Our Town Critique

On October 14, 2016, I had the pleasure to attend my first university production of Our Town, a metatheatrical three-act drama from 1938 written by Thornton Wilder and directed by Philip Hays Wortham. The production was performed at the University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts in the proscenium stage using the university theater students as the actors. Our Town consisted of three acts; the first was a simple introductory scene with the stage manager informing the audience on the history and the daily life of residents in the small town Grover’s Corners in 1901, the second act consisted of the transition of the town with three years passing and a wedding is taking place between two well-known people in town, the final act takes place nine years later in the town and a funeral has just occurred for the bride of the second act. Overall, Wortham’s production of Our Town was an delightful, family …show more content…
Most of the costumes worn by the actors were appropriate for the early 20th century. Throughout the whole production, the costume design pattern was reoccurring and stayed in one time period only. They strayed from drifting off to a modern look, which in my opinion was wonderful. Other productions of Our Town bask in the idea of crossing modern clothing with those of the historical period. However, in this production they did not pursue such a design and stayed devoted to the historical appeal. All outfits resembled the 1900s Western fashion consisting of male tights, vests, coats and female long gowns. The color palette of all the outfits was one of the same with an abundance of dull, soft earth tones including browns, whites, and blacks. There were no bright and loud colors, as it was in that era. The costumes appeared to be constructed using natural fabrics comprised of cotton and