Essay On Innovations In Thornton Wilder's Our Town

Innovations in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town

When Thornton Wilder wrote Our Town, he violated many of the rules of traditional playwriting. Wilder introduced innovations in characterization, dramatic structure, and stagecraft in this landmark play.

In creating the role of the stage manager, Wilder has created an important character who performs the duties not associated with a traditional stage manager of a play. The Stage Manager is, in reality, is a character in Our Town. This character has many roles in the play. He functions as an onstage director as he is ushering Professor Willard offstage: “This way professor, and thank you again.” (p. 23). He is also a minor character actor. As Mrs. Forrest, the Stage Manager scolds George Gibbs for

playing baseball on the street: “Go out and play in the fields young man.

You got no business playing baseball on Main Street.” (p. 28). Throughout Our Town, he acts as a narrator for the play as well: “The sky is beginning to show some streaks of light over in the East there, behind our mount’in.” (p. 4). Thornton Wilder is constantly reminding the audience this is a play, not real life. The playwright uses the Stage Manager’s job as narrator, to break the fourth wall, and remind the audience the play is a story. Speaking directly to an actor placed in the audience, the Stage Manager says, “Come forward, will you, where we can all hear you” (p. 25). He is addressing the audience, who is watching Our Town, while the play is being performed. Wilder’s Stage Manager is omniscient. He says, “Doc Gibbs died in 1930. The new hospital’s named after him.” (p. 7). He is using his extensive knowledge to inform us of the future. Another one of his godly powers is his omnipotence. He has the ability to manipulate time in order to show us all of the average

small town day. Furthermore, the Stage Manager functions as a historian: “Y’know-Babylon once had two million people in it… every night all those families sat down to supper, and the father came home from his work, and the smoke went up the chimney,”
(p. 33). He starts connecting the way Babylonians lived to how we live today. People still couple, make families, and come together at the end of the day. Towards the end of the first act, the Stage Manager becomes a philosopher, and makes an intriguing philosophical statement. He says, “one man is ten thinks it’s a privilege to push his own lawn mower.” (p. 27). This brings up the idea of private ownership. If a person mows a lawn they own, the lawn is attached to a house. Therefore, the person owns the house too. No one can take it away; it is theirs.
Wilder also creates archetypes, rather than three dimensional characters, another innovation.Thornton Wilder is a universalist. He uses the specific to represent the general. Archetypes are an excellent way to do so, because they are one-dimensional. This leaves room for connection between the audience and the characters. Two of the most present archetypes are the parents. Both Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Webb are the bread winners, and the mothers stay at home and take care of the house. The mothers are so similar, they even have the same morning routine. Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb both begin the morning by saying, “Time to get up” (p. 12 & 13), to their children. The families both have two tens and two pre-teens. George is the typical teenage boy; he loves baseball. When Emily asks her mother, “am I pretty?” (p. 31), she is acting like the average teenage girl who cares about her looks. Wilder also added in some minor characters who are archetypal. The town gossip, Mrs. Soames, was talking to Mrs. Gibbs about Simon Stimson, the town drunk: “To have the organist of a church drink and drunk year after year.” (p. 39). Even though these characters don’t appear very often, their presence makes Grover’s Corners seem more realistic. Grover’s Corners residents have so little detail, but have just enough for the audience to make connections.
The play does not follow the conventional structure of a three act play.

Wilder breaks the fourth wall, always reminding the audience that they are watching a play. Because the Stage Manager jumps around to different points in time, there is no linear storyline. No plot can form without a linear storyline, and the audience is not given enough information about Simon Stimson for a sub plot to form. There is also no conflict. The Stage Manager tells us all the First Act is about is a day in Grover’s Corners: “The First Act shows a day in our town.” (p. 4). With no conflict, there is no climax or resolution in the following acts. There is a prominent theme woven through the acts. Thornton Wilder uses this play to try and make people think about their place in the world. At the end of Act I, Rebecca tells us about a letter Jane Crofut received from her minister. She says the address written is, “the United States of America; Continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar System; the Universe; the Mind of God” 9p. 46). The audience begins seeing the roles of the people in their hometown, but not their roles as people of the world. Wilder uses Emily and George’s interest in each other to give the idea of how their relationship may grow and their lives could change. Their roles in society could be affected by their choices made together. The frequency of the fourth wall being broken is an important part of the structure of the play. The Stage Manager speaks

to the audience and directly to actors: “Have you any comments Mr. Webb?” (p. 24). Wilder also planted actors in the audience, which completely destroys the fourth wall, because now the world of onstage fiction has extended to the real world audience. A lady in a box in the audience asks Mr. Webb, “Mr. Webb, is there any culture or love of beauty in Grover’s Corners?” (p. 26). She is an actress in the audience, speaking to the actors on stage. Moments like these draw the audience out from the story and make the think about what is happening; they are reminded what they are watching is a play.
Wilder used experimental techniques in staging the play to complement the experimental innovations in characterization and structure. There is minimal scenery in Our Town, which was a technique never tried before: “The audience, arriving, sees an empty stage… the Stage Manager begins placing a table and three chairs” (p. 3). There is also no curtain. The act begins with an open stage. Every single play produced before this had a curtain. Wilder was one of, if not the first, to use this innovative style for his work. There are no props in the show either. The actors have to pantomime their actions where props would typically be used: “carrying an imaginary rack with milk bottles.” (p. 10). To add more detail to the character’s actions, there are sound effects playing while the actor pantomimes: “The sound of clinking milk bottles is heard.” (p. 10). One of the most apparent abnormalities in Our Town is the lack of formal endings to the acts. At the end of Act I, the Stage Manager tells us “That’s the end of the First act, friends.” (p. 46). There is no curtain coming down. These unusual elements of the play are part of what made Thornton Wilder such an influence on modern playwriting.
Wilder uses characterization, dramatic structure, and stagecraft to produce unique and original plays. Some would consider him the grandfather of modern playwriting. In the 1930’s, plays stuck to tradition, but Thornton Wilder decided to break the rules. He was a divergent playwright of his time, and has had a tremendous affect on how traditional playwriting evolved into what it is today.