Commemorative Pages

The Thornton Wilder Society pages and microsites listed below are collected here in order to recall and show respect for these exciting events. Click the link at the end of the description to visit the page or microsite for additional information.

Third International Thornton Wilder Conference

July 12-14, 2018 in Peterborough, New Hampshire, the Third International Thornton Wilder conference will feature paper panels, roundtable discussions, presentations, readings, and social events featuring leading academics and theatre practitioners from countries around the world. The Peterborough Players will perform Wilder’s other Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Skin of Our Teeth, and there will be a walking tour of Wilder-related sites in Peterborough, and a bus tour to The MacDowell Colony, which Wilder frequented, including when he was working on Our Town. Visit the Third International Thornton Wilder Conference microsite to learn more.

Second International Thornton Wilder Conference

This study of Thornton Wilder and his works was held from June 11-13, 2015 in Newport, Rhode Island. The conference featured more than 20 presentations, round table conversations, panel discussions, readings, and social events featuring leading academics, practitioners, and professionals from countries including France, China, Iran, Italy, Switzerland, and the United States. For additional information, visit the Second International Thornton Wilder Conference microsite.
 

Thornton Wilder: New Perspectives

Released in 2013, the twenty essays in Thornton Wilder: New Perspectives touch on universal themes in a wide variety of Wilder’s works, both famous and lesser-known. All but one of these essays began as papers presented at the 2008 International Wilder Conference and have since been expanded and revised better to support their claims. Visit the Thornton Wilder: New Perspectives page to learn more.
 

Our Town 75 Anniversary

2013 marked the 75th Anniversary of Our Town! In 1938, after one performance in Princeton and a week’s run in Boston, Our Town opened on Broadway on February 4. Later that spring, the play brought Wilder his second Pulitzer Prize.

Seventy five years later, Our Town is still considered one of the great American plays, and not a night goes by that it is not performed somewhere in the United States or Canada. Visit the Our Town 75 Anniversary page to learn more.
 

First International Thornton Wilder Conference

The First International Thornton Wilder Conference, “Wilder in the Twenty-First Century,” was held in October 2008 at The College of New Jersey.

For those interested in learning about the panels, papers, and presenters, read on for a detailed schedule of events as well as brief biographies of conference participants. Visit the First International Thornton Wilder Conference page.