Spending time in 'Our Town' is rewarding

Forget everything you may remember about reading "Our Town" in high school.

"It's too bad the way a lot of people come across this play," said Charles Morey, artistic director for Pioneer Memorial Theatre Company and director of the Thornton Wilder classic.

"Most people read it in high school or they see a high school production of it. And at that age, you don't understand the depth."

"It is, very simply, THE great American play."

The 72-year-old drama, about a small average town with average folks doing average things may sound unremarkable.

But "Our Town" is the most produced play in the country — at any given moment, there is a production running.

"It is a profoundly moving and a profoundly important play," Morey said.

In the preface of the play, Wilder states it is "an attempt to find value above all price for the smallest events of daily life."

"It's brilliant the way which Wilder succeeds," Morey said. "What he's able to do in the play is look at very, very small events in very, very ordinary lives and translate that into something enormous."

There are three acts: The first looks at daily life, the second is about love and marriage and the third addresses death.

"This is the fifth time I've done this play, fourth time directing," Morey said, "and what's fascinating is my first experience with the play was 34 years ago, before I was married and had children.

"At each step along the way, the play has a deeper resonance," he said. "Each time I do it I discover something else."

Morey's wife, actress Joyce Cohen, plays Mrs. Webb. "Joyce was Emily for me the first time I directed it, then she did it again 25 years later here," Morey said. "She did Mrs. Webb in '93 and now Mrs. Webb again. Together we've done this show, which kind of parallels our own lives," he said. "It's wonderful that she's doing it and in some ways I couldn't imagine doing it without her."

"And the rest of the cast is terrific," he said, adding there's "a lot of familiar faces in it — which is very important in this play. You want to create instant community."

One of those familiar faces is local actor Paul Kiernan, who just finished a successful run as Juror 10 in "Twelve Angry Men," also at PTC.