Concord Theatricals has acquired licensing rights to a new multilingual adaptation of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. The adaptation, which does not update the play's setting or time period but features material in Spanish and Creole (translated by Nilo Cruz and Jeff Augustin respectively), was commissioned by and premiered at Miami New Drama in 2017.
The text changes are the first Wilder Family-approved changes in the play's history; the work premiered in 1938 and has been in the charge of Wilder's family since his passing in 1975.
"Thornton Wilder conceived Our Town as a universal play about everyone, everywhere,” says Wilder's nephew and literary executor Tappan Wilder. "This new multilingual version amplifies his perspective in a dramatic 21st century way. We’re thrilled to take this significant step with Wilder’s world-famous play.”
"The goal was to depict a community that truly looked like Our Town. A community of immigrants, divided by language but united by the shared condition of being alive." adds Miami New Drama Artistic Director Michel Hausmann. "We are honored that this vision of a modern-day Grover’s Corners will now have the potential to be shared by a diversity of artists and audiences across America."
Our Town centers on a small New Hampshire town Grover's Corners at the turn of the century, using minimalist production values to track the simply daily lives of the town's inhabitants as they fall in love, marry, and die. The work premiered at New Jersey's McCarter Theater in 1938 before eventually coming to Broadway the same year, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In addition to a 1940 film adaptation and 1955, 1977, 1989, and 2003 TV broadcasts, Our Town has become a favorite of regional and community theatres as well as schools.
A Scott Rudin-produced revival, starring Dustin Hoffman and directed by Bartlett Sher, eyes a Broadway bow once theatres reopen.
For more information on licensing Our Town (Multilingual), visit ConcordTheatricals.com.
