Huntington Theater Company Presents OUR TOWN, 12/7-1/13

The Huntington Theatre Company brings Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning Our Town home to Boston on its 75th anniversary in a landmark staging by Obie Award winner David Cromer (Tribes, Adding Machine). The remount of the acclaimed New York production that features a homegrown cast will inaugurate the Huntington's use of the intimate, 250-seat Roberts Studio Theatre in the Huntington's Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.

Cromer's concept has been hailed as the Our Town of a generation. It is recognized for being revelatory yet faithful, and is renowned for its transparent stagecraft, sensory experience, and the audience's proximity to the actors. Runs in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles generated widespread critical and audience acclaim. Honored with the 2009 Obie Award for Directing and 2009 Lucille Lortel Awards for Best Revival and Direction, the Off Broadway mounting ran for more than 600 performances, making it the longest-running production in the history of the play.

"David Cromer's new production of Our Town is at once reverent and groundbreaking," says Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois. "His creative genius and innovative storytelling make him among the most exciting artists working in the American theatre today. Wilder's play mines the depths of our relationship to home and community, and so I find it fitting and deeply satisfying that David will be engaging a company of actors that includes many of Boston's best talents."

The Huntington production will feature a cast of 32, 29 of whom are local Boston actors. Cromer himself will reprise the role of "Stage Manager" from December 7 through 30. Boston actor Joel Colodner (A Memory of Two Mondays on Broadway) will complete the run.

In 1901 Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, teenagers George and Emily fall in love, marry, and live out their lives as one small New England town becomes a microcosm of every day life. Obie Award winner David Cromer's wonderfully intimate staging of Thornton Wilder's beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning classic was an Off Broadway sensation, playing for more than 600 performances.

Our Town is the most produced play in the United States, and it is believed that a production is playing somewhere each day of the year. 2013 marks the 75th anniversary of Our Town, which premiered at Princeton's McCarter Theatre on January 22, 1938 and began performances at Boston's Wilbur Theatre on January 25 before debuting in New York on February 4.

The cast includes: Richard Arum as Professor Willard (Romeo and Juliet at Stoneham Theatre); Marianna Bassham as Mrs. Soames (The Luck of the Irish at the Huntington); Nicholas Carter as Sam Craig (The Old Man and the Sea at Stoneham Theatre); Joel Colodner as "Stage Manager" beginning Dec. 31 (A Memory of Two Mondays on Broadway); David Cromer as "Stage Manager" through December 30; Paul Farwell as Constable (Carnival at Gloucester Stage Company); Stacy Fischer as Mrs. Webb (A Month in the Country at the Huntington); Douglas Griffin as Farmer McCarty (The Happiness Cage at The Public Theater); Melinda Lopez as Mrs. Gibbs (Persephone at the Huntington); Kathryn Lynch as Irma (Pericles upcoming with Actors Shakespeare Project); Jay Ben Markson as Joe, Jr. (Mrs. Whitney at Merrimack Repertory Theatre); Craig Mathers as Doc Gibbs (Tea and Sympathy at Keen Company); Nael Nacer as Simon Stimson (The Kite Runner at New Repertory Theatre); Dale Place as Joe Stoddard (Ah, Wilderness! at the Huntington); Therese Plaehn as Emily (Three Sisters at Makehouse); Alex Pollock as Howie (The Aliens at Company One); Elliot Purcell as Wally (These Shining Lives at Boston College); Emily Skeggs as Rebecca (Take Me Along at Irish Repertory Theatre); Christopher Tarjan as Editor Webb (resident director of Shear Madness); Derrick Trumbly as George Gibbs (Rent at About Face Theatre/American Theater Company); and Ryan Wenke as Si Crowell (Romeo and Juliet at Brown Box Theatre Company).