Our Town Portrait Gallery

the Stage Manager

We are looking at a recent, awesome Our Town, David Cromer’s 2008-2015 production, to give us insights into making an awesome Our Town every single time.

The recent, awesome Our Town that gave David Cromer insights into making his version was that 1988 Broadway production directed by Gregory Mosher (that you can watch on youtube).

It had the “dryness of tone” that Thornton Wilder asks for in the preface to the play. Or, actually, just the Stage Manager/narrator character, played by Spalding Gray, had that dryness of tone. All of the other actors, you will recognize all of their famous faces, were full of emotion. Mr. Webb practically winks into the camera when he makes a joke. Dr. Gibbs has a small smile on his face in every interaction and displays plenty of unsightly annoyance at his wife’s social life. The teens are full of yells, and tears, and fears. Even the dead characters get flustered while reclining in their graves!

Really, it is just the Stage Manager, the one directing ever…