Come Home to "Our Town" At Beck Center In Lakewood

Beck Center Youth Theater presents Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, Our Town, November 1 through 4, 2012 on the Mackey Main Stage. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. There is a 10 a.m. student matinee on Thursday, November 1. Tickets are now on sale.

Described as the greatest American play ever written, Our Town tells the story of the Webb and Gibb families who live in the small town of Grover’s Corners. Narrated by a stage manager and performed with minimal set and props, the play is performed in three acts – Daily Life, Love/Marriage, and Death/Loss. Audiences follow the families as their children fall in love, marry, and eventually, in one of the most famous scenes in American theater, pass away. Our Town reminds us that life is both precious and ordinary, and that these two fundamental truths are intimately connected.

Directed by Jonathan Kronenberger, Our Town features a cast of 33 students from Beck Center’s arts education programs. “With the 75th anniversary of Our Town coming up early next year, I felt it was perfect timing to explore this classic play with our students,” said Kronenberger, associate director of Beck Center’s Theater Education. “Having the chance to work on this challenging piece of literature with actors ranging from 9 to 18 years old has been a real gift,” he added. “There is so much to discuss, explore and share with these young actors. It reminds us how fleeting time is and yet how we never quite lose that child inside.”

This production of Our Town is dedicated to Tony Award-winning writer Mark O’Donnell, who passed away suddenly this past summer at the age of 58. A Cleveland native, O’Donnell got his start in theater at the age of 17 when he performed in Lakewood Little Theatre’s production of Our Town. O’Donnell was a playwright, novelist, poet, cartoonist, and sometime songwriter, but was best known for co-writing the book for the Broadway hit musical Hairspray for which he won a Tony Award with co-author Thomas Meehan.

Tickets for Our Town are $12 for Adult/Senior (65 and over) and $10 for Children/Student (18 and under). To purchase tickets, visit beckcenter.org or call 216.521.2540, ext. 10. Beck Center is located at 17801 Detroit Avenue in Lakewood, just 10 minutes west of downtown Cleveland. Free onsite parking is available. Beck Center’s production of Our Town is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc., New York City, and is sponsored by Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, the Ohio Arts Council, and Music Is Elementary.

Beck Center for the Arts is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization that offers professional theater productions, arts education programming in dance, music, theater, visual arts, early childhood, and creative arts therapies, and gallery exhibits featuring regional artists. For more information about the Beck Center, visit beckcenter.org.