1. There is NO WARM-UP today or the rest of this week! Please be prepared to present your IEP projects tomorrow - even if you’re not scheduled to – incase of absences. Review the rubric on Web Back Pack to make sure you’re ready! On Friday we will begin reading Our Town.

2. Welcome to… Our Town A Play in Three Acts By Thornton Wilder

3. Who is Thornton Wilder? Born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1897 Second of five children Parents were cultured and well- educated—insisted the children work hard and instilled a love of drama, literature, and language In 1915, enrolled in Oberlin College, studying the Greek and Roman classics In 1917, followed family to Connecticut and enrolled in Yale University Studied archaeology at the American Academy in Rome Received a master’s in French literature in 1926 from Princeton University Read widely in English, French, and German and conversed in Italian and Spanish.

4. Who is Thornton Wilder? Taught French at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, lectured on comparative literature at the University of Chicago, served as a visiting professor at the University of Hawaii, and taught poetry at Harvard University Even after he'd achieved publishing success, considered himself a teacher first and a writer second Won first Pulitzer Prize for his breakthrough novel was The Bridge Of San Luis Rey (1927), an examination of the fate of five travelers who fall to their deaths from a bridge in 18th-century Peru. Earned second Pulitzer for Our Town (1938), making him the only American author to win Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and drama The Skin of Our Teeth (1943) earned him his third Pulitzer Prize Wrote a play called The Matchmaker (1954) which was turned into the musical Hello, Dolly! (1964) and earned 10 Tony Awards on Broadway Died on December 7, 1975 at the age of 78 in Hamden, Connecticut, where he had lived for many years with his devoted sister Isabel

5. What in the heck is a Pulitzer Prize? Joseph Pulitzer was a skillful American newspaper publisher in the 19 th century. His newspapers reshaped newspaper journalism. Pulitzer was the first to call for the training of journalists at the university level in a school of journalism. In writing his 1904 will, Pulitzer made provision for the establishment of the Pulitzer Prizes, which were incentives for excellence in journalism, education, literature, and drama. Later, awards were given in music and photography as well.

6. What is the most ordinary thing you can think of? Well, what did you think of? Even though it is ordinary, do you consider it important to life (yours or someone else’s)? Why or why not?

7. Thornton Wilder would believe anything in your ordinary life is important… Why? To Wilder, human life, however painful, dreary, or inconsequential in its daily events, is both a precious gift in its own right as well as a portion of the mysterious plan that rests in the “Mind of God.”

8. Where does Our Town take place? Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire from 1901-1913 Fictitious town representing small town America at the turn of the century – Out-of-the-way, simple existence Modeled after Peterborough, New Hampshire

9. Central Values of Our Town Christian morality – "Love your neighbor as you love yourself" Mark 12:31 – Known as the “Golden Rule” Community The family Appreciation of everyday pleasures – What would you consider everyday pleasures?

10. “Our claim, our hope, our despair are in the mind, not in ‘scenery.’” --Thornton Wilder The play begins with the stage directions, “No curtain. No scenery.” At the time when Our Town was on Broadway, theatrical presentations were lavish. Wilder was being radical and experimental No scenery, few props, mimed actions, and dramatis persona (Latin for a cast of characters) who fluidly travels in and out of the action of the play

11. “It's a little play with all the big subjects in it.” -- Thornton Wilder The play aims to capture the universal experience of being alive and existing: Act I: “Daily Life” Act II: “Love and Marriage” Act III: “Life and Death”