This play keeps appearing in my life.
In middle school, my most influential teacher ever had us read it and compare it to The Diary of Anne Frank. Not bad for Grade 8.
The high school I went to in California--turns out it was attended by Thornton Wilder, the author of Our Town. Wikipedia says he began writing his plays there.
About a year ago, I moved to East Van in part to be closer to a café called Our Town. The owner recently confessed to me that he named the place for the play. He loaned me a documentary about a high school in Compton, in which the students and the entire community are transformed by the process of putting on a show of Our Town. I just watched it.
My favourite line is from Act 3. Emily is dead. She wants to visit her past life in Grover's Corners.
Another dead character says, "Choose the least important day in your life. It will be important enough."
It's true, no? So much happens every day.
It is true; even on a dull rainy day homebound a lot happens.
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