Initial Response to the Play

Upon receiving the play, I read it twice to form a clear understanding. On my initial read, I was puzzled by the mundane nature of the characters and situations, but was won over by the complex dynamics and subversive ending. Rereading with this ending in mind, I could appreciate how Wilder finds the drama within this mundanity and the importance of it to each character.

The small town setting contrasted with the supernatural ending resonated with me as a creative influenced by works like Twin Peaks, and I was fascinated to explore the seeds of early Americana that the play presents. Written in the late 30s, but set at the turn of the century, Our Town is a period piece, and I realised early on that this “looking back” gives the play the contemporary relevance needed to work in 2025.

Casting

We were each given a 10-minute conversation with Beth to discuss ourselves and what about the play resonated with us before casting. I appreciated the opportunity to talk as creatives, and highlighted the moments of human connection between the families as my favourite parts of the play, since they felt so real and rich with choices for an actor. 

I was cast as George in Acts 2 and 3, which was exciting yet intimidating. I had highlighted the drugstore scene as one of my favourites, so I was keen for the opportunity to play with that moment, but remained aware that my scenes showed the character across 3 different ages and emotional extremes. This gave me lots to play with before rehearsals even began, but I knew I would have a lot more work to do. 

We then began contextual research, splitting into groups to fill in a vast timeline [fig.3]. Researching the setting helped me understand the characters’ world and outlooks. The 1900s were considered a progressive era in the US, with New Hampshire being majority Republican (at the time a Liberal party), something Mr Webb references in Act 1. The congregational church and the graveyard are recurring settings, indicating religion is a part of these characters’ lives, and through researching, we learned the people of Grover’s Corners would be part of a Protestant denomination.

I learned Wilder had been a child during WWI, and published Our Town at the dawn of WWII, hence the focus on the fleeting nature of human life. I found it interesting that, following his death in 1975, friends of Wilder alleged he lived as a closeted homosexual, with artist Samuel Steward revealing the two had a sexual relationship. While critics often link this to the troubled nature of Simon Stimson, this knowledge helped me appreciate the openness and earnestness with which George and Emily discuss their feelings. As a queer actor, this was key to my understanding of the play’s relevance today, and allowed me to value the honesty and integrity George embodies as a character.

Beth also set us the homework of watching It’s A Wonderful Life, due to the film’s small-town East-Coast setting and exploration of similar themes to Our Town. This would prove to be an invaluable resource further down the line.
 

Fig. 2

After casting, I began making a character mood-board and playlist [figs. 4 and 5], to help me visualise George’s world and give a soundtrack to his emotional journey. I find audio and visual stimuli useful in my pre-rehearsal process, as they give me a reference point going into the rehearsal room.

We began rehearsals with table work in groups of characters – this meant working with the other George, Emilys and the rest of the Gibbs family to understand the dynamics between these characters and how those relationships take form. Understanding the way the Gibbs household speaks about relationships, for example, helped in finding George’s reaction to the Webb household on his wedding morning.

Another important conversation came from actioning with James and Beth [fig. 6]. We wanted to reach a shared consensus on the actions George would use to achieve his intentions in everyday life, as this would allow us both to play different tactics when rehearsing scenes while still feeling like the same character. Although George is mainly a kind character with good intentions, it helped to think of “damaging” and “using” actions he might subconsciously use to create a more dynamic performance.

Fig. 6

Playing George alongside James was a gift which allowed us to draw from each other’s performances, but it also gave us more work to do in ensuring our performances felt like the same person at different points in his life. Early on, we listed as many adjectives as we could to describe George [fig. 7], ultimately settling on three distinct ones that represented the essence of the character: “spontaneous”, “wholesome”, and “dependent”. The latter helped with developing the complexities of the character, showing that he loves deeply but often to a fault. At numerous points in the process, we performed variations on an improv exercise where we interacted with characters in the space while playing a song that represented George. Watching James in these exercises helped me understand how the Gibbs’ relationships change over time. Outside of class, we discussed the dynamics between characters we both knew but only one interacted with – in my case, understanding George’s relationship with his sister established his interactions with the wider world, despite Rebecca’s absence from the play’s final acts.

Depicting a sense of age was important in showing the character’s journey. Our Town isn’t a wholly linear play, and I played the character at three different ages. To make the differences clear, I separated George into his flashback, wedding and funeral iterations, charting his given circumstances at each point. At 17, he has spent a year trying to impress Emily but only pushed her further away, and enters wanting to mend their relationship; at 19, he is keen to marry Emily but seeks reassurance as he fears growing older; and at 28, he has grown into a caring family man, who has lost his sense of purpose after the death of his wife and child. These three distinct emotional states gave me three different “ins” to distinguish these points in the character’s life.

Fig. 7

Fig. 8

Fig. 9

The play’s final scenes involved reaching emotional extremes as George grieves Emily. Rather than forcing myself to experience grief, I was careful to use technique to create these extremes. Before entering Act 3, I would run through songs from my playlist that related to the character’s situation to get into George’s headspace. Mitski’s “Two Slow Dancers”, with its lyrics about growing old and the inevitability of death [fig. 10] helped me connect with George’s outlook at this point in the play. I utilised “sense memory” when crying at Emily’s grave, having noted a tremor in my back when I actually cry. This meant I could replicate shaking through my spine to give the sensation of sobbing without actually breaking down onstage.

Fig. 10

Fig. 11 – Rehearsal Notes

Fig. 12 – Annotated Rehearsal Script

Fig. 13

Fig. 14

Fig. 16

I began physicality work through a discussion with Isobel, our assistant director [fig. 16]. We discussed the actions George would perform in his daily life, from playing baseball as a teenager to farm labour as an adult. I utilised our Laban work with Jen to establish that George moves through life with a large kinosphere, but little awareness of it. Initially, we thought his main Laban effort was a punch, but as I developed my performance through rehearsals, a looser effort like “slash” felt like a better match.

Physicality helped unify my performance with James’. We reflected on our animal studies work to view George as a Sheep Dog puppy – excitable yet dependable. Our main difference was in terms of James’ overall looser performance, and after notes from Beth, I worked on letting go of tension so my physicality matched. This involved little things like trying not to hold tension in my hands. Later in rehearsal, we used gesture work to create detail, giving George small physical stims like limbering up or resting his hands in his pockets to connect our portrayals [fig. 17].

This project marked my first time performing intimacy while at LCON. While uncalled for in the script, as we built George’s interaction with Emily’s ghost at the end of the play, Beth felt a kiss would strengthen the moment of connection between the two.

Tait and I used the process established in intimacy training to choreograph the scene [fig. 18] with a placeholder at first, working towards incorporating the kiss with a physical cue, then layering on the “acting” side of the performance. While initially intimidating, I felt the combination of technique and trust worked together to make the process feel safe throughout, and we would carry out an intimacy check-in before each performance to ensure we were both comfortable.

Fig. 18

Fig. 19

For the final performance, I implemented my rehearsal techniques into my preparation, using music as emotional prep and weaving accent and character work into my vocal and physical warmup. I was proud of myself for delivering consistent performances while keeping them “fresh” and finding something new each time. I felt my voice and physicality remained well-connected to character throughout, though I found myself dropping some of the fine-tuned detail work at times due to the added pressure of an audience watching.

Overall, I feel that this process has taught me a lot about myself as an actor, and I achieved my goal of implementing my Skills training to make bold choices in a rehearsal room. In future, I would like to trust my instincts more and not be afraid to make bigger offers from day one. This project has increased my confidence in my personal process and identified my natural strengths, like voice, and areas where I need to put in more work (such as physicality).