Preview of Our TownRaleigh Little Theatre Preview A masterpiece of modern drama by Thornton Wilder, Raleigh Little Theatre will present Our Town, a groundbreaking masterpiece of Modern Drama by Madison, WI-born playwright Thornton Wilder (1897-1975), on April 9-11, 15-18, and 22-25 in its Cantey V. Sutton Theatre in west Raleigh, NC. A three-act play set in the fictional small town of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, circa 1901-13, Our Town celebrates what a wonderful gift life is in a series of vivid vignettes introduced and narrated by a Stage manager (played for RLT by Chris Brown). The play's divisions are "Act I: Daily Life," "Act II: Love and Marriage," and "Act III: Death and Eternity"; and Wilder elevates a typical boy-marries-the-girl-nextdoor story into a transcendent tale that still resonates with audiences 72 years after its January 1938 premiere at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, NJ. Our Town'S Broadway-debut production won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. "I probably saw Our Town for the first time when I was a preteen in Chapel Hill," reckons long-time RLT artistic director Haskell Fitz-Simons. "The first time that I really know that I saw it, I was in a Carolina Playmakers production of Our Town -- that's Carolina Playmakers as opposed to PlayMakers Rep. Those who were at UNC-Chapel Hill then make the distinction. I think I played the Second Dead Man, because that's the line that pops out at me," he chuckles. Fitz-Simons adds, "I have always wanted to direct Our Town at Raleigh Little Theatre, but they've never let me do it before this production." Our Town tells its story simply, but powerfully, with nary a word wasted, Fitz-Simons says. He claims, "The play was quite revolutionary in its day, with its nonlinear storytelling and minimalistic sets. "Originally," Fitz-Simons notes, "Our Town was done on a bare stage, with chairs and a ladder or two. Unfortunately, our stage won't go bare anymore. So, we have a scenic frame for it. We're still treating it very minimalistically. We just don't have a brick back wall anymore. We have gone to a great deal of trouble to achieve minimalism," he quips. Fitz-Simons adds, "I have always been a HUGE Thornton Wilder fan. Our Town is ... changed everything. Interestingly enough, when we finally able to do it, we weren't able to get the rights [right away], because it was being done Off Broadway. I thought how good can [that production] be. So, I went up and saw it; and it was very good indeed. "That [2009 Off-Broadway] production ran longer than the original production in New York, which I think is kind of amazing," says Fitz-Simons. "I think that speaks to the play's accessibility to modern audiences. There's a misapprehension that Our Town is overdone, and we've all seen it too many times. But Raleigh Little Theatre hasn't done it since 1945...." He adds, "People LOVE this play. We had close to 100 people audition for Our Town, which is amazing. Most of them didn't care what role they got, which is also amazing." Besides Chris Brown as the Stage Manager, the RLT cast includes Steven Herd as young George Gibbs and Allison Powell as girl-nextdoor Emily Webb; Jackson Prather and Debra Zumbach Grannan as George's parents doctor Frank and Julia Gibbs; Timothy Cherry and Jo Brown as Emily's parents newspaperman Charles and Myrtle Webb; Brent Wilson as alcoholic choirmaster Simon Stimson; Krystyn Wells as Mrs. Louella Soames; Alec Shull as Joe Crowell, Jr.; Brian Gill as Howie Newsome; Alyssa Petrone as Rebecca Gibbs; Christian McNally as Wally Webb; Randy Jordan as Professor Willard; Jake Ferrell as Constable Warren; Lee King as Si Crowell; David Corlett as Sam Craig; and Shawn Smith as Joe Stoddard. Other Grover's Corners citizens will be portrayed by Rebecca Leonard, Ashley Morris, Timothy Locklear, Lee King, and Michelle Evans. Haskell Fitz-Simons claims, "Our Town is way more character-driven than it is plot driven. The plot is birth, life, and death. It's epic that way." In addition to director Haskell Fitz-Simons, who doubles as sound designer for Our Town, the show's creative team includes assistant director Rose Higgins, technical director Jim Zervas, set designer and lighting designer Rick Young, costume designer Vicki Olson, properties manager Ann-Marie Crossman, and stage manager Dan Eckert. Although the scenery for Our Town is minimalistic, Haskell Fitz-Simons says, the costumes are not. He adds, "The costumes are challenges in their own right. The era is 1901 to 1913. Those are very specific dates given by the playwright.... While the costumes are not minimalistic, they have the silhouette and they have the details and they're gorgeous.... It's a challenge to costume the characters believably and beautifully within a literal timeline." Fitz-Simons adds, "Our Town is a gorgeous show, it's wonderful, and we have a tremendous ensemble. They play nicely with others, and don't run with scissors, and all of those things." Raleigh Little Theatre presents Our Town at 8 p.m. April 9-10, 3 p.m. April 11, 8 p.m. April 15-17 and 22-24, and 3 p.m. April 18 and 25 in RLT's Cantey V. Sutton Theatre, 301 Pogue St., Raleigh, North Carolina 27607. TICKETS: $18 ($15 students and seniors 62+), except all seats $10 on April 11th. BOX OFFICE: 919/821-3111 or http://www.etix.com/. SHOW: http://raleighlittletheatre.org/performances/09-10/ourtown.html. STUDY GUIDE: http://www.bard.org/education/studyguides/ourtown/index.html (Utah Shakespearean Festival). PRESENTER/VENUE: http://raleighlittletheatre.org/. PARKING/DIRECTIONS: http://raleighlittletheatre.org/about/parking.html. NOTE: All shows are wheelchair accessible, and assistive-listening devices are available for all shows. OTHER LINKS: The Play: http://www.ibdb.com/show.php?ID=6845 (Internet Broadway Database). The Playwright: http://www.tcnj.edu/~wilder/biography/frame.html (Thornton Wilder Society) and http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=8887 (Internet Broadway Database). WHAT: The TRIANGLE THEATER REVIEW is a FREE weekly e-mail theatrical newsletter, featuring previews and reviews by Robert W. McDowell and reviews by Alan R. Hall and others. (For brief bios of our critics, see the CVNC biographies page.) Classical Voice of North Carolina, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and this state's leading performing-arts platform, not only pays our reviewers but also makes continued publication of TTR possible. The online versions of our critics' theater reviews are now listed on the CVNC Reviews page. CVNC also publishes a comprehensive list of Triangle Theatre Openings. 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