1320 Our town performs Our Town

Last night we joined other Lakesiders in a sweltering South Auditorium for a local performance of Thorton Wilder's Our Town, the most performed play in America. Community theater is such fun as you watch your friends and neighbors take on roles. In the case of our little summer community they only have a few weeks to put it together, build props, find costumes, and round up money and volunteers to put it on. It's sort of like those old Mickey Rooney Judy Garland movies where everyone chips in to help.

I first saw Our Town on TV. NBC's Producers Showcase offered it in 1955 with Frank Sinatra as the narrator (stage manager) and Paul Newman* and Eva Marie Saint as the young lovers, George and Emily. My high school English teacher assigned it to the class. My parents didn't have a television set--Dad said he was waiting for color. So I went with a group of friends to the Duffy home on First Street. Mrs. Duffy ran a cafe and she had two handsome sons, one of whom dated my best friend, so it seemed the ideal location for a fun "homework" night.

Last night a first time Lakesider, Josh Bayer, a senior at the University of Kentucky, played the part of George Gibbs. He's done a lot of acting in college, so who knows, maybe he'll go the Newman route. The role of Emily Webb was performed by Alison Park, a long time Lakesider and a student at Ohio Wsleyan University who waitresses during the summer at Sloopy's and clerks at the Fudge Shop. The heavy role of the narrator was done by Josh Olin, an elementary school teacher who's been coming here since he was a child. I don't know how anyone learns that many lines, mostly monologue, while squeezing in a vacation.

The director was young Kay Meyers, who will be a sophomore at Columbia College of Chicago where she studies theater. She has grown up at Lakeside (summers) and her sister runs the art center. Tom Meyers was the Producer (I don't think they are related).

Photo from Toledo Blade.

* Originally, James Dean was supposed to play the role of George Gibbs in the 1955 TV production, but Paul Newman got this role when Dean was killed.