Remembering ‘Our Town’ and the magic of ‘saints and poets’

Back in 1964, drama students at Adrian (Mich.) High School performed the world’s best production of the popular play “Our Town,” written by Thornton Wilder. Or so we thought at the time.

Thornton Wilder

As an underclassman, my part in the “all school play” directed by drama instructor Raymond Lewandowski was a minor role. The stars of the show were Barbara Luke, a junior, who played “Emily Gibbs Webb,” and senior Milton “Rocky” Bailey II, who was cast as the “Stage Manager.”

Their knockout delivery of lines from Act III:

EMILY: “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it – every, every minute?”

STAGE MANAGER: “No – Saints and poets maybe – they do some.”

How profound. I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve pulled that “saints and poets” reference from the recesses of what’s left of my brain…over the past 60 years…to reflect on the loss of a family member, dear friend or someone who has touched my life…while pledging to do a better job of “realizing life…every, every minute.”

But it’s hard. Distractions get in the way. Obligations interfere. There are bills to pay, duties to be performed, commitments to keep, errands to run, groceries to buy, meals to prepare, a never-ending list of daily household chores…you name it.

Some comfort can be gained from the writings of the Rev. Beth Merrill Neel, a Presbyterian pastor in Portland, Ore. She’s a huge fan of “Our Town.”

“Those words about realizing life, ‘every, every minute,’ grow more poignant as I get older,” she said. “It’s the acknowledgement that these bones and ligaments and cells break down after a while, that they’re not made of diamonds or titanium, impenetrable and durable for eternity.”

“It has taken me a while to cultivate the practice of realizing life,” Rev. Neel wrote. “I’ve never been the kind who stops and smells the roses, but I’m beginning to do just that.”

Here is Rev. Beth Neel with her husband, the Rev. Gregg Neel, photographed on Easter.

It all hits home at about age 50, she said. The urge is to rush and cram in as “much living” as you can in however many days one has left, but the body says: “slow down.”

So, Rev. Neel says she has become a more intense observer of her loved ones and the little things in life…and she tries to follow the script of “Our Town.”

In her brief return to experience just one day of “life-after-death” in Grover’s Corners, N.H., Emily bids goodbye to her loving parents as well as “clocks ticking, her butternut tree, Mama’s sunflowers, new-ironed dresses and hot baths.”

 

Rev. Neel said: “I wonder at the perfect circle the dog makes when he curls up and the asymmetry of spider webs. I marvel at how hard it is to photograph a spider web or a rainbow or a sunset, and maybe it’s better that way.”

 

“I pay attention to the color of the sky on any given day, and the color of the leaves, and whether or not they’re still a part of the branch or part of the lawn,” she said.

“I look for what is good; I try to hold fast to what is good because that is the glue of life, the stuff that holds us together….”

Rev. Neel said she believes that there are saints among us who “dress up as teachers and CNAs (Certified Nursing Assistants)…and guys who punch a clock when the whistle blows.”

The clock strikes 11 p.m. in Grover’s Corners. “Tomorrow’s going to be another day,” the Stage Manager states matter-of-factly.

“May a saint or poet cross your path,” Dr. Neel prayed.

* * * 

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) was a pivotal figure in the literary history of the 20th century. He is the only writer to win Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and drama. 

He received the Pulitzer for his novel “The Bridge of San Luis Rey” (1927) and the plays “Our Town” (1938) and “The Skin of Our Teeth” (1942).

“Our Town” was licensed for amateur production in 1939. “Over the next 20 months,” English novelist Penelope Fitzgerald wrote, “‘Our Town’ was produced in at least 658 communities across the United States and in Hawaii and Canada.” 

To this day, it remains one of the most performed plays anywhere. 

Thornton Wilder played the Stage Manager in the Broadway production of “Our Town” for two weeks in September 1938. 

 

Hal Holbrook played the Stage Manager in a television version of “Our Town” in 1977.

Paul Newman played the Stage Manager in “Our Town” during a production that ran on Broadway in 2002-03, marking his final stage performance.