Batavia High School presents "Our Town" Feb. 5-7
Batavia High School presents Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," one of the most classic plays in the history of theater, with a contemporary spin that emphasizes the timelessness of both the characters in the play and the human experience those characters represent.
Directed by Joshua Casburn, performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5 to Saturday, Feb. 7, with a matinee at 2 p.m. Feb. 7.
This powerful play, which is famous for its simplistic set and open recognition of itself as a play, will be performed in the Black Box Theatre at the Batavia Fine Arts Centre, 1201 Main St. Use the Wilson Street entrance.
Tickets are available online at www.BataviaFineArtsCentre.org and at the box office at (630) 937-8930.
General admission tickets are $12 online or $14 by phone and at the box office.
This thought-provoking play, set in the fictional town of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, introduces characters that at first seem like simple, everyday people, but, as the play progresses, come to represent the importance of appreciating the basics of life and the value of companionship.
Guided by omnipotent narrators (called Stage Managers), played by juniors Sarah Heylmun and John Hohman, the play follows two families, the Gibbs family and the Webb family, set at the turn of the 20th century, as they live everyday lives, seek love and marriage, and deal with profound, but unavoidable loss.
Wilder places particular focus on George Gibbs (played by junior Mikkel Knutson) as he grows up with and courts impressionable and idealistic Emily Webb (junior Meghan Rocha). We see the experiences that shape George as he is raised by his father (senior Aidan Descourouez) and mother (senior Molly Frederick) in what might deceptively seem like a simpler time. The character of Emily also learns to cope with an ever-changing world thanks to the influence of her father and mother (played by sophomore Cam Tucker and senior Ally O'Donnell, respectively). Indeed, it is Emily's final, moving transition to a new world through self-realization which draws the audience in toward the end of the play.
Like George and Emily, the townspeople who fill the play demand their own kind of quiet dignity, including Constable Warren (junior Joe Guritz), Harriet Newsome the milk maid (sophomore Maggie Cerveny), the town gossips (junior Jamie VandenOever and sophomore Tori McKeehan), the undertaker (senior James Wolff), and many more. By introducing the mysterious choir director, Simon Stimson, who uses alcohol to cope with the alienation and despair (played by senior Michael Gustin), Wilder seems to be recognizing that not all who live the small town life belong there.
As they prepare to produce this play, they have learned the lesson that, thematically, Batavia, Illinois, isn't too far off from Wilder's Grover's Corners. Though much time has passed from both the setting and the date that the play was written (first produced in 1938), very little has changed in our desire to connect with others in a meaningful way and the belief that there is an innate human dignity in even the most casual acquaintance.
While the first act recognizes how even our everyday life is special, and the second act demonstrates the risky power of love, the final act, set in the graveyard and populated by the spirits of the dead, commemorates the beauty of the individual moments in a person's life.
The experience that the Batavia High School students hope to create for the audience can be summed up in a line toward the end of the show. "My," says one of the dead as she looks back on the moments of her life, "wasn't life awful - and wonderful."