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Seeing Branford in Our Town

Thorton Wilder’s intent to stand his play Our Town amidst simple sets, as scenes from everyday life unfurl, will hold true during three performances by Branford High School (BHS) Dramat on Thursday to Saturday, Dec. 1, 2, and 3—with a bit of twist.

As the cast of 34 BHS students populating Wilder’s play move through their characters’ lives; guided by no less than six actors filling Our Town’s critical “Stage Manager” role, relevant archival images of Branford’s Victorian era will be projected in the background. In this way, veteran BHS fall play director and BHS English AP teacher Maria Ogren shows how Our Town is like Branford, both as it existed in the past, and as life happens here every day.

“We’re staying true to the play, but overlaying Branford, so it takes place in [Wilder’s] Grover’s Corners, but we’re referencing the town that we understand, and trying to parallel the experiences,” said Ogren. “And of course, the experiences are parallel—the children go to school, the families are in their houses, and the families are strong and together. There are the anxieties of growing up. There are the questions everybody asks about life and death and everything. We have that.”

Ogren’s assistant director is BHS English teacher John Matthiessen, now in his second year with the BHS fall play. The BHS student backstage manager is Jared Moore. Ogren has been directing BHS fall plays since 1972 and said she was inspired to bring Our Town back to the BHS stage for the third time in her tenure after a particular Branford event this year.

“I think the one thing that really moved me was the Branford4Orlando event over the summer,” said Ogren. “I kept hearing people say, ‘Not in our town,’ and ‘Our town’ being repeated. So why not pursue a work that epitomizes a small town, and the universal things that ought to be a part of our lives that we sometimes forget?”

Branford4Orlando, organized by BHS alumnus Colin Sheehan, brought the town together at the steps of Town Hall on June 20 in support of the victims of 49 shooting deaths at Pulse, an Orlando, Florida, nightclub. The event included song, words of tribute, and rainbow lights shining from the steps of Town Hall and Blackstone Library, as well as rainbow flags along Main Street. Sheehan encouraged Branford residents to share the show of support with the social media world by posting photos with #Branford4Orlando.

In another Branford alumnus connection, Ogren is working with a former student, Chris Lemieux, on part of the BHS production of Our Town. Lemieux coordinated with Branford Historical Society and Town Historian Jane Bouley to locate and photograph vintage Branford stills from Victorian times to use with the BHS production.

“Chris Lemieux was in this production the last time we did it. He was a freshman in high school, and he played the milkman,” said Ogren. “And he came to visit, and one of the things he talked about was the changes he saw. There are the demographical changes—just the whole cultural part of our town—it was really amazing to him. He said, ‘Wow, you have such a mix of ethnicities in this cast; we didn’t have that.’ And he was just so taken by the way it all kind of comes together—he liked the multiple stage managers, too.”

The BHS cast includes freshmen through seniors, with several seasoned BHS Dramat actors. The Stage Manager role is shared by Juliana Dias, Adam Jackson, Saura Malahiazar, Analiz Macaay, Luna McCulloch, and Elizabeth Wells. The play also keys in on the lives of the Gibbs and Webb families, in particular the relationship between George Gibbs, played by Kevin Bartram, and Emily Webb, played by Antoinette Higgins.

Wilder’s “play within a play” concept for Our Town is set up by the Stage Manager role. The Stage Manager acts as narrator, connecting with the audience, but also interacts with actors by calling out directions and even filling roles in scenes.

“It’s a huge part. When actors like Paul Newman have done it, you know it’s a big role,” said Ogren, who had one female and one male student play the role in her two past productions. This time, “It just seemed to me to kind of cry out for a little bit of different treatment, and we had kids who are capable of doing the part.”

As Wilder chose to craft Our Town as metatheater (the play draws the audience’s attention to the fact it is a play), Ogren borrowed from the style to develop the BHS production.

“The concept here is that this is a group of kids who’ve gotten together to put on this play,” said Ogren. “So they’ve gone into barrels of odd costumes and thrown something on that says their character to them. And the Stage Manager is really supposed to be the friend of the audience, but in this case, they’re also friends of each other. So it’s really an interesting look. It works as a piece.”

Ogren said the cast has been working since September to capture the wit, vernacular, and “human values” Wilder exposes in the townsfolk of Grover’s Corners.

“At the core of it is respect and love for one another,” said Ogren. “Even though life has its dark spots, his people just reflect a kind of common goodness that I think he relishes.”

BHS Dramat presents three performances of Thorton Wilder’s Our Town at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 1, Friday, Dec. 2, and Saturday, Dec. 3 in the Branford High School auditorium, 185 East Main Street. Tickets, available at the door, are $5 students, $8 adults.