Pulitzer Drama Readings of the Week

1. Our Town
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1938, Our Town may be the most popular American play ever written. It explores traditional American values of religion, community, family, and the simple pleasures of life, while employing innovative elements such as minimalist stage sets, a Stage Manager who narrates and controls the action, and a character who speaks from the grave. (see link to more from enotes). Enotes, also says, "It is quite possible that on almost any given day of the year, somewhere in the world, Our Town is being performed by either a professional company or an amateur troupe of actors."Now, that's one popular play!



2. The Skin of our Teeth, (1942) "Thornton Wilder's unconventional drama about the history of humankind.... Disrupting traditional notions of linear time, Wilder's play tells the story of the twentieth-century American Antrobus family in three acts which recount such epochal events as the onset of the Ice Age, the start of Great Flood, and the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Ending exactly as it began, the play illustrates the cyclical nature of existence, celebrating humanity's resilience, inventiveness, and will to survive." (see link to more from enotes)

Wanna read what i have to say about them? It's not much, but you can...

I have to admit that while I was moved to tears by Our Town, and my immediate life lessons are resonating with what Becky learned in Act III, I'm going to have to go and re-read The Skin of Our Teeth again, now that I've looked at enotes and searched out someone else's explanation of the play. I found it amusing, and indeed unconventional, but wow, i just didn't get most of it. As I read I knew that it was burgeoning with allusions to all kinds of juicy deeper meaning. It was a harvest of subtle clever fruit that was admittedly just over my head, so i went online to wrap my mind around it. Here's my favourite quote, from Act III ""Oh, I've never forgotten for long at a time that living is a struggle. I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for--whether it's a field, or a home, or a country.
All I ask is the chance to build new worlds and God has always giving us that."

Have you ever read either of these plays? Go get a copy of one today. Really terrific literature. Inspiring creative genius. I'm liking this pulitzer prize reading quest!