Opening night tonight for VPA’s rendition of the classic ‘Our Town’

PALMER— Wendy Golter has returned to the director’s seat at the Valley Performing Arts. A diverse troupe of actors banded together and adapted Thornton Wilder’s minimal, yet profound play, ‘Our Town.’ Tonight is the premier showing at 7 p.m. It will play for three weekends, wrapping up on March 4th, appearing at 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and at 2 p.m. on Sundays.

“It’s quiet yet stunning,” Golter said.

The stars of the film are both minors but majorly love the theater. They’ve fit right in with seasoned actors, returning retirees, and faces both familiar and new. Teens, Maddie Davis and Hans Beer have acclimated the VPA of family and are ready for the big time. Growing up, Beers acted in a number of plays at school. This is his first time acting on the VPA stage.

“They feel like family at this point,” Beers said.

Straight from his original family is Hans’ father, Paul Beers. Paul plays Howie Newsome, supporting his son. He’s acted and directed several plays at VPA. He enjoys both and knows how much goes into directing. That’s why Golter said she likes to take long breaks with directing over the years. She’s thrilled to come full circle and return one of her all-time favorite plays. She said this 1938 meta-theatrical three-act play was the first production she worked on at VPA. She donned the role of actor then. Now she is donning the role of director to same play that enraptured her back in the 1980’s.

“Wilder wanted it bare,” Golter said.

The play is simplistic but it also contains deep motifs. Described as a play within a play, the stage is stark. There are no opening curtains, nor closing. Images, mostly everyday items, garish the background, painted to symbolize the major themes prominent in the play. These themes resonated deeply with Golter and they’ve apparently taken hold of the cast and crew as well. Davis spent last summer at VPA honing the craft. She said that she loves everything about this play with such a simple setting.

“You really have to engage the audience,” Davis said.

Larry Burton takes the audience on an overarching narrative as the Stage Manager. Not your typical stage manager, his role is meta — standing in and walking around to move the story along. The stage manager even appears as other characters- including a woman. Burton said the stage manager persona’s remains intact with each passing character. He will quickly change costumes several times in ‘Our Town.’ The retired- not so retired teacher said there is more than meets the eye in this story.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” Burton said.

Wilder’s Pulitzer-winning play follows the everyday lives of residents in Grover's Corners, a small town of in the early 1900’s. Golter noted that plays in Wilder’s time were often very outlandish and elaborate. The playwright wanted to make a point; countering the norm he striped a story down to be simple yet effective. Two families are at the story’s center. The Gibbs and Webb families’ lives unfurl as the audience sees their children fall in love, get married only to have tragedy strike. Golter said the classic play still impacts modern theater goers to this day, peering into eternity.

“The themes are universal,” Golter said. “We need to stop and pay attention. All the little events in our life are historic.”