Our Town

Our Town
1938 first edition cover from the Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division
Written by	Thornton Wilder
Characters	Stage Manager Mrs. Myrtle Webb Mr. Charles Webb Emily Webb Joe Crowell Jr. Mrs. Julia Gibbs Dr. Frank F. Gibbs Simon Stimson Mrs. Soames George Gibbs Howie Newsome Rebecca Gibbs Wally Webb Professor Willard Woman in the Balcony Man in the Auditorium Lady in the Box Constable Warren Si Crowell Three Baseball Players Sam Craig Joe Stoddard
Date premiered	January 22, 1938
Place premiered	McCarter Theatre Princeton, New Jersey
Original language	English
Subject	Life and death in an American small town
Genre	Drama
Setting	1901 to 1913. Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, near Massachusetts.

Our Town is a three-act play written by American playwright Thornton Wilder in 1938. Described by Edward Albee as "the greatest American play ever written",^[1] it presents the fictional American town of Grover's Corners between 1901 and 1913 through the everyday lives of its citizens.

Wilder uses metatheatrical devices, setting the play in the actual theatre where it is being performed. The main character is the stage manager of the theatre who directly addresses the audience, brings in guest lecturers, fields questions from the audience, and fills in playing some of the roles. The play is performed without a set on a mostly bare stage. With a few exceptions, the actors mime actions without the use of props.

The first performance of Our Town was at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, on January 22, 1938.^[2] It went on to success on Broadway and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and remains popular today with frequent revivals.