Performances

Past Events

Performance: The Matchmaker

March 25, 2015 until April 4, 2015, Temple University Theater, Philadelphia, PA

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With mistaken identities, near-misses, and a wild romp through late 19th century New York, The Matchmaker proves that sometimes money can buy happiness.

The production’s director, Doug Wager, is Artistic Director at Temple University, and Associate Dean of the Division of Theater, Film, and Media Arts. For more than twenty years he worked with Arena Stage in Washington, DC and succeeded Zelda Fichandler as the Artistic Director from 1990-1998. During that time he staged the three major Wilder plays: Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, and The Matchmaker.

For more information, please visit the theater productions page on the Temple University website, and scroll down to their section on The Matchmaker.

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Performance: Pullman Car Hiawatha

March 10, 2015 until March 26, 2015, Sergio Magaña Theater, México, D.F., Mexico

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From Mexico’s National Public University to Mexico City’s Sergio Magaña Theater, this production has had an incredible journey.

In this one-act play, set in a Pullman car on a train traveling from New York to Chicago in December, 1930, conventional time is suspended, and the only true measures of existence are life and death. Pullman Car Hiawatha takes us on a metaphorical journey by train through the American landscape, a diverse band of travelers encapsulated in a Pullman car hurtle through time, space and a range of emotions.

As reported by thorntonwilder.com, the production began in May 2014 as part of a final exam project for an Artistic Creation Workshop (“Taller Integral de Creación Artística”) at the UNAM (Mexico’s National Public University). The actors study Dramatic Literature and Theater at the University and “found in Wilder’s ‘Hiawatha’ the opportunity to grow into the professional life in Mexico’s theater.” After a highly successful four-day run, their production was given an extended run in fall 2014, to give more individuals at the University the opportunity to attend.

Since then, their production has received one of the most important awards in the National University:”IX Premio Lech Hellwig-Górzynski a la creación escénica teatral 2014″

The company was recently invited to present Pullman Car Hiawatha in a professional Theatre in Mexico City. Abigail Sánchez writes, “Now in 2015 is our opportunity to leave the school behind, and give the Mexican audience the opportunity to watch a play by one of the most important playwrights in the history of the US and the Contemporary World.”

Production Information

Sergio Magaña Theater (Teatro Sergio Magaña)
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz 114,
Santa María La Ribera, Cuauhtémoc, 06400 Ciudad de México, D.F., Mexico

From March 10 to March 26
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 8:00pm.
$ 127 GENERAL
% 50 Students, teachers and INAPAM, with valid ID.

For additional information, visit the production’s official Facebook page or its page on the Mexico City Theaters website. Please note that these pages are presented in Spanish. You may also view the Mexico City Theaters website in English.

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Performance: The Long Christmas Dinner, Play and Opera

December 19, 2014, Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, New York, NY

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Before his Pulitzer Prize-winning full-length plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, Thornton Wilder wrote three one-acts that used most of the same experimental techniques (e.g., a stage manager character speaking directly to the audience, a bare stage, pantomime rather than handling realistic props) made famous in his later plays. One of those one-act plays, The Long Christmas Dinner, was adapted into an opera by composer Paul Hindemith with libretto by Wilder. On December 19th, the American Symphony Orchestra will offer a rare performance of both the one-act play and the opera at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, New York City. Tickets go on sale to non-season ticket holders on September 2nd. For more information visit the American Symphony Orchestra website.

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Reading and Panel: The Alcestiad and The Drunken Sisters

May 19, 2014
Reading: Playwrights Horizons Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, 416 West 42nd Street, NYC
Panel: Samuel French, Inc., 235 Park Ave S, 5th Floor, NYC

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Join us for a special evening of events dedicated to Wilder’s The Alcestiad and The Drunken Sisters.

The Alcestiad and The Drunken Sisters Reading
On Monday, May 19th, award-winning New York City-based Red Bull Theater will present a reading of Thornton Wilder’s The Alcestiad and its accompanying satyr play, The Drunken Sisters, directed by Wendy C. Goldberg with Michael Cerveris, Maryann Plunkett, and Jay O. Sanders. The reading will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Playwrights Horizons Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, 416 West 42nd Street, NYC. To purchase tickets and for more information, please visit the Red Bull Theater website.

The Alcestiad Panel
Prior to the reading, please join us at 4pm for a reception and lively discussion of The Alcestiad: Death & Immortality, Romance & Revenge in Thornton Wilder’s Ageless Classical Play. Distinguished guests include Tappan Wilder (Thornton Wilder’s nephew and literary executor); Professors of Classics Judith Hallett (University of Maryland, College Park), Mary English (Montclair State University) and Thomas Buck (University at Buffalo, State University of New York); and Mark Bly (Adjunct Professor of Playwriting Fordham/ Primary Stages MFA Program and At Large Member Board of Directors National New Play Network). This event is free, but reservations are requested. Please contact the Thornton Wilder Society at wilder@tcnj.edu to request your reservation. Hosted by Samuel French, Inc. (235 Park Ave S, 5th Floor, NYC).

Background
The Alcestiad premiered (as A Life in the Sun) at the Edinburgh Festival, Scotland, 22 August 1955, directed by Tyrone Guthrie, but never had a New York production. It was posthumously published in 1977. Written in the tradition of early Greek tragedies (specifically, Aeschylus’s trilogy The Oresteia), The Alcestiad tells the story of Admetus, King of Thessaly, his wife Alcestis, and the triumphs and tragedies they endure as favorites of the god Apollo. The extent of Apollo’s involvement in their marriage is further explored in Wilder’s accompanying satyr play, The Drunken Sisters. In addition to Alcestis and Admetus, characters include Apollo, Death, Hercules, and the Three Fates.

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Performance: Our Town, the Ballet

May 2, 2014, Crossroads Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ

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American Repertory Ballet presents Our Town, the ballet, as part of New Brunswick’s Hub City Our Town celebration. Set to the majestic music of Aaron Copland, Our Town is a ballet by Philip Jerry based on Thornton Wilder’s classic tale of love, loss and modern life.

The ballet “remains faithful to its source while translating it into vivid impressionistic physical terms.” – Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times

To purchase tickets and for more information, please visit the American Repertory Ballet website.

On Friday, May 2 at 7:00pm at Crossroads Theatre, American Repertory Ballet will present Philip Jerry’s Our Town as part of the Hub City Our Town celebration of arts and community in New Brunswick. The Hub City Our Town festival is a collaboration between the New Brunswick Cultural Center, George Street Playhouse, and six other New Brunswick arts organizations, including ARB.

Philip Jerry’s Our Town is a ballet set to the majestic music of Aaron Copland and based on Thornton Wilder’s classic play. Like Wilder’s play, the ballet chronicles the lives of neighbors Emily Webb and George Gibbs as they grow up together in a small New England town, fall in love, and eventually marry. Philip Jerry choreographed Our Town for American Repertory Ballet in 1994. The company premiered the ballet at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, where Wilder’s play also received its premiere in 1938. ARB revived the ballet in 2011 and has since presented it as a part of its Access & Enrichment School Time Matinee and Assembly programs.

Robert Johnson of The Star-Ledger says of the ballet: “Like a pair of lovers gazing into each other’s eyes, for whom the rest of the world ceases to exist, Our Town focuses inward. With its spare set pieces of black umbrellas, ladders and folding chairs, the ballet dwells on essentials, and on ‘what really matters’— the emotional bonds that grow as Emily Webb and the boy next door, George Gibbs, experience first love, marry and have children.” Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times remarks that the ballet “remains faithful to its source while translating it into vivid impressionistic physical terms.”

Following ARB’s performance of Our Town at Crossroads Theatre on May 2 at 7:00pm, George Street Playhouse will present their production of Thornton Wilder’s play next door at 8:00pm. George Street Playhouse will present Thornton Wilder’s Our Town April 22 through May 25.

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Performance: Our Town

April 24, 2014 until May 11, 2014, Bangor Opera House, Bangor, ME

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Penobscot Theatre Company is proud to produce Our Town for the time, featuring an original score and soundscape by Maine musician Jacob Augustine, played live at every performance, and starring Brendan Powers, Monica Willey, and Jordan Lorenz.

This beloved tale follows young lovers George and Emily, whose lives in a small New England town become a microcosm of everyday life. The wisdom of the play, rendered through a deceptively simple story, makes Our Town an enduring treasure of the American theatre.

Visit the Penobscot Theatre Company website for more information.

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Performance: Our Town

April 22, 2014 until May 25, 2014, George Street Playhouse, New Brunswick, NJ

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The inaugural production of a landmark theatrical partnership between Mason Gross School of the Arts and George Street Playhouse, in which a cast of twenty-four – both professional actors and graduating superstars of one of the country’s most revered masters degree programs – will bring to life Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play on the George Street Playhouse stage. Award-winning Broadway director (Broadway’s Driving Miss Daisy and The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?) and Chair of the Mason Gross School of the Arts Department of Theatre, David Esbjornson will helm this history-making production of a true American classic.

Visit the George Street Playhouse website for more information

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Performance: Our Town

March 14, 2014 until March 23, 2014, Moonstruck Theater Company, Framingham, MA

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Set in the fictional New England small town of Grover’s Corners, Our Town tells the story of an average town’s citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives, living, loving, and dreaming. Our Town won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Visit the Moonstruck Theater Company website for more information.

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