Ford’s Theatre Presents “Our Town,” 75th Anniversary Production

The Ford’s Theatre 2012-13 season continues with a 75th-anniversary year production of Thornton Wilder’s treasured American drama “Our Town”, directed by Stephen Rayne, January 25 through February 24, 2013.

Don’t remember this one from High School required reading?  Here’s the gist: It’s about an average town’s citizens as depicted through their everyday lives.  Teenagers George and Emily meet, fall in love, marry—and suffer the daily digs of being. But what might be just an ordinary story becomes a captivating exploration of mortality and individuals’ interconnectivity.

“‘Our Town’ is a play which transcends differences in culture, class and race, and speaks to the great themes common to all great art: love, death and marriage,” says Rayne.

“From its first production in 1938, the play struck a powerful chord with the American psyche, and it is as fresh and relevant today as it was then.”  A part of this fresh factor comes from Portia‘s (screen credits to include CSI, Hart of Dixie, Law & Order and 30 Rock) casting as the iconic Stage Manager, who breaks through the fourth wall and intimately addresses the audience as both curator and confidante.

*Other Ford’s Theatre programs in conjunction with the 75th anniversary performance include a pre-performance seminar with author Penelope Niven and Thornton Wilder’s nephew (and literary executor) Tappan Wilder as well as a FREE special celebration of the play’s Broadway opening to include the presentation of The Thornton Wilder Society’s “Thornton Wilder Prize.”