As I have mentioned many times in my last few posts, the current show at the theatre is Our Town by Thornton Wilder.  I am not sure what it is about the play, but it really speaks to me, certainly more so now than when I have read it in the past.  I am sure that a lot of that feeling comes from the fact that I am older now and I understand more of what is going on in the story.  I believe that I have also mentioned that I will probably understand even more of the story as I get older still.

For those who don’t know, the story of Our Town documents life in Grover’s Corners, a fictitious small town in southern New Hampshire at the turn of the 20th Century (that’s 1900 for those who don’t do math well).  The story is pretty timeless and deals with life issues and life-cycle events like birth, love and marriage, and death.  One of the questions that I have found myself asking as we have been working on the show was this: “Would it be possible in the next 20-30 years to write a similar story about the turn of the 21st century?”  Is the turn of the current century as important or interesting as the turn of the last was?  Is there even a similar story to tell about the turn of the 21st century?

The world is certainly a much different place today than it was in 1910.  It probably seemed like the world was a lot bigger back then.  At the turn of the century people were getting around on horses and trains, automobiles were few and far between unless you lived in a “big city.”  People still wrote letters (by hand), news traveled slower, waking up the people who fell asleep in a snow drift made the local papers.  At the turn of the 21st century we could communicate instantaneously, you can’t walk out the front door without being hit by a car, people lock their doors at night.

One of the ideas that my brother planted for me to think about is the idea that we are much more aware today than we were 100 years ago.  We have a greater understanding of how things work, how the world works and the forces that move us through.  On the other hand, I think that there are things that we have lost as well.  Today, if we forget to pay the gas bill, a quick phone call will settle things and get your furnace going again.  100 years ago, if you didn’t chop the wood for the stove, your house was cold until you did, or you couldn’t cook your meals.  While many of the mysteries of the universe remain unsolved today like if there is life on other planets, we have discovered the secrets of many things.

For many people today, even falling in love is different than it used to be.  How often today do people grow up next door to the person they marry?  How often do we spontaneously go to get ice cream sodas when walking home from school and effectively make a marriage proposal over them?  Today people do the thinking for you when you can go to a site like eHarmony and be paired with your potential “soulmate.”  Sure, there were people who were matchmakers in the past (Fiddler on the Roof anyone?), but even that was more personal than going on the internet.

We may not have discovered the meaning of life.  Maybe there isn’t really a meaning or a purpose to our existence as a whole.  We are much more aware of what is going on around us.  In some ways I think that knowledge, that awareness has really given us more to take for granted.  At the turn of the 20th century things like industrialization were just starting to take off.  The transition from horses to automobiles was barely beginning.  In the years leading up to and just after the turn of the 21st century nothing that significant was happening.  At least, it doesn’t seem like anything that significant is happening.  Maybe we won’t know until we look back on it in retrospect.

There are certainly ideas in Our Town that I think still hold some truth today about small town life in New England.  There are still towns that offer similar atmospheres, but they all have in some way embraced the advances that have been going on.  People have computers and cars and all that kind of stuff.  So, as timeless a story as Our Town is, could it be possible to tell a similar story about us now, at the turn of the 21st century?

If you don’t know the significance of the title then you should read Our Town.

I mentioned in an earlier post that last week and this week would be kind of crazy and of course they are!  I didn’t really even have a full day off.  While I did find the time to hit the slopes for a little bit on Sunday, I still had the photo call for The Rocky Horror Show and then I had to move a couple lighting fixtures from that show up to our theatre and focus them.  So, even Sunday was not much of a day off, but getting out and getting some sun was really nice.  It was also great to be able to see my cousin who is here for a ski vacation.

I do have to say though, I think that I really do have a much better understanding of what Our Town is really about.  In fact, it is actually interesting to me that so many people read this play in high school.  I would imagine that it will have even more meaning when I am older than I am currently.  I think it also hits home for me on account of the fact that it takes place in New Hampshire, which is a place that I really love.  I know almost all of the places that are talked about and life in New Hampshire is still pretty similar.  The small towns there are sometimes on the same wavelength still.

Looking out the window at the moon pondering the universe. This is why I have been silent on the blog for a few days!

It is the meaning of life things that are really interesting.  It actually really reminds me of another post that I wrote about  living life.  The third act of the play is one that can really come from left field if you don’t know the show at all.  Dealing with life and death and how we handle those transitions can be really hard.  One of the lines in the play is: “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every minute?”   The answer given is that only a few poets and saints do.  This makes sense to me, I don’t think we really understand what we have, where we are or where we are going while we are living.  Sometimes I am sure that we take life for granted.

The moments that we have on this earth, in this life, with the people we care about are short when you are faced with eternity.  The perspective is very interesting, though provoking, and belittling.  Our Town tells a beautiful story and I am glad that I finally have the opportunity to work on a real production of it.  I am also glad that I get to just watch it, and not have to work it.  If you are in the SLC area I would suggest coming to see it as well.

It is that time of the week again. It is kinda crazy that the week is almost over, I feel like it just started. The days went really slowly, but here we are at Friday, and it is time for another feature photo. The photo below is from the publicity photo call for Our Town at the Pioneer Theatre.

Amelia McClain as Emily in PTC's production of Our Town

As the story takes place around the turn of the twentieth century, it seemed appropriate to “age” the image.  The original image can be seen here.  I also wanted to try out some of the great new features in Aperture 3 which made achieving this look really easy.  Personally, I love the sepia look along with the softened skin textures.  I also added a vignette to the image but it is pretty subtle.

I would love to hear any comments or critiques that anyone has on this image or any of the images in the galleries that I have linked to.