"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?"
Issue 26: Our Town
Hello Friend,
In his timeless theatrical masterwork, Our Town, Thornton Wilder inspires us to marvel in the everyday and savor the preciousness of our finite time together. Now in the height of summer, even when the days may feel endless, I hope we can take a cue from Mr. Wilder to pause, to notice, and to swim in our moments with appreciation and wonder.
Cheers,
Marcie Bramucci,
Director of Community Investment
Inside Thornton Wilder's Our Town
We round out the 2018-19 season with an iconic American classic. At the turn of the 20th century, the town of Grover’s Corners unfolds in the care of returning troubadour David Lutken (Woody Sez: The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie) as the “Stage Manager,” under the direction of Abigail Adams.
The village of makers for this production features 20+ cast members, including People’s Light company members Nadira Beard, Peter DeLaurier, Melanye Finister, Claire Inie-Richards, Andrew Kane, Teri Lamm, Mark Lazar, and Graham Smith; along with returning guest artists Benjamin Brown, Michael Hicks, and New Voices alumni member Alayna Todd. Zach Curvan, Christopher Eastland, Eliana Abike Fabiyi, Alexander Hamel, Lily Lexer, J. Paul Nicholas, Josh Olumide, Caleb Ward make their People’s Light debuts.
The Our Town family.
Luke Cantarella returns for set design, along with Marla J. Jurglanis for costumes, Dennis Parichy for lighting; and resident Sound Engineer Brent Hoyer designs sound. Cast members David M. Lutken and Michael Hicks double as Music Director and Music Supervisor, respectively. Erin Sheffield choreographs and Gina Pisasale dramaturgs the production. Company member Audrey M. Brown returns as stage manager, assisted by Elizabeth Hicks.
With this production, we also welcome a robust ensemble of individuals (pictured below) to comprise our Community Choir, 4 members of which take the stage each performance to augment the Grover’s Corners Choir.
Our Town Community Choir
Surrounding Our Town
We invite you to check out these opportunities to discuss and engage more fully with the production.
Get the Scoop
At 6pm before each Wednesday evening performance (excluding previews) Resident Dramaturg Gina Pisasale hosts an artist from the production for Scoop, a casual conversation with fellow theatre-lovers.
Meet an artist from the production, enjoy light snacks, and get a behind-the-scenes look into the making of this production while discussing the background of the play. You can call 610.644.3500 to add Scoop to your tickets, or purchase separately online for just $5.
Wednesdays August 7, 14, & 21
Hootenannies
Kick up your heels and sing along at a musical hootenanny in place of our usual AfterWORDS. Sit back and enjoy the music, or BYOI (bring-your-own-instrument) and join in!
Thursdays August 8, 15, & 22
Will be hosted under our outdoor tent, weather permitting.
Backyard BBQ
Celebrate the summer with friends, live music, and food trucks! This free event takes place behind the Leonard C. Haas Stage, where you can also catch the 7:30pm performance of Our Town with a separate theatre ticket.**
Featuring the musical stylings of frequent guest artist David Lutken, followed by a set from Lucky Brown with Company Member Susan McKey on lead vocals.
Friday, August 16, 5:30pm-8:30pm
**Our Town tickets are not necessary for admission to the Backyard BBQ.
More Access
People's Light is wheelchair accessible, service animal-friendly, and we offer assistive listening devices and large print programs at every performance.
Paul Meshejian and his fellow PlayPenn’ers celebrate fifteen years of new play development, exploration, and incubation here in our fair city of Brotherly Love with this year’s Annual Conference. Catch a reading or all eight – including Steve Broadnax III’s (Mud Row) direction of Incendiary by Phila-native, Dave Harris (7/27) – now through the end of the month.
Catch Carla Belver as she falls in love (on the interwebs!), in the delightfully fun rom-com, Kalamazoo at Act II Playhouse until 8/4.
On DeSales’ campus, the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival is in full swing. PSF’s signature Shakespeare for Kids play takes on Macbeth in a script penned by Erin Sheffield, infused with music by Andrew Kane. Performances through 8/3, with a dedicated relaxed performance on 7/31 at 2pm.
Meanwhile, Christopher Patrick Mullen returns to his PSF stomping grounds (having recently closed The Mystery of Irma Vep A Penny Dreadful) to pivot into Henry IV, Part 1 (7/24 – 8/4).
Mary Elizabeth Scallen prepares to lead a Communications Skills workshop for medical professionals at FAIMER, an international medical education foundation in West Philly.
Next week, Susan McKey heads up Youth SummerBLAST at People’s Light for ages 10-13. We will host an informal sharing of their creative work on 8/9 at 5:00 pm. Email our Director of Education & Civic Practice, Kathryn Moroney, for details or to RSVP.
Tom Teti reprises his role as Football Hall of Famer Tommy McDonald in Theatre Exile’s Tommy & Me at FringeArts, 8/9-8/25.
Catch this lovely interview with Aubie Merrylees about his Broadway debut in To Kill a Mockingbird, currently running.
LiveConnections co-founders David Bradley and People’s Light Honorary Board Chair Hal Real are at it again having produced their 4th album WAKE UP EVERYBODY, featuring 21 original songs by students from Philly’s Hill-Freedman World Academy. It’s the culmination of a year-long artist residency, inspired by listening to iconic Philly label Philadelphia International Records. Stream it here and check out an interview with David and his co-creators here.
Marcia Saunders and Tom Teti play opposite one another in Bruce Graham’s portrait of aging in The Outgoing Tide at Montgomery Theater, 9/12-10/6.
Dominique Morisseau’s acclaimed Mud Row is now extended
through 8/4. Use your subscriber discount for tickets, or utilize the power of "Seat Repeat" to see it again!
“People’s Light is giving Mud
Row the classy world-premiere production it deserves.”
—WHYY
“Immaculate direction... Morisseau gives exquisite voice to four women… and by
doing so, an entire community sings.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer
Patron responses:
“Magnificent—I’ve been a subscriber for decades, and this was something special.”
“The most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve lived in West Chester my whole life, and I didn’t know about any of this. I am so glad you are telling this story.”
“I laughed, I cried, and now I need to go call my sister.”
Read more about the six-year development process of this play here.
Historian and West Chester-native Miss Penny Washington has led artists and guests of People’s Light on a walking tour of West Chester’s East End on several occasions. The most recent tour included West Chester Mayor Dianne Herrin and Richard May of West Chester LLC, as well as Daily Local reporter Bill Rettew, who captured the journey in this piece.
Hot off the press! First-edition Mud Row scripts are now available for purchase in our Steinbright lobby or online.
Dominique Morisseau will be signing scripts from 1 to 1:30pm before the final performance of Mud Row at 2pm on Sunday, August 4. Hope to see you there!
Up Next
Where You From?
By Nadira Beard
In June, the New Voices Ensemble performed Where You From? by Nadira Beard for a packed, multi-generational house in Chester’s City Hall. This story, created by the ensemble and set on one city block, explores love, loss and the preciousness of everyday – a contemporary response piece to Our Town.
Get your ticket to Where You From?, which takes the Leonard C Haas Stage on Monday, 8/19 at 7pm as the centerpiece for our Community Matters program. Tickets are free, but reservations are needed, as seating is limited.
Photos by Nadira Beard.
Spotlight: The Crushed Earth Reading
While Mud Row rounds out its run, another New Play Frontiers play-in-progress continues to take shape. NPF writing duo (and real life husband-wife team) Deepa Purohit & Sanjit De Silva explored The Crushed Earth in a development workshop at People’s Light earlier this month. Bouts of frenzied and inspired writing punctuated five days of sharing and discussing. Below are images of two deeply significant culminating sharings – one with indigenous individuals, many of the Lenape tribe, based in Delaware and New Jersey at the Good Shepard church in Wilmington; and the other at our public Community Matters reading on 7/2.
Special thanks to program sponsors Rebecca Bradbeer and Phoenixville Community Health Foundation for making these sharings and exchanges possible.
Patron responses from the Community Matters reading:
“I loved the play and I really liked how we only got Act 1 and how in-progress the production felt. It made me feel like I was really a part of this play and helping it grow.”
“My partner and I talked about [the reading] the whole way home. I talked about it with friends over the next few days. I was moved to give vocal ministry about the reading and its impact on me in my Quaker meeting this morning.”
“I loved how we met our neighbors before the play and then talked with them after! It made me feel so much more connected … like we were a cohort as an audience as opposed to individuals … in a room together.”
Subscriber Spotlight:
Sara Funk
Eve Trojanov, our Subscriptions & Ticketing Manager, sat down with longtime subscriber and theatregoer Sara Funk following our annual Subscriber Party. Sara shares her fondest memories and recent reflections.
Eve: I know you’ve been a subscriber for a long time, so I would love to know if you remember the first show you saw here.
Sara: I started coming when People’s Light was at Yellow Springs, and my kids were in Peter Pan. They were the lost boys.... And then after that, they each did five plays apiece with People’s Light. To them, it was not a way to make a living. It’s more they did it because it was so much fun. But when they get together, they entertain the family always. I mean, in their hearts, they’re actors.
Abigail [Adams, Executive Artistic Director] wrote a play called Snow Light, and my son David was in that, and he was the son of the man and woman who were these circus people, and he did magic tricks. One night he did the trick, and it didn’t work, but he covered it. And Abbey and I were standing backstage, and she said, “Did you just see that? How he covered that?” She said, “That’s an actor.” And no one knew that he had made a mistake, because he made it look like it was magic.
In the past five seasons, has there been a production that surprised you or that you weren’t expecting to like?
Well, as most people in this theatre will tell you, I like everything People’s Light does. I’m not so much of a good critic, because I get something good out of every one that I see. What I like that they’re doing in the last few years is that they’re stepping out of the box. As Zak [Berkman] just said to me, “We don’t have a box anymore.” I said, “Good!”
New in our 19/20 Season: Songs For Nobodies
We're thrilled to share next season's mysterious summer play: the Northlight Theatre Production of Songs For Nobodies! On our Leonard C. Haas Stage from August 5–30, 2020, this one-woman powerhouse performance weaves the music of Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf, and Maria Callas throughout a mosaic of stories told by the everyday women who encountered these musical icons. Featuring favorites like "Come Rain or Come Shine," "Crazy," and "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do," and starring the transcendent talent Bethany Thomas.
"Thomas is dazzling... as breathtaking a songbird as she is a captivating storyteller."
—BroadwayWorld
If this news inspires any 19/20 subscription changes or questions, our Patron Experience team is happy to help. Contact the Box Office at 610.644.3500 or tickets@peopleslight.org.
People's Light in the Community
People’s Light proudly sponsors these upcoming community celebrations. If you are there or in the neighborhood, please swing by our table to say hello!
July 25
8th Annual Alianza’s Feria
Latina, hosted by Alianzas de Phoenixville in Reeves Park, Phoenixville
August 18
Community Day, hosted by
the Charles A. Melton Arts & Education Center in West
Chester
September 21
Fourth Annual Let's Choose
Health Run and Family Walk! hosted by La Comunidad Hispana at Anson B. Nixon Park in Kennett Square
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