It's 10:28, Thursday night, and I've been home for about 10 minutes after a very successful final dress rehearsal for the St. Michael's Players' production of "Our Town." Over the last two days the show has really taken shape. All the raw ingredients had been assembled, but we really began cooking with them, and the results have been stunning.
How stunning? Tonight, in the final scene, our George, Daniel Renaud, who had minimal acting experience when he signed on to do "Our Town" cried real tears on stage. It was powerful.
The challenge of the past week - with rehearsals now five nights in a row, and really intense - has been astounding. I've enjoyed the mental aspect of it - remembering lines and blocking, moving past working from memory to begin really acting, adding costumes, props and and tech cues into the mix, working out new problems that arise. It seems as if there's always one more thing to think about just when you've got it all down.
And you know what, we're rising to it and really building something worth seeing.
"Our Town" is a surprising kind of masterpiece - and one that saves its very forceful impact for the final act. If you haven't seen it (or haven't seen it in a while) do yourself a favor and come see our production. It's one of those plays, I think, that's iconic and well known in a vague sort of way, but that few people have actually seen. There's a lot to Thornton Wilder's great play, and it delivers some wisdom about life that really is worth hearing.
And there's value in community theater, too. No, we're not going to win any Tony Awards, and nobody's going to pick up our option to extend the run. Come Monday, we all go back to our former lives - but they will be changed, if only a bit, for having done "Our Town." There's intrinsic value in seeing ones friends and neighbors bring this play - and any play - to life. Live theater is not television, and it's not the movies, and it's not an iPhone. It's great words and great drama brought to life in the moment. There is a connection between the performers and the audience. When you're there watching and we're there performing, we're all doing something together. It's an experience that is special, unique to the moment and akin to all the other things we do together - live, work, play, marry, die, etc.
"Our Town" is an especially good experience because so much of its subject matter deals directly with this notion of live theater.
It's also something very traditional in New England communities. I just read a book about Vermont life in small towns in the 1930s, true stories, and there were a lot of references to folks acting in and watching local theater - in part to pass the time, but I think there's something else to it, too. It's just plain better to bring "Our Town" to life than not to. All those scripts we used, could have just sat there in some warehouse, unused. Instead, they're the blueprint for what we're doing.
Between that, and our own hearts and souls, sweat, mental and physical imagery, willingness to slay our fears and just plain eagerness to join together, befriend and care for each other and make a play, something wonderful is taking place.
It's marvelous alchemy, indeed.
"Our Town" plays at St. Michael's School on Walnut Street in Brattleboro on Friday and Saturday, April 24 and 25, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, April 26, at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at the door, and proceeds benefit the school.