We just did this as our fall production. The actors fell in love with it, and all the audiences gave them standing ovations.
Besides being a terrific chance to do some research into how people lived, dressed, got from one place to another, in the early 20th century,
Our Town presents an excellent opportunity to talk about a plot structure that is not climactic.
This is what I present to my students about plot structures. I wish I could give credit to whatever source I got this idea from originally, but I honestly don't remember.
Primary Plot Structures in Dramatic Literature
Climactic – (This may be the only structure you have studied before.)
- Plot events progress in a cause-to-effect pattern.
- Character's options are gradually reduced until a climax is forced.
- Playwright shows belief, at least at the time of writing, in a world with predictable consequences and outcomes; therefore, we can derive some understanding of life through isolated experiences.
Episodic
- Plot consists of episodes. There is no climax, although there may be a point of highest tension.
- Episodes may be connected by a theme.
- Life is seen as a journey.
- Characters may derive some understanding after a variety of experiences, or the audience may derive understanding after a series of episodes.
- Playwright shows belief that we find understanding of life only after a full range of experiences, not from isolated events.
- Examples: Our Town, by Thornton Wilder; The Heidi Chronicles, by Wendy Wasserstein; Almost Maine, by John Cariani; Voices from the High School, by Peter Dee; Class Action and Second Class, by Brad Slaight; Love, Death and the Prom, by Jon Jory.
Situational – (most frequently used in Theatre of the Absurd)
- Play revolves around a situation and is not a logical sequence of events.
- Plot is cyclical, not cause-to-effect.
- Playwright seems to believe that meaning can be found in isolated moments, even if those moments don't fit into a larger picture.
- Example: Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett; Rhinoceros, by Eugene Ionesco
Some modern playwrights combine various structures. Museum, by Tina Howe, is composed of various episodes that all take place in the same situation, the closing day of a modern art exhibition. Howe's The Art of Dining is structured the same way.
------------------------------
C. J. Breland
Asheville High School
Asheville NC
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 10-26-2018 11:11
From: Nate Netzley
Subject: Our Town
Freida,
I think one way to approach the show is to help explain why it was so revolutionary. More recent revivals such as the one by David Cromer and also seen at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville is to get back to the idea of Our Town as a piece of modernist literature. It breaks from the traditions of past pieces of theatre and was inspired by the the thoughts on Modernism in Gertrude Stein's novel The Making of Americans.
If you view it as an "aww shucks, aint this quaint" play, a lot of younger students will see it as a museum piece. If you examine it as something that was radical and explain why it was radical and why it even has more in common with the epic theatre of Brecht rather than the Wilder's American contemporary of Miller, Williams, and O'Neill.
Really highlight how the miming and lack of scenery was to distance the audience from the action, same with the Stage Manager and him interrupting scenes or coming in as different characters.
Hope this helps.
------------------------------
Nate Netzley
New York NY
Original Message:
Sent: 10-24-2018 19:42
From: Frieda Gebert
Subject: Our Town
I'm having my Intro to Theater class study this play as part of our unit on American playwrights. Anyone have a great lesson plan or plans to bring this play to life for them?