RCHS Drama’s “Our Town” opens Friday

Marcia Blair

This weekend Rush County theatergoers will have the opportunity to see one of the greatest American plays ever written.

“Our Town,” by Thornton Wilder, will be presented by the RCHS Drama Department. The play, performed by many high schools and professional groups nationwide, won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Revival a few years ago.

The play is a character-driven story about a small and average American town (much like Rushville) as it moved through its colorful existence in the early days of the 20th century.

A colorful character-narrator (nicely played by Austin Walker) will guide us on a three-act tour of the fictitious Grovers Corner, a small town in New Hampshire, and follows the ordinary adventures of two families, the Webbs and the Gibbs, who live next door to each other over a 12-year period.

The stage manager is unusual in that he is the author’s voice for the story. He can see – and relates – portions of the past, present, and future; and all is not pretty. The fact that he knows all makes us glad we don’t.

In “our town,” nothing much happens: families live, work, go to school, get married, have children, and start the cycle over again. Yet this is the point of the play, that these “nothing-special” kind of events actually join together in each of us to form life -- the greatest miracle of all.

George Gibbs and Emily Webb, who are high school boy-and-girl friends next door when the story opens, are delightfully played by Ross Percell and Connie Harcourt. They are natural, believable and totally suited for their roles and have that uncanny ability to grow as the play grows. Their adventurous trip into the joy of reality — sideswiped by a big dose of “what happened?” — is indeed the thrust of this play and it requires a great deal of ability on an actor’s part to play it well. Ross and Connie certainly do.

The supporting family members are also very effective. Cory Bostic is outstanding as Emily’s dad, Mr. Webb, publisher of the local paper; and his wife Myrtle, sternly played by Liz Webster, are typical loving parents who are happily settled into their lives and seem to take the gradual courtship of daughter Emily and George as routine. The scene with George and his prospective father-in-law on the wedding morning is classic.

On the other side of the fence, Dr. Frank Gibbs (who’s delivered most babies in Grovers Corners for the last so-many years), is played by Zach Truster, whose biggest job is managing his own wife, Myrtle, portrayed by Amanda Locchetta. She’s a worrier and a bit more hysterical than her counterpart, Mrs. Webb. Amanda is excellent in this role.

To round out the two “Father Knows Best” households are the younger and opposite gender siblings, young Wally Webb and Rebecca Gibbs, played youthfully and typically by Joe Hunter and Hannah Bates.

After the immediate families, the characters are mainly townspeople. Julie Brashaber is great as the town gossip, Mrs. Soames; Bert Shaw is fine as Simon Stimson, the church choir director with the bad habit; and Carrie Alexander does a nice job as Professor Williard, the resident historian who provides the audience with the necessary geological facts of the village.

Others in the cast include Amanda Callahan, Brooke Griffin, Hayli Valentine, Eric Barton, Taylor Mock, Morgan Williams, Mikayla Carpenter, Rachel Alexander, Tasha Hunter, Casey West, and Natalie Kopf.

The actors are nicely complemented by Dan Scholl, Anna Smith, and Loys Rees who provide good technical support.

Don’t expect much in the way of a set, because you’re expected to manufacture that on your own. Kevin Valentine has provided a couple of fine trellises and staircases “for those who think they need scenery,” and when George and Emily confer about algebra via their upstairs windows, they’re situated atop regular stepladders.

You won’t need scenery or music for that matter, but you will need to bring your imagination and “let yourself go” back to simpler, kinder days. This is a terrific show, wonderfully directed by Jennie Tague, and acted well by the students who have grown to understand this remarkable concept in theatre.

“Our Town” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Laughlin Center.

Tickets are available from cast members or at the door.

We hope you’ll make time to enjoy this most unusual stage experience performed so well by “our own town’s” kids.

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