AUDITIONS: Dept. of Theater Fall 2025

"It is an attempt to find a value above all price for the smallest events of our daily life.” 

—Thornton Wilder on Our Town

TIME/SETTING: 3 Acts. The play begins on May 7, 1901, and the play ends twelve years later in the summer of 1913.  Grover's Corners, New Hampshire.

CAST:

15 - 17 actors for the ensemble

• This play will be cast with a variety of gender ideas for roles.
• In terms of racial identity: all racial identities will be considered for all roles of the play.
• In terms of accessibility: all abilities will be considered for all roles of the play.

MAJOR CHARACTERS:

• The Stage Manager is the play’s narrator, who both guides the actions of the play and addresses the audience directly. Always descriptive, sometimes didactic, often funny, the character of the Stage Manager guide the audience through the story of the play. Any gender/casting.

The Webb Family

• Mr. Charles Webb is the publisher and editor of the town newspaper, the Grover’s Corners Sentinel.
• Mrs. Myrtle Webb, Mother of Emily & Wally, wife of Mr. Webb
• Emily, older sister of Wally, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Webb, wife of George Gibbs. The brightest girl in Grover’s Corners, dreams of living an extraordinary life. In Act II, she marries George Gibbs after realizing that his opinion means more to her than anyone else’s.
• Wally, the Webb’s youngest child. (May be cast with all genders)

The Gibbs Family

• Dr. Frank Gibbs is the town doctor.  
• Mrs. Julia Gibbs, Mother of George and Rebecca, wife of Dr. Gibbs
• George Gibbs, son. Son of Dr. & Mrs. Gibbs, older brother of Rebecca, husband of Emily Webb. Even as a teenager, George wants to be a farmer and marry Emily.
• Rebecca Gibbs, George’s older sister. (May be cast with all genders)

Townspeople & Ensemble (not the families)

• Joe Crowell: When the play begins, Joe Crowell is the town’s 11-year-old newsboy. He later gets a scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (May be cast with all genders)
• Simon Stimson: the organist at church who secretly drinks too much, “has seen a pack of trouble.” (May be cast with all genders)
• Constable Warren: the local police officer. (May be cast with all genders)
• Howie Newsome: the local milkman. (May be cast with all genders)
• Professor Willard: a professor at the State University, also will play the character of a Baseball Player. (May be cast with all genders)
• Joe Stoddard: the town undertaker. Also the characters of townsperson / Choir member / Wedding guest. (May be cast with all genders)
• Mrs. Soames: a gossipy woman who sings in the church choir.
• Sam Craig: Emily Webb’s cousin, who has left Grover’s Corners to travel west. Also, will play the character of a Baseball Player. (May be cast with all genders)
• 2 towns people, ensemble members. (May be cast with all genders)

Written by acclaimed writer Thornton Wilder, Our Town is described as one of “the greatest American plays ever written.” Our Town presents the small town of Grover’s Corners, NH in three acts: 

• Act 1: “Daily Life”
• Act 2: “Love and Marriage”
• Act 3: “Death and Eternity” 

Narrated throughout by the character of the Stage Manager and performed with minimal props and sets (which is the way Thornton Wilder wrote the play), Our Town depicts the simple daily lives of the Webb and Gibbs families as their children fall in love, marry, and eventually – in one of the most famous scenes in American theatre – die. 

Thornton Wilder’s stage drama Our Town (written in 1938) takes place between 1901 and 1913 in Grover’s Corners, a community that has not produced anyone very “remarkable” (p. 6). The townspeople know many pleasures: seeing the sun rise over the mountain, noticing the birds, watching for the change of seasons. Wilder wanted the play to show “the life of a village against the life of the stars,” he said in an early preface to the book, and to explore “the trivial details of human life in reference to a vast perspective of time, of social history and of religious ideas.”

The audience encounters Grover’s Corners through the point of view of the Stage Manager—a character in the play who functions as the narrator and a sympathetic director. While he sometimes talks directly to the actors, he maintains his distance; most of his lines are delivered as an address to the audience. He tells the audience that the play will show “people a thousand years from now” that “this is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying.” 

The three acts of the play mostly follow two characters, Emily Webb and George Gibbs, who go to school together in Act I, marry in Act II, and experience tragedy in Act III. The play’s opening stage directions are clear and radical, especially for 1938: “No curtain. No scenery.” The costumes are simple; the lighting instructions, complex.

On January 22, 1938, the first performance of Our Town took place at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. The first New York performance occurred soon thereafter—a now-famous production at the Henry Miller Theatre directed by Jed Harris. Widely produced abroad, this Pulitzer Prize-winning play is not only an American classic but a classic of world literature.In Emily's final epiphany—wisdom she has learned through suffering—we seem to hear Thornton Wilder's voice speak to us: "Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you."

This show will be performed on:

• WEDNESDAY, NOV. 19 @ 7:30PM
• THURSDAY, NOV. 20 @ 7:30PM
• FRIDAY, NOV. 21 @ 7:30PM
• SATURDAY, NOV. 22 @ 7:30PM

4 Performances Total. The week before performances, Nov. 12-18, is most especially a busy time for all actors, and actors are required to attend ALL rehearsals on these dates. 

Rehearsals for a play are super, super, SUPER FUN! But there are many, many rehearsals that actors need to attend in order to prepare a play.

Rehearsals will begin on September 11 and continue to the dates of performances: November 19, 20, 21 & 22, 2025.  

The production will rehearse about 4 days a week in 3 hour blocks of time.  

The rehearsal schedule is a collaboration with cast members: we pay attention to your class and/or work schedule to create the rehearsal schedule. We do our very best to help take care of you. But, we cannot work around every cast member's packed personal schedule.

We make use of mostly evenings for rehearsal meeting times. We may make use of Friday evenings & Saturday afternoons because folks tend to be free at these times. 

• If you audition for this play, it is an expectation that you have adequate time in your college and personal schedule to attend ALL scheduled rehearsals to develop this production.
• If you audition for this play, it is an expectation that you will arrive 10 minutes before each scheduled rehearsal in order to be present at the start time of rehearsal meetings.

Please don't worry about the needs of our rehearsal schedule, timing tends to work itself out: anything well-made takes time! And remember: rehearsals are fun because the focus is on YOU!

Some roles/characters in this play will be needed for rehearsals 4 days a week, while other roles will NOT be needed 4 nights a week for rehearsal.  

You can also register to take this experience for 1 – 3 course credits, fulfilling NHCC Goal 6 requirements. 

We also seek technical / backstage crew personnel for this production! You can register to take this experience of working in a technical role as a 1 – 3 course, fulfilling NHCC Goal 6 requirements. 

Auditions will take place in FAC 178 which is the NHCC Main Theater. Auditions will have a check-in table located in the lobby area of the theater, which is located directly across from FAC rooms 119 & 120.

• Please plan on about 45 mins. of time for your audition. Please don’t schedule an activity immediately after your planned audition time as you don’t want to feel rushed and the audition may take a bit more time than planned.
• There will be a table for check-in in the lobby of the FAC, immediately outside the Main Theater and across from FAC rooms 119 & 120.
• We need you to fill out a form that asks about information for you:
  • Your course schedule
  • Your work schedule (if applicable)
  • Your contact information
  • Any skills or talents you have​
• You are also welcome to bring an acting resume for your audition if you have one available (optional, not required)
• Please download this tipsheet for auditions!
• We will audition actors one or two at a time in the Main Theater.
• The people present in the room to observe your audition will be the show's director.
• You will be asked to perform a short selection from the play, with a script, and you will also be guided through physical movement activities during your audition.
• Readings/scripts will be provided! You do not have to prepare a memorized monologue.
  • If you are a theater major, you are more than welcome to prepare a 1 - 2 minute dramatic monologue (no Shakespeare) for this audition. But, you will also read sides provided at the audition.
  • Keep in mind that this play is in the acting style of Realism.

• Please download this tipsheet for auditions!
• If you would like to prepare a 1 - 2 minute spoken monologue, we'd appreciate that! But, it is not required that actors prepare a monologue for auditions; we realize you are busy.
  • If you are a theater major, you are more than welcome to prepare a 1 - 2 minute dramatic monologue (no Shakespeare) for this audition. But, you will also read sides provided at the audition.
  • Keep in mind that this play is in the style of Realism. Monologues with realistic, contemporary "feeling" language/dialogue are preferred.
• We will provide monologues from the play at auditions for you to read aloud. Please arrive early to look over the selections that can be found at the check-in table.  
• We will also ask you to move for guided physical activities during your audition.

You do not need to sign-up in advance for a time slot. 

• Auditions are held on a "drop-in" basis. We will see people as they arrive - in the order of their arrival. We hold "drop-in" auditions to help out with busy schedules.
• We are holding auditions on Saturday (Sept. 6), and this might be a better day to think about for your audition as you may have more open time on a Saturday.
• More Questions? No problem - send an email, and we'll help you find answers. All Qs welcome.
• This production will be directed by Dr. Mayorga (NHCC Theatre Faculty).
• Email Qs about auditions to: irma.mayorga@nhcc.edu