"Our Town" Gets New Life at the Duncan Smith Theater

 Beginning Friday April 1,  The Holmdel Theatre Company is going to make you forget all your preconceived notions about Our Town, the famous play written by Thornton Wilder.

Their production, which runs through April 9, 2011, will take place in the Duncan Smith Theater, a 125 year old restored barn and the perfect setting for taking in a slice of Americana.

Director Michael Kroll seeks to breathe new life into America’s most famous play by taking a chance and presenting the play in “black box” theater style. Gone is the sense of nostalgia, the New England accents, and the period costumes. In their place will be raw emotion and humanity, and a personal connection with the audience.

The Holmdel Theatre Company has a distinctive mission to bring together professional actors, set designers and directors with non-professional community actors and high school students. Their goal is to create an innovative environment that allows for hands-on education and mentoring.  Veterans and new actors work side by side, learning and growing from each other’s talents and experiences. 

Producer Rebecca Harris Flynn feels that this production of Our Town really helps foster the theater’s mission due to the stripped down, intimate nature and the audience involvement.

 “This version really has a powerful effect on everyone involved,” she said.  “The close proximity of the audience and the actors make it impossible to ignore the emotion.”

The black box theatre approach is also an innovative way to use the unique atmosphere of the restored barn. Immediately upon entering the theater, one feels a deep sense of purity and artistic inspiration.  There is no set to distract from the living piece of history that houses the play, and there could be no better location to evoke a sense of pure Americana.

Director Michael Kroll was inspired to create this version of Our Town after seeing a black box performance of the play in New York City. He said he left overwhelmed by emotion and felt inspired to recreate a similar style performance that would leave the audience feeling as moved as he was.

Kroll’s version of Our Town is a more contemporary version which he describes  as “multiple snapshots of Americana.”  The cast wears everyday street clothes to take the focus of the “nostalgia” aspect of the play. Although the time period remains the turn of the century, the audience should get the sense that this could be a slice of someone’s life in any town at any time.

Kroll feels that the main focus of the play is to showcase the importance and beauty of the “small lives” that everyone lives. He feels that the black box style allows for the content of the play to be felt more, and the emotions to be more relatable to the audience.

“Every emotion imaginable is in this play,” Kroll says. “Each character has an inner turmoil that is very relatable and very human,” he says. “Our goal is to have everyone leave recognizing that the ordinary is precious and that we should be grateful for that.”

Performances of Our Town will be held on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from April 1st through the 9th at 8pm. On Sunday, April 3rd, there will be a matinee at 3 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased by visiting http://www.holmdeltheatrecompany.org/