The Play Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, is a play presenting the life as it is in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. The play uses three acts to show three different events as they are in Grover’s Corners. The play is unique because it uses very little props but instead forces the audience to use their imagination in depicting the different objects. This play is narrated by the Stage Manager who also serves as some of the characters in the play. The Stage Manager breaks in many times to describe the town, and other things about Grover’s Corners. The play takes place in the early 1900’s but in no specific year because each act skips ahead a few years into the future to show a different event in Grover’s Corners. There are many different characters in the play, but the main characters are those of the Gibbs and Webb family. The two most important characters of the play are George Gibbs and Emily Webb whose lives the events in each act revolve around.

The first act is about life in Grover’s Corners and acts out a typical day in the town. The Stage Manager introduces the act and explains to the audience the layout of the town. Since there are very few props the audience must rely heavily upon the information given by the Stage Manager to form images in their mind of what the city may have looked like at the time. This act takes place May 7, 1901 and it begins at dawn and runs until the people of the town go to sleep. The act begins with the delivery of the paper and the milk as Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb head to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the family. Dr. Gibbs has just returned home from the delivery of twins and enters his kitchen to wait for breakfast. Both Women call the children to breakfast and make sure they eat and get to school on time. The members of the Gibbs and Webb family are introduced here; you already know there is a Mrs. Webb and a Mrs. Gibbs and their two husbands. Two kids also belong to each family to the Gibbs the older son George and younger daughter Rebecca and to the Webb the older daughter Emily and the younger son Wally. The kids then head off to school and the husbands off to work leaving the two wives home to do the housework. Mrs. Gibbs goes out to feed the chickens and meets Mrs. Webb stringing beans. She helps Mrs. Gibbs string beans while she tells her about an offer of three hundred and fifty dollars she received for her highboy. Then the Stage Manager breaks in and has two experts, Professor Willard and Mr. Webb provide information about the town’s past and present.

When the day resumes the kids are just getting out of school and are on their way home. On their way home George and Emily run into each other, and George compliments Emily on the speech she made in class. They talk about school and George asks Emily if she could help him with his homework. Later that night the women head off to choir practice and the children do their homework. The woman are in a kind of dilemma because their organist, Simon Stimson, is the town drunk and they are not sure what to do about this situation. George and Emily’s windows are close to each other so George asks Emily for help with his homework out his window. After the women are done with choir practice and the children have finished their homework everyone heads to bed. Mr. Webb, the editor of the local newspaper, is one of the last to go home to bed. As he finishes with the paper he has a brief conversation with Constable Warren and before heading home they see the drunk, Simon Stimson, wondering the streets. Then as everyone goes to bed the act ends.

The Stage Manager once again introduces the act and gives us the new setting. It is still the same small town of Grover’s Corners but it is no longer May of 1901, but instead it is July 7, 1904. This act contains a different focus than the first; it is not about life in Grover’s Corners, but about love and marriage. The act starts out the same as the first, with the delivery of milk and paper and the making of breakfast. It has been raining, and George comes down the stairs and tries to walk right out the door without the proper clothing. His mother stops him, of course, to make him at least put on the right clothing. George then goes next door to try and see his bride to be, but is turned away by the Webbs because of an old superstition that says it is bad luck to see the bride before the wedding.

George returns to his house and the stage manager breaks in again. This time the stage manager takes us backwards in time to the conversation when George and Emily realize that they are right for each other. On the way home from school Emily and George meet, and George asks to carry Emily’s books home. Emily complies and they proceed to walk home, but on the way they run into a bit of trouble. Emily tells George that he has become conceited and stuck – up and that he needs to change then she begins to cry. George thanks Emily for telling him this, vows that he will change, and asks Emily to get an ice cream soda with him. They go to Morgan’s drugstore to get a couple ice cream sodas and talk before they head home. They order from Mr. Morgan, played by the stage manager, and talk about what George is doing after High School. During their conversation George realizes that he doesn’t need to go to agricultural school to become a farmer since he found what he wanted right here. After this conversation ends the stage manager breaks in and takes us back to the current day. This time we are taken to the start of the wedding of George Gibbs and Emily Webb. They both get cold feet but after talking to someone they realize that they do want to marry each other and proceed with the wedding. Everything goes well but most of what is being said is blocked out by the words of Mrs. Soames, who can’t help but say how beautiful the wedding is. After the wedding is complete the act comes to an end.

The third and final act is about another extremely important event in life, death. This time it is the summer of 1913; George and Emily have been married 9 years. This act is again begun with an introduction by the stage manager, but instead of beginning with the delivery of milk and the paper it begins on a cemetery on top of a hill. You see Mrs. Gibbs and Wally among others sitting in chairs on the stage; these are the dead and buried people of the cemetery. There is a freshly dug grave and a procession nearing the cemetery. As the procession nears you see men carrying a casqued and others with umbrellas, because it has been raining. The procession arrives and starts the funeral and as they do this Emily sits in the chair next to Mrs. Gibbs. Emily has died giving birth to her second child, and it is her funeral that everyone is here for. Emily carries on a brief conversation with Mrs. Gibbs and when she is done the funeral has ended. Emily finds out she can relive days of her life and, even after being warned not to by others of the cemetery, she chooses to relive her twelfth birthday. The stage manager, who can be seen by the dead, gives Emily what she wishes and takes her to the beginning of her twelfth birthday. Emily can’t seem to believe how young her and her parents are and cannot stand reliving this day. She chose to relive the whole day but changes her mind before breakfast has even ended. She is taken back to the cemetery and realizes she must stay there to forget. The Stage Manager then ends the play by telling the audience to go home and get a good rest.