AN AMERICAN CLASSIC

The Dowling Catholic Performing Arts Department presented Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Our Town for the community in late October. One of three opportunities for students to participate in live theater at DCHS, the cast and crew enjoyed producing this literary classic.

The fall play is directed each year by Tim Sheaff ‘86, director of drama and debate, who typically follows a rotation that includes the American Classics, Shakespeare and then something more lighthearted every third year. His intention is to help students build a wellrounded resume.

“Our Town is part of the canon of American theater,” said Sheaff. ”Thornton Wilder is one of the most significant playwrights, but also one of the most influential writers having earned three Pulitzer prizes for two different styles of writing.”

Wilder earned a Pulitzer for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth. In Our Town, the setting indicates that it’s an ordinary small town with universal appeal. The town is filled with people and places the audience can relate to, such as the school, the church, the post office and the train station. According to Sheaff, the simplistic setting is deceptively meaningful.

“On the surface, the play looks like it’s about a slice of life in a New England town in the early 1900s,” said Sheaff. “With its tendency to break the fourth wall, it actually asks us to notice the magnitude of the small things. In that way, I would say it’s a piece of adoration, and therefore beyond appropriate for a Catholic school. The cast and crew did an outstanding job with this production. The student performers and technicians on our stage, and even the students in our audience really contemplated the magnitude and mystery of our everyday lives. It was a beautiful, lyrical performance.”