In 2008 I directed a production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town.
These are my director's notes from the program.

"No curtain. No scenery."

These four opening words in the stage directions for Our Town by Thornton Wilder tell you that something different is coming.

Our Town is a radical play.

When first produced in 1938 it broke many long-respected dramatic conventions.
By shifting time and place at the wave of a hand; by allowing characters to talk openly and directly to the audience; by eschewing complex sets & scenery and by allowing the audience's imagination full rein to create the world of small town America, Our Town threw the theatre critics for a loop. And audiences loved it.

These things; breaking the fourth wall - time shifting to tell a character's back story, and so on, are so much a part of our visual media today, television and movies, that we can't imagine a day when plays and books and films were all linear. Who could create a TV show like Lost without flashbacks? Who could imagine Boston Legal or Arrested Development without characters who speak directly to the viewer?

So I have taken Mr. Wilder's affinity to breaking with convention as an invitation to do so ourselves.

If you have seen Our Town before, you will know that as written, the play calls for a single narrator - a man - called "The Stage Manager". His role in many ways harkens back to the ancient Greek chorus - intended to help set the scene and move the narrative along. But this leaves the Stage Manager outside of the world and robs him of any serious dramatic conflict.

So instead, in homage to the Greek chorus that spawned him, for our production this single male character has been multiplied and expanded into a trio of women - the Maid, the Mother and the Crone, who, like the mythical Norns watch over humanity - and spin, measure and cut the threads of Fate. This trio opens a doorway in the play to conflict, humour and drama.

Similarly, I have ignored Mr. Wilder's admonition to downplay the humour. For the Third Act to achieve its fullest impact, I believe that we as an audience must come to love these families. And shared laughter is the first step to love.