NARROWSBURG, NY — The Delaware Valley Arts Alliance (DVAA) will host the play “Our Town,” which will feature local actors and take place in the Tusten Theatre, 210 Bridge St., on Fridays and Saturdays, October 16, 17 and 23 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, October 24 at 2:30 p.m.

“Our Town” is a play about a fictional small town in America called Grovers Corners in New Hampshire. The play was created by playwright Thornton Wilder in 1938 and has won a Pulitzer Prize. It explores themes of human life, love and death through the eyes of the Grovers Corners residents.

The River Reporter spoke with actresses from the play to understand the plays’ themes, characters and actors behind the characters. 

Jenn Torry, who is playing Mrs. Myrtle Webb, said the production “feels like an invitation to put your phone down and really notice the people sitting beside you.”

“I hope that people take a breath, slow down, and look around,” she said.

Lexee McEntee, who is playing Emily Webb, echoed Torry’s sentiments about the drama’s themes, commenting that she hopes audiences will appreciate life and the people around them more.

Luna Ditacchio, who is playing Rebecca Gibbs, said she hopes that audiences will realize it’s OK to dream big after watching the play.

“When you grow up, the world seems so small, but the world stays the same size, it’s just you getting bigger. Just make sure your dreams grow with you,” she said.

The characters of ‘Our Town’ 

“I think it’s quite tempting to characterize her as simply an oppressed woman, but she has wit. She has competence. She is strong,” Torry said about her character Mrs. Webb.

Torry also described her character as being impatient, practical, affectionate, sarcastic and sometimes really funny. 

“The more I get to know her [Mrs. Webb], the more I really respect this woman,” she said.

Ditacchio described Rebecca as being quite ambitious. “Rebecca’s that one kid who’s gonna have more than what they came into this world with,” she said.

McEntee said the audience will get to see her character Emily grow up during the play, as her first appearance is at the age of 12 and she matures into adulthood.

“We just see the ups and downs of relationships and life,” McEntee said.

Ditacchio felt similarly about her character, commenting that while Rebecca seems immature in the first act, she eventually “has to develop a level of maturity that’s quite astonishing for someone of her age.”

McEntee said that her favorite scene from “Our Town” is when Emily confronts George Gibbs about her feelings for him.

“It’s one of my favorite scenes ever written in any play,” McEntee said. “It really shows this emotional arc, and [it’s] such a true and honest portrayal of what it’s like to be vulnerable to somebody you really care about.”

The actors behind the characters 

The production features local actors at varying experience levels.

McEntee said she started acting when she was eight or nine years old, and she attended the NYU Tisch School of Acting. Since then, she’s been writing and acting in short films. She is now revisiting theatre for her role in “Our Town.”

Conversely, Torry said she hasn’t acted since high school until joining the play, and was pleasantly surprised when she landed a lead role.

“I am doing something fun for fun’s sake, which I think we could all do more of, frankly,” Torry said. She is from Lackwaxen, PA; is a bit newer to the area; and volunteers at Tusten Social. 

Ditacchio, who is 15 and from Glen Spey, said she went to audition for “Our Town” with some friends, and adored the script.

McEntee agreed that the script was amazing. “The whole play, the writing is incredible and it’s really timeless,” McEntee said. “Thornton Wilder was so ahead of his time.” 

The cast also has a great rapport with each other, according to the actresses.

Torry explained that before she started rehearsals, she was nervous to work with actors with much more experience. However, that feeling quickly faded. 

“It’s just a real sense of camaraderie without having to work very hard at it,” Torry explained.

Ditacchio said that actor James Sullivan, who is playing Dr. Gibbs, her character’s dad, used to be Ditacchio’s elementary school teacher.

Ditacchio added that one inside joke between her and cast member Hudson Williams-Eynon, who is playing George Gibbs—her brother in the play—is one about a “sick turkey” in reference to a line from the play. “Which is great because I definitely feel like I look like a sick turkey,” she said, laughing. “But it’s OK because I can bully him too.”

Women’s roles then vs. now 

McEntee said that a lot of the ambitions of the women in the play could not be fulfilled then the way they could today. For example: McEntee said that Emily wants to make speeches all the time, but was not able to.

Similarly, Ditacchio said that when her character Rebecca graduated from high school, it was considered a big accomplishment. Ditacchio said if Rebecca wanted more education than that now she could do that, and it would actually be considered the norm.

Ditacchio and Torry also added that women have more rights now, including voting.

Torry said she definitely felt like her character would not only be fighting for the right to vote, but would rally up a crowd in protest. 

“We could take a page out of her book and remember that it hasn’t always been this way.” she said.

Ditacchio said that while people today know there’s a world outside of their hometown, the thought is “kind of astonishing” to Rebecca Gibbs.

The way people take care of each other in a small town has not changed, Torry said.

Torry added that her character gets upset about things that would make women upset today, like her children shoveling food into their mouths, slouching and having sloppy clothes. 

McEntee agreed that family relations generally haven’t changed, and that for her, seeing that cohesive family unit in the play was nice because today “it’s harder to get that sense of family at times, because we’re all so split and fractured doing all of our millions of things.”

Tickets for the show can be bought online at www.delawarevalleyartsalliance.org/event/our-town/. 

For more information, visit the website above or call the DVAA at 845/252-7576.