus the King. The story is about Oedipus, the king of Thebes, who tries to uncover the truth behind a plague that has struck his city. In doing so, he discovers that he himself is responsible for the plague, having unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. The play delves into themes of fate, free will, and the consequences of one's actions.

-Melissa, Special Collections Classics Intern

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[invisibleicewands]

Michael Sheen to play Welsh prince who led rebellion against the English crown

He has been celebrated for playing the roles of a British prime minister and an English king but the Welsh actor Michael Sheen is now relishing the prospect of starring as a noted leader from his homeland – Owain Glyndŵr, the medieval Prince of Wales.

Sheen will take the lead in a new play, Owain & Henry, to be staged by his fledgling company, Welsh National Theatre, and hopes it will become a “defining moment” for Wales, triggering conversations about how it became the country it is, the pressing social issues it faces and the question of independence.

Sheen said the play, written in blank verse by the Welsh playwright Gary Owen, was a “stonking epic”, challenging the depiction of Shakespeare’s unflattering picture of Glyndŵr in his Henry IV plays.

“The Owain that Gary has written is incredibly pragmatic, very real, dealing with the really difficult and sometimes disturbing choices a leader has to make,” he said “The play is brutal at times, it’s funny, subversive, challenging, controversial. When I first read it, I got to about five scenes in and thought, it can’t keep up like this but it does.”

Glyndŵr led a rebellion against the English crown in the 15th century and remains a hugely revered figure in Wales.

Sheen said: “It’s not just a historical piece, it speaks to now, who we are, where we’ve come from, why we struggle. Why is Wales behind in so many things, why is it so easy to cut away at our culture? Did we never have the same aspiration to build our nations that other countries have? This play’s about that.”

The issue of independence is bound to arise. Sheen said: “My position is that it’s really good to talk about it and explore it; my worry is that in Wales discussion about independence and related issues gets shut down. The platforms to discuss that at a national level are so meagre, so it’s great that in our first year we’re putting front and centre who we are and who we could have been.”

The play is to open at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff in November next year . “Playing the Welsh prince on one of Europe’s biggest stages in our capital city will, I hope, be a defining moment for us as a people, and a culture,” said Sheen, whose famous roles have included Tony Blair and Henry V.

Sheen will also take the lead in a second show from Welsh National Theatre, a version of Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town, which will be set in a small Welsh community rather than an American one.

It will open in Swansea in January 2026 before heading to Llandudno and Mold in north Wales, then on to Kingston upon Thames, south-west London. The Doctor Who show runner Russell T Davies will be a creative associate on the play.

The Welsh National Theatre came into being after National Theatre Wales announced it had “ceased to exist” following the loss of its Arts Council of Wales funding. It has evolved into Team (theatre, education, arts, music), focusing on grassroots work.

Arts Council of Wales has confirmed transition funding to help the new theatre develop its structures and vision.

Owain and Henry is co-produced with Wales Millennium Centre and Our Town with the Rose Theatre in Kingston Upon Thames.

As well as announcing the first new productions on Wednesday, the theatre announced it was commissioning plays from writers including Azuka Oforka.

It is looking at establishing “a creative engine room” in Wales and a scouting network that will search for new talent.

Sheen said: “Growing up in Port Talbot, playing football on a pitch next to the A48, I always knew there was a chance that a scout might be watching. I want every youngster, amateur and professional performing or working behind the scenes in Wales to have that same potential pathway to the creative top flight.”

[artsychowroamer]

Our Town at The Barrymore Theatre

AUTHOR: ARTSY CHOW ROAMER

OUR TOWN

AT THE ETHEL BARRYMORE THEATRE

I love theatre and many of you may not know that I co-founded a community playhouse in my hometown in Tennessee where the local high school drama teacher could do her thing after retiring. It let me continue my interest and love for the behind-the-scenes kind of work that had thrilled me during my days in high school and college.

This led my husband and I to buy season tickets several times in Atlanta when Kenny Leon was still directing in our neck of the woods at the Alliance Theatre. If Kenny directed it, you would want to see it no matter what the play. That’s why I was excited to read that he will be bringing his version of the classic Thornton Wilder play Our Town to the historic Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City right in the heart of Broadway.

THE HISTORY

Named after the actress from the famous Barrymore family acting dynasty, Ethel was the it girl of her time when the theatre opened in December of 1928. Designed by Herbert J. Krapp in a combination of Mediterranean, Elizabethan and Adam styles, it is the last standing theatre built by the brothers, Lee and J.J. Shubert. It houses a large, beautiful stage with 1,058 seats. Run by the Shubert Organization to this day, the exterior is considered to be a New York City landmark in the heart of the theatre district in Manhattan.

Built from white bricks and rusticated terra cotta, the design was inspired by Roman baths with large arches and screens. The auditorium houses box seats at the balcony level with a coved ceiling and dome above. Roman arches and gold ornamental plasterwork abound along with a sloped orchestra level. An ornate lounge was located in the basement along with a now demolished stage house.

The Shubert brothers built the theatre in honor of Ethel when she agreed to have them handle her career and she stayed with them throughout performing in it the final time in 1940. It has remained a legitimate acting venue staging musicals and plays and is one of the few to have never been sold or renamed. It has been updated and refurbished both in the ‘80’s and early 2000.

THE WRITER

Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist winning the Pulitzer Prize three times for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two plays, Our Town and The Skin of our Teeth. He also won the U.S. National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day. Born in 1897 in Madison, Wisconsin to parents, Amos and Isabella Wilder, his father was a newspaper editor and diplomat while his mother raised the family of five children. Thornton’s twin was stillborn.

The other siblings were writers with the older brother Amos becoming a noted poet at Harvard Divinity School and younger sisters Charlotte and Isabel becoming writers of note themselves. Said to be overly intellectual, Wilder would retreat to the library in school to escape the teasing and hide away from the humiliation of not fitting in. He would serve in both WWI and II rising to a lieutenant colonel status. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University where he refined his writing skills and went on to earn his Master of Arts degree in French Literature from Princeton University.

After an eight-month residency in Italy, he published his first book, The Cabala, in 1926 followed by The Bridge of San Luis Rey in 1927 which brought him commercial success along with The Pulitzer Prize allowing him to quit his teaching job at The Lawrenceville School in order to write full time. In 1938, he would write the play Our Town and win his second Pulitzer and in 1940, The Skin of our Teeth would follow for the third prize.

THE PLAY

Our Town is a three-act play that playwright Edward Albee called “the greatest American play ever written”. It presents life in a fictional town called Grover’s Corners through the lives of its citizens between the years 1901 through 1913. Wilder uses metatheatrical devices setting the play in the actual theatre where it is being performed. A stage manager is the main character directly talking to the audience, fielding questions, playing some of the rolls and bringing in guest lecturers.

Left photo: Courtesy Historical Society of Princeton Right photo: Stage Publishing Company, Inc.; photograph by Alfredo Valente

The play is largely performed on a bare stage with no set while the performers mime actions without the use of props. The original stage manager was played by Frank Craven. In Act I, he introduces the audience to Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire and the people living there in 1901. We meet folks like the milkman, the boy who delivers the papers, the town doc, the Webb and Gibbs families and Professor Willard. Editor Webb will provide all the details about the town from socioeconomic status to the lack of culture and art while the stage manager leads you through pivotal moments throughout the day and evening. We meet the town drunk, the church ladies who gossip and the children of the Webb and Gibbs families who like each other very much.

Act II opens three years later and the kids are ready to get married. The stage manager takes us through their ups and downs together and how love works to get them to the altar. Act III opens nine years later and deals with death and eternity as the stage manager focuses on the cemetery in town where five people are buried since the wedding took place; some surprising and some not but one will teach us a lesson about appreciating the simple things in life.

THE CAST

It might surprise you to find out that Jim Parsons will be your Stage Manager for this run of the play. Parson’s, made famous by playing nerdy Sheldon Cooper in the Big Bang Theory, loves Broadway and can’t wait to get his chops around this more serious role. Katie Holms, the ex Mrs. Tom Cruise, will be making her come back as Mrs. Webb after sending her daughter off to college this year. Richard Thomas of The Waltons fame will be playing her husband while Zoey Deutch will play the doomed Emily Webb.

They lead a cast of 28 very talented actors including Ephraim Sykes as George Gibbs, Billy Eugene Jones as Dr. Gibbs and Michelle Wilson as Mrs. Gibbs. Julie Halston as Mrs. Soames and Donald Webber Jr. as Simon Stimson round out the main players in this wonderful version of the beloved play. You can bet Kenny Leon’s vision of the classic will be very different from any other you have seen before with this cast in place.

THE DIRECTOR

Last but not least, the talented Mr. Leon. While he may have been born in Florida, we like to claim him since he graduated from Clark Atlanta University. He gained prominence in 1990 when he became one of the few African Americans to head a major nonprofit theater as the artistic director for the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. During his time there, the endowment rose for the company from $1 million to $5 million as he staged productions like Elton John and Tim Rice’s musical Aida that went on to Broadway and Alfred Uhry’s The Last Night in Ballyhoo.

He left in 2000 to pursue other projects including being a co-founder and artistic director for True Colors Theatre Company a group based in both Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He won a Tony Award for his direction of A Raisin in the Sun in 2014 and was nominated for his versions of Fences in 2010 and A Soldier’s Play in 2019. He received Emmy Award nominations for Hairspray Live! (2017), American Son (2019) and Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia (2021).

A stellar reputation has gotten him gigs with some of the best in acting land such as Denzel Wahington, Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, Blair Underwood, David Alan Grier and Viola Davis just to name a few. In 2015, Leon directed a musical version of The Wiz for NBC and partnered with Cirque du Soleil who plans on taking it to Broadway. In 2022, a return to his old stomping grounds brought Trading Places: the Musical! to the Alliance directed by Leon. In short, his range is unbelievable-second only to his massive talent.

CONCLUSION

As you can see, Kenny Leon’s version of a classic play, in a historic theatre, named after an acting family dynasty will not be one to miss. This cast will be bringing the street cred with them as they bring these characters to life and I imagine Kenny will be up for a load of awards next time at the Tony’s. I rather like that thought….don’t you? Home town boy makes very good. Break a leg Kenny.

If you liked what you read, you may also like other posts under Artful Ideal. There you will find posts on art, books, theaters and other artsy things you might be interested in. Until then…

Cheers,

ArtsyChowRoamer

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[denimbex1986]

Inspired by the film Oppenheimer, currently playing at the Princeton Garden Theatre and in cinemas across the world, interest in J. Robert Oppenheimer’s years heading the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) has inspired local recollections about the famed physicist, his family, and people affiliated with him.

Among the most recent is a remembrance of Verna Hobson, Oppenheimer’s secretary at the IAS from 1954 to 1966. Hobson and her husband, Wilder Hobson, were friends of the mother of Princeton resident Hank Fairman through much of the 1950s till 1964. The Hobsons lived on Valley Road at Jefferson Road, and the Fairmans lived nearby on Mt. Lucas Road.

“As a young boy, I remember them coming to my mother’s house for evenings of dinner and jazz,” noted Fairman, a novelist and poet who formerly wrote a column on environmental issues for the Princeton Packet. “Verna, a slim, attractive woman, played, surprisingly, the tuba. Wilder played the trombone, and several others, including professional trumpet player John Dengler, joined to perform popular and jazz pieces in the living room of my mother’s house, where she was hostess and gourmet cook.”

According to Hobson’s obituary, “She soloed in front of the Lester Lanin orchestra and jammed with jazz stars Wild Bill Davison and J.C. Higginbotham.”

Hobson’s years with Oppenheimer represent only one phase of her career. She worked at the Museum of Modern Art and Time Inc. in New York. In London, she was employed at the American Association of University Women and as executive secretary for an architectural firm. She edited one weekly newspaper in Maine, and was a freelance photographer for another. She studied Greek at the Senior College of the University of Southern Maine. She died in 2004 at the age of 81.

Hobson went to work for Oppenheimer at the IAS in 1954. “She, as he must have seen, was a gifted woman in her own right, and she worked at his side, presumably until his death,” Fairman said.

She was closely involved as Oppenheimer, who led the development of the atomic bomb, prepared for a hearing by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission that ultimately led to his security clearance being revoked. In the book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin (on which the film Oppenheimer is based), Hobson expresses her frustration with the pace of his defense.

“To his friends, Robert seemed distracted and inexplicably passive,” the book reads. “One day, while listening to the lawyers talk about legal strategy, Verna Hobson lost her patience and began to push Robert. ‘I thought Robert was not fighting hard enough,’ she recalled. ‘I thought Lloyd Garrison [his attorney] was being too gentlemanly. I was angry. I thought we should go out and fight.’”

Hobson was the daughter of U.S. Congressman Francis Burton Harrison, who also served as governor-general of the Philippines. “She lived in Europe for her first 16 years following her father’s retirement,” Fairman said. “She then attended Swarthmore College and learned to fly small planes, co-owning a Piper Cub.”

Hobson met her husband, Wilder — a first cousin of playwright Thornton Wilder — while working for Time Inc., and they married in 1945. They spent many summers on Squirrel Island in Maine, where his family had a cottage. “They had two children, Archie and Elisa, the latter of similar age and occasional acquaintance of my sister,” said Fairman. “Following Wilder’s death in 1964, and Oppenheimer’s death from throat cancer in 1967, Verna moved to London. Sadly, Oppenheimer’s wife, Kitty, had a drinking problem, and Wilder died from gastrointestinal problems worsened by drinking.”

Hobson returned to the U.S. in 1976, settling in New Gloucester, Maine. “She became a farmer, growing trees, vegetables, lambs, pigs, and chickens, and was active in a local environmental organization,” Fairman said. “At the same time, she reported for, edited, and managed a local weekly newspaper, the New Gloucester News, and was one of the revivers of a summer newspaper focused on Squirrel Island. She was also active with various writing and readers’ groups.”

As if that wasn’t enough, Hobson became the foster mother to a young refugee from Cambodia in 1983.

“That Verna engaged two unusually bright men, Wilder Hobson and Dr. Oppenheimer, speaks to her own abilities, interests, and achievements and marks her as one of Princeton’s truly notable residents,” said Fairman.'

[shakespearenews]

In Shakespeare and the Bible represents "Wrath" in Wilder's cycle on the "Seven Deadly Sins." CHARACTERS: MARGET, a maid JOHN LUBBOCK, a young attorney, twenty-seven MRS. MOWREY, late fifties KATY BUCKINGHAM, twenty-one

SETTING: An over-sumptuous parlor, New York, 1898

Read more about Wilder’s “7 Deadly Sins” from American Theatre. 

[fnovelso]

📘𝐃𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐅𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑📘: Sunday – October 3, 2016 – Our Town

[viralnews-1]

The 7 Best Luxury Gifts (2022): Devialet, Prada, Rimowa, Urwerk

The 7 Best Luxury Gifts (2022): Devialet, Prada, Rimowa, Urwerk

What defines luxury? For years, the world looked to Coco Chanel for florid descriptions of what is or is not luxurious. That would seem most unwise today, considering it has been recently reported that she was a Nazi intelligence operative and an anti-Semite. Perhaps the most WIRED view would chime with that of American playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder, who said that “the future is the…

[uwmspeccoll]

Milestone Monday

On this day, April 17 in 1897, the American playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) was born in Madison, Wisconsin to Isabella Thornton Niven and newspaper editor and U.S. diplomat Amos Parker Wilder. Thornton Wilder’s many works garnered him international acclaim, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning plays Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1943), the 1955 play The Matchmaker, and the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1943 Shadow of a Doubt.  It was his 1927 The Bridge of San Luis Rey, however, that first brought him commercial success and his first Pulitzer Prize in 1928.

We hold three illustrated editions of Bridge, one illustrated with wood engravings by Clare Leighton and published by Longmans, Green in 1929 (which we will show on Wednesday), another illustrated with color lithographs by Rockwell Kent and published by Albert & Charles Boni in 1929 (which we posted about over five years ago), and this 1962 Limited Editions Club (LEC) production, illustrated with 16 original color lithographs drawn directly on the plates by the French-born American painter and illustrator, Jean Charlot (1898-1979), and printed in a limited edition of 1500 copies signed by the artist. Charlot was a frequent LEC contributor, and we have already posted a few times on his work for the club.

With this edition, then, we celebrate a Thornton Wilder Birthday Anniversary!

View other posts on the works of Jean Charlot.

View more Limited Edition Club posts.

View more Milestone Monday posts.

[nativenewyorkerposts]

“I go running when I have to.  Like when the ice cream truck is doing sixty...” (Wendy Liebman, American comedian)  No exercise was required on Governors Island:)  Ice cream also appears in this quote about mental exertion: “My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate.” (Thornton Wilder, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and novelist)  (Photo taken on May 8, 2018)

[atowndailynews]

Templeton Drama to present 'Our Town'

Templeton Drama to present ‘Our Town’

Our Town explores topics of life, love, and the human spirit – Templeton High School Theatre Arts will present Our Town, a powerful play by renowned American playwright Thornton Wilder that “uses small-town life to convey the universal truth that we take life for granted, never recognizing the importance of small moments until it’s too late.” Performances are at the Templeton Performing Arts…

[sgcruz21-blog]

'Our Town' opens at The Classic Theatre on Friday March 20

‘Our Town’ opens at The Classic Theatre on Friday March 20

Adam Ochoa and Alyx Irene Gonzales in The Classic Theatre’s production of ‘Our Town.’ Photo: Siggi Ragnar, used with permission.

The next production at The Classic Theatreof San Antonio, ‘Our Town,’ opens on Friday March 20. A three act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Written by Thornton Wilder and directed by Mark Stringham ‘Our Town’ will run…

[madtownshakedown]

Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes—for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey, and for the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth — and a U.S. National Book Award for the novel The Eighth Day.

Born: April 17, 1897, Madison, WI