All kinds of plays are performed around the world, whether they are comedies, tragedies, musicals, or something else entirely. Every one of them requires a lot of talent, passion, and time to be put on. On Thursday, November 14 through Saturday, November 16, the Royal Players performed their play, Our Town from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The play followed Emily Webb and George Gibbs who, in the first act, fall in love, in the second, get married, and in the third, get separated by death. It tells of the importance of the town you live in, dedicating most of the beginning to getting to know their town, Grover’s Corners, and having a monologue about it at the end. There were talented students in all of the parts and everyone’s love for acting was clear in their deliveries. Intermission was between the second and third acts, in which they sold foods like brownies and water. The props they used made the scenes feel more like they were actually happening, instead of just being on a stage. The whole set was created with care and worked with the story perfectly.
After the play, the theater director, Ms. Suzy Jeffords, explained why she chose this particular one, “One of the things that I loved about this play is that Grover’s corners kind of reminded me of Simi Valley, the town that we lived in, so I was hoping that it would make people think about the town they lived in.” She stated that she wanted people to love their town and not want to live anywhere else.
Playing the lead of Emily Webb, Senior Willow Sutton-Coats said that her favorite scene was, “my death scene, specifically the very end when I’m giving my goodbye monologue. It took me a while to get into being able to get emotional, so I wrote down things I’m saying goodbye to in my life, and it kind of helped me.”
She also explained why she thinks the play is so successful and being performed at different schools, “I think because it’s so simple, but there’s so much depth to the characters. It’s about a small town, not much is happening but the underlying story makes it so popular because people get emotional and people connect to the story.”
Our Town is a play that everyone can relate to because of how broad the idea is. It’s about life, which is something that every single person experiences. We all grow up, we all have memories we cherish, we all eventually die and leave our life behind. Watching the play, you will most likely find something that resonates with you.
