~~By Veronica Bernabe (8th Grade)

Our Town is a play in three acts by Thornton Wilder. It’s about a town called Grover’s Corners and the main characters are from the Gibbs family, Webb family, Stage Manager, and many more. The play includes their everyday lives in Grover’s corners and other events that happen. Our Town is a play that is really relative or other towns in the world and the different evens that happen are interesting to read about.

In the first act of Our Town the Stage Manager says that Grover’s Corners has a few ethnicities and points out the houses of the Gibbs family and the Webb family. It begins when Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb call their children down to eat breakfast. At the Gibbs household, Doc Gibbs had just arrived home and Mrs. Gibbs goes down to make breakfast. Joe Crowell delivers their newspaper while Howie Newsome delivers their milk. At the Webb household, the children were called down to eat breakfast when their mother scolds them for eating too fast. As the Gibbs and Webb children go off to school, Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb have a conversation on their porches.

In between these scenes, the Stage Manager would say some facts about the characters and parts of the geological background of Grover’s Corners. Professor Willard then comes in and says more about the background; following him would be Charles Webb who also says some facts about Grover’s Corners. As they walk home together, George Gibbs and Emily Webb talk about her speech in class and how he leaves for the baseball field. When she gets home, Emily talks to her mother about her physical appearance and asks her if she is pretty enough to attract boys. She says that she is but she gets annoyed when they talk about that topic.

The Stage Manager comes again to talk about what else is happening in Grover’s Corners like how the new bank is under construction. He says that he would want to put a capsule in it because he could put a copy of The New York Times, the U.S. Constitution, the Bible, The Sentinel, Shakespeare’s works, and his own words. Then, a new scene begins when Mrs. Gibbs, Mrs. Webb, and Mrs. Louella Soames (who is part of the choir) are walking home from their choir practice; they talk about Simon Stimson and how he drinks too much. At both the Gibbs and Webb houses, Emily and George talk through their open upstairs windows as they talk about their algebra homework and how George doesn’t understand one of the problems. Emily helps him by giving him clues and hints. Then the act ends with George and Rebecca sitting at the window looking up at the sky and talking about the meaning of the universe.

The beginning of Act Two in Our Town is 3 years later after high school where George and Emily are going to be married on July 7, 1904. It’s not as long as the first act, but the Stage Manager still talks between scenes. In between this scene and the next one, the Stage Manager talks about all the changes that had happened during the past 3 years. The first conversation of this act starts when George asks Emily to carry her books home when he notices that there’s something wrong about her. He asks her why she’s mad and she tells him that he’s been too busy with baseball and other things that he doesn’t even hang out with his friends. She says that he turned stuck-up and that people have been saying some bad things behind his back. George doesn’t get mad or anything but he says that he’ll try to improve and offers to buy Emily an ice cream soda. In the drug store, they talk about how George doesn’t want to go off to college anymore but that he’d rather stay with Emily. He said that he’s found a person who he’s fond of and is fond of him, too. The scene ends and goes through to the day of the wedding. George and Emily are both nervous and they’re thinking whether they should go through with the wedding. They talk to their parents and decide to proceed with it; the end of this scene and act is that George and Emily become husband and wife.

Some themes in the first and second act include: "people should appreciate the place and things that they have," "never waste your time because life is too short," "never forget who you really are because that’s the best person you could be," and "the littlest things in life are the best." "People should appreciate the place and things that they have" is a theme because like other people, Mrs. Soames is always criticizing Simon Stimson because he’s a drunk; even though he’s a drunk, she should criticize him a little bit less because he is her choirmaster and without him then no one else would be. "Never waste your time because life is too short" is a theme because Mrs. Gibbs has always wanted to go to Paris and her husband has always wanted to go to the battlefields of the Civil War. "Never forget who you really are because that’s the best person you could be" is a theme because when George didn’t have all these activities to do, Emily would have so much fun with him but then when he had baseball and such, he became such a jerk and Emily didn’t really like him anymore. Lastly, "The littlest things in life are the best" is a theme because even though all the littlest things that go around in Grover’s Corners, they can be the most important ones because they could make up history like the new bank under construction.

Our Town is an interesting picture and is highly recommended to be read or seen. There are many wonderful storylines and the work is all credited to Thornton Wilder. Many people are very fond of this play and I should admit that it’s not as boring as some other people think it is. Just the characters alone are unique and Grover’s Corners has an interesting background.