our town thornton wilder artist note: John jarvis I first performed in Our Town with Soulpepper at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in 1999 under the inspired direction of Joseph Ziegler. The thrill of telling Thornton Wilder’s unsettling story amidst the history and grandeur of such a wondrous old theatre was inspiring to us all. The sound of the human voice so necessary to the play came easy in that venerable old place – the simple routines of daily life captured in the warmth of a family kitchen, the shuddering heartache of the first love we feel for another, the throat catching, swift, unstoppable passage of time that wraps us in such fits of fear and loss – all of it remains in mind as if it were yesterday. I can still see the silhouette of the wonderful Peter Donaldson, who played the Stage Manager in that production, standing alone in the light, framed only by the gilded edge of the proscenium arch, just his presence and voice revealing the playwright’s observations about the ordinariness of people lives, about their struggle to grasp, if only for a moment, the true extraordinariness of being alive. This seems to me the essence of the story. When Soulpepper moved into its new home the clearest choice to begin the new journey was of course Our Town, with Artistic Director Albert Schultz now taking on the role of the Stage Manager. The play begins this time with Albert’s soft touch of the brick wall that you see at the back of the stage. What you may not know is that there is a company of actors touching that brick wall from the other side at precisely the same moment. It began spontaneously that first night as a way to connect us all to Albert’s voice, to allay our fears, to launch a new home and now, not surprisingly, it’s become a tradition carried out every night to help send us off down the road you are about to travel. “Some of the things they’re going to say maybe’ll hurt your feelings…but that’s the way it is.” I hope you will be as captured as I have been.
John Jarvis, Mr. Webb in Our Town