Theater Emory’s multilingual adaptation of ‘Our Town’ makes small town feel big

By Bridget Mackie Contributing Writer

The audience sat around the circular stage in the Schwartz Center Theater, the line between onlookers and performers blurring as we were introduced to the small, New England town called Grover’s Corners. At times, it felt like the audience was a part of the town.

Emory Theater’s production of Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town” ran from Feb. 16 to Feb. 26. The play was originally created in 1938, and Emory’s production was adapted from a 2017 multilingual translation by Nilo Cruz and Jeff Augustin, produced by Miami New Drama. The play was codirected by Emory Assistant Professor Lydia Fort and Horizon Theatre Company Associate Artistic Producer Marguerite Hannah.

This multilingual production of “Our Town” came about as an attempt to better represent the multiculturalism of Emory. The original translation by Cruz and Augustin includes English, Spanish and Creole, but Fort explained that the change to Mandarin better represented the Emory community.

“Being inclusive in the way we are culturally trying to interpret it now means we are trying to allow the specificity of our cultural experience inform a moment, as opposed to sim- ply seeing a representation of somebody and saying, ‘You are included because I allowed you into the space,’” Hannah said in a February Creativity Conversation.

“Our Town” is a classic American play that focuses on the lives of Grover’s Corners residents in the early 1900s. It features a plethora of characters, but zooms into the Webb and Gibbs families in depth. In particular, we see the elder Gibbs son, George (Tom Zhang (17C)) and the elder Webb daughter, Emily (Ashley Alves (24C)), grow up, fall in love and grieve. The play gives us a window into the relationships and experiences that intersect these two families and individuals.

“The characters are all obviously from different backgrounds and they speak different languages … and that arc that you see from Act I to Act III is so different,” Alves said. “And seeing the characters grow is so fun and makes me fall in love with the stories that they have to say.”

The multilingual adaptation of “Our Town” feels right. This play seeks to capture life through the lenses of individuals that make up a community.