Part one: From the beginning of the Act through Mrs.Gibbs and Mrs. Webb’s conversation in the garden
Act shows a day in our town. The day is May 7, 1901. The time is just before dawn. A rooster crows. The sky is beginning to show some strealcs of light over in the East there, behind our mount'in. The morning star always gets wonderful bright the minute before it has to go,-doesn't it? He stares at it for a moment) then goes upstage. Scripts.com » Search results for: our town Yee yee! We've found 94 scripts matching our town.
Summary
The play opens with a view of an empty, curtainless, half-lighted stage.The Stage Manager enters and arranges minimal scenery—a table andthree chairs—to represent two houses, one on each side of the stage.The houselights dim as the Stage Manager moves about the stage.When the theater is completely dark, he introduces the play, namingthe playwright, producers, director, and cast. He then identifiesthe setting: the town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, just beforedawn on May 7, 1901.
The Stage Manager speaks directly to the audience as hemaps out local landmarks. The audience must use its imagination,since the minimalist set does not detail any of these landmarks,which include Main Street, the public schools, Town Hall, and several churches.The Stage Manager explains that the two sets of tables and chairsdenote the homes of the Gibbs family and the Webb family. As hespeaks, his assistants wheel out two trellises to represent theback doors of Mrs. Webb’s and Mrs. Gibbs’s homes. “There’s somescenery for those who think they have to have scenery,” the StageManager comments. He mentions that the 5:45 a.m. trainto Boston is just about to depart. A train whistle blows offstageand the Stage Manager looks at his watch, nodding.
As dawn breaks over Grover’s Corners, the Stage Managerproceeds to introduce the audience to the town’s inhabitants. Wewitness the beginning of a new day in the Webb and Gibbs households andobserve the morning activities of the two families and a few othertownspeople. The characters pantomime many of their actions dueto the absence of props and scenery. Mrs. Webb and Mrs. Gibbs entertheir respective kitchens, light their stoves, and begin makingbreakfast. The Stage Manager informs the audience that both Dr.Gibbs and Mrs. Gibbs have died since 1901,when this scene originally took place.
Our Town Play Script Act 2
Dr. Gibbs, on his way home from delivering a local woman’stwin babies, stops to chat briefly with the paperboy, Joe Crowell,Jr. They discuss the upcoming marriage of a local schoolteacher.Dr. Gibbs stands in the street and reads the paper as Joe exits.The Stage Manager interrupts the immediate action to inform theaudience that Joe would go on the become the brightest boy in highschool and study at Massachusetts Tech. Well on his way to becominga successful engineer, Joe would be killed in France during WorldWar I.
Howie Newsome, the milkman, enters with an invisiblehorse. Howie stops to converse with Dr. Gibbs, who gives him thenews of the twins’ birth. After Howie delivers his milk to the Gibbsresidence, Dr. Gibbs goes inside and greets his wife, who has madecoffee for him. Mrs. Gibbs asks her husband to speak to their teenage son,George, about helping around the house more often. Next door, Mrs.Webb calls her children—Emily and Wally—down to breakfast. In theGibbs household, George and his sister, Rebecca, enter the kitchenand sit at the table. Both pairs of children chatter over breakfast,then go outside, meet in the street, and hurry off to school together.
Our Town Play Script Act 3
Left alone, Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb go outside intotheir gardens. The two women see each other and come together fora chat. Mrs. Gibbs tells Mrs. Webb that she has some news: a travelingsecondhand furniture salesman recently offered her the hefty sumof $350 for her highboy, an old piece offurniture. The women discuss whether Mrs. Gibbs should accept theoffer and what she would do with the money. Mrs. Gibbs says thatif she does decide to sell the highboy, she hopes to live out the“dream of [her] life” and travel to Paris for a visit. Her excitementis tempered, however, by the fact that Dr. Gibbs has already toldher that “traipsin’ about Europe” might make him disheartened withGrover’s Corners, and thus thinks a trip to Paris might be a badidea. Mrs. Gibbs says that her husband only cares about going toCivil War battlefields. Mrs. Webb remarks that her husband, an eagerstudent of Napoleonic history, greatly admires Dr. Gibbs’s CivilWar expertise. At this point, the Stage Manager interrupts abruptlyand tips his hat to the two women, who nod in recognition. He thanksthe two ladies, and they return to their houses and disappear fromthe stage.
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