Director’s Note.
Nearly three years ago I made the journey from the East Coast to our town in Ephraim, Utah. It was a dark drive through the mountains, but the stars were the brightest I’d even seen. The world around me quieted and I knew I had found someplace special. It was an adjustment, of course, from Chicago and New York, but not a severe one as one might think. Those places never sat close to my heart. I often would joke that New York and I had a mutual distain for one another; we simply tolerated one another. I grew up in small town, and there was something about this place that resonated with me — that made sense to me.
Over the next years, I’ve come to appreciate our corner of the world more and more. The sky and mountains, our college community and the one’s surrounding and within it, and of course the people. For me, there’s still so much to explore (theatre people don’t get out much). But isn’t that wonderful? Even smaller places are filled with infinite possibilities and details to embrace.
Ephraim and Grover’s Corners have many things in common, and I’m sure you’ll notice that as you watch. Mr. Wilder’s universality certainly helps with the comparison. But I wanted to lean into the our in Our Town, just a bit more. The set pulls from local architecture from around the area, the trellises are modeled after one in in a nearby town. Some of the furniture you’ll see is built right from our own mountain wood (don’t worry, we had a permit). Some of the music you’ll hear tonight was written by faculty from our music department. The cast includes both members of town and the college combined. The editor of Grover’s Corners newspaper? An English professor. Likewise, the show’s science professor? A science professor from Snow College.
Theatre is my primary language. And so, I decided to mount this play as a thank you and love letter to this place many of us call home, myself now included.
Credits:
Written by Thornton Wilder
Director: Andrew Nogasky
Assistant Director: Dakota Davis
Scenic Designer: Trenton Bean
Costume Designer: Kathleen Hansen
Lighting Designers: Milinda Weeks, Dean Bressler
Sound Designer: Jacob Clawson
Foley Designers: Sara McIver, Triniti Murray
Technical Director: Trenton Bean
Dramaturges: Boston Smith, McKenna Thompson
Provided Music by: Trent Hannah
Photos provided by Milinda Weeks, Natalie Scarlet