Thornton Wilder

Was he called Thor?
In 1960 I read that Our Town was the
most produced high school play ever.
It was my first production as a teacher.
I still remember some of the cast. They
are heading for sixty-years-old now.

I did it again when Pat was dying.
I didn't have the heart to build a set.
That was 1975. Last night I saw Casie's
production on the same stage, and
Thornton Wilder rushed back into
my weeping conscious

That man was a genius. He has not
one sentimental bone in his body of
work, yet he produces raging feelings
almost unexplainable in their depth.
Daily life, love and marriage, death
are the divisions in Our Town.

Is there much more to life? Not really.
He covers the Ice Age and War in By
The Skin Of Our Teeth. Not bad. There's
love and politics in there also. I guess he
didn't get in sports, but what the hell.
He does peek at technology.

"Now you know!" the dead choir director
says from his bitter grave, the unloved man,
followed by the weeping George at his young
wife's grave. Mr. Wilder, you gave us a
Shakespearean juxtaposition. All the
bitterness in the world will not dampen love.