Following last year’s Shakespeare Twelfth Night  and  spring musical Curtains,  the fall play, classic American drama Our Town, will be a challenge for staging and acting.

Opening night for the show will be Thursday, November 13th at 7:00 pm. There will be another 7:00 p.m. showing Friday, shows at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm on Saturday, and Sunday at 2:00 pm. Tickets will be available for order in October.

Our Town, set in the early 20th century, was written in 1938 by American playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder.  The drama takes place in three acts, all about the main three stages of the every human’s life. Act One is about Daily Life, Act Two expanding on Love and Marriage, and finally Act Three concluding with Death and/or Loss.

Our Town tells the story of a small New Hampshire town known as Grover’s Corners. The show is performed without a set, and the characters act out everything with minimal or no props.

“When the show first opened, it turned American theater on its head as it was one of the very first shows to start with the curtain open with an exposed, bare stage. This invited the audience to focus on the story, which is the point of the show. It is about the people of the town and their story. Who they are, and how they live,” said Mr. Julian Lazarus, drama teacher.

The Stage Manager is a real character in the play and the narrator of the story. Junior Abbie Weinel has been cast in that role.

“The Stage Manager brings the town together and gives the show life,” Weinel said.

The cast was posted shortly after September auditions.  “Auditions are always a funny thing,” says Lazarus, “The final show never looks like the audition.”

Junior Jacob Moorman, is George Gibbs, a young boy who is struggling to choose between going to college and his love for Emily.  He experiences the typical pull of guy friends and baseball against girlfriends and dating.

Senior Dee Dee Dolan is Emily Webb.  The character is unsure of herself and her beauty and worries that she is too smart.  What are the opportunities for young women at this time?

“She’s a smart girl and could certainly go to college, but she ends up settling for living in her hometown with a husband and kids,” Dolan said.  “She could really do just about anything.”

The entire goal of rehearsal over time is, of course, to move from practically reading off the script, to glancing, to using no script at all.

The rehearsal phase is “busy, hectic, and electric,” said Lazarus.

The three assistant directors are Riley Bruning, Erik Chapman and Dillon Mitcham.

“We’re the three mini ‘Norkos’ and ‘Laz-es’,” Bruning said.

In process of the show, “Each minute is, of course, crucial,” said Mr. Damon Norko, the play’s director, “Pacing can be slow or fast; the main thing is that the audience doesn’t perceive time passage at all.”

Since Our Town is a play all about characterizations and focusing on performers, it will also have a difference in special effects.  “Our Town will be using a live Foley sound effect table actually on stage during the show.” said Lazarus. Foley sound effects are similar to what were used to make the sound effects for cartoons years ago. The sounds come from the swishing of clothing or breaking some glass to the side of the live show to create a sound effect that is actually real and not coming from a speaker.

“The play has been around for quite a while and was performed once at LHS and was very popular,” says Norko. “Because it’s set in a small rural town, it seems to strike a chord with our audience.”

To wrap up production, the entire cast and crew does Tech Week for the last running week of production before the showings, and everyone is at school until later hours running through the entire show non-stop to make sure everything and everyone is ready for opening night.

“The week before the show is by far the most stressful,” claims Norko. “It’s amazing how the company really pulls together as most kids are at school until 8:30 pm finishing the set, light cues, sound cues and dress rehearsals. It’s long hours and a real physical test — but it mirrors the ‘real world’ of live theater and film production, which is precisely what LHS drama intends. Honestly, if an actor or a tech person can make it through our entire production schedule including tech week, they can then probably make it through just about anything.”

“We are a big family with a common purpose of putting on the best show we can,” said Lazarus, “There are always jobs that need to be done. If someone wants to get involved they just need to be dependable and willing to try new things.”

Norko said, “Our Town is a serious play that contains several absolutely charming comedic moments.  One of those ‘You will laugh/you will cry’ type of things.”

Lancer Media published the cast list in early September.