The Manhattan High theater department is in the final week of preparing for the spring play, “Our Town.” Students are currently in tech week, finishing learning lines, practicing scenes and preparing the setting for the multi-act play.  

“Me and a couple of cast members watched a professional version of the show, to really understand what happens through the performance,” senior Vee Kotschwar said. Kotchwar has the role of Mrs. Soames in the play. 

“Our Town” is a play written by Thornton Wilder, who went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for the play, due to its themes of the everyday moments that form connections in life. Most people think of loud, flashy, extravagant shows when they think of Broadway. However, “Our Town” highlights the exact opposite, focusing on the small things in life like the growth of love and the passage of time. “Our Town” takes place in the small fictional town of Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire, in the early 1900s. An omniscient narrator, who interacts with the audience to reveal the inner thoughts of the main characters, guides the audience throughout the story. Senior Aubrianna Smith followed her turn as the title character in the winter musical “Mary Poppins” by earning this role of the Stage Manager after a long audition process.  

“I’m looking at my book, running my monologues, that’s kind of what I’m doing at the moment,” Smith said.

The story follows two major families within Grover’s Corner, the Webbs and the Gibbs, as Emily Webb and George Gibbs connect the families through their marriage. Emily Webb will be played by senior Aurie Mealing and George Gibbs will be played by junior Micah Pape. The play performances opens on Friday night in Rezac Auditorium at MHS, with matinee performances Saturday and Sunday and a Saturday night performance.   

“Audiences should expect this to be a tear jerker, nothing like what we’ve done in the past year,” Kotschwar said. “But it is still an amazing show and put on by an amazing cast.”