I am excited to share with you that I will be in a performance of “Our Town” in Freeport this October. After reading the play with a bunch of community folks along with director “Nat” Nathaniel Warren-White, he offered me the role of Julia Gibbs. “Our Town” Is a classic work of theater by American playwright Thornton Wilder. We will be performing “Our Town” at Meetinghouse Arts https://www.meetinghousearts.org/ , a wonderful new venue for the visual and performing arts in Freeport.

A little more about the play “Our Town”

“Our Town” is set in 1901 in a small fictitious New Hampshire town called Grover’s Corners. It is a quintessential New England village. Julia Gibbs, my character, and Myrtle Webb are the two mothers whose children marry, and I think of them as foremothers. In each of their characters we can see the constraints and challenges of being a woman in the early 20th century, keeping a household together, raising children, and then letting them go. If you’re wondering how I found myself having this thespian adventure, it was partly my Foremothers Project https://robinbrooksart.com/stories-of-foremothers/ but also the wonderful people involved, especially our director Nat who made me feel so welcome. In the photo, below, you see my “husband” Sam Kilbourn, aka Doc Gibbs, sitting atop one of two wooden ladders that will serve as part our very simple scenery.

My youthful adventures in theater–You didn’t know!

What’s interesting is that, until recently, I hadn’t really thought much about performing. But all through my youth and high school years, I loved being on stage. At my summer camp in upstate New York we had counselors who were musical theater majors and the productions were really fantastic. Going through old photo albums I found a couple of photos to share with you. Here I am in two of my memorable roles–as Tevya’s daughter Chava in “Fiddler on The Roof” and as Anita, the character in “West Side Story.”

Rehearsing “Our Town” in Freeport at Meetinghouse Arts

My character Julia is the wife of Doc Gibbs in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. Julia has two children, George and Rebecca, and appears in many scenes. So I’ve been busy all summer learning my lines. After a summer of practicing, it’s been fun and challenging to bring my character, Julia Gibbs, to life on the stage. “Our Town” will be Meetinghouse Arts Center’s first “in house” production. I’m honored to be taking part and I look forward to working with our wonderful cast and backstage crew to craft a production that will speak to the heart.

“Our Town” will open on Friday October 14th at Meetinghouse Arts

Finally, please note the schedule of performances. “Our Town” opens on Friday October 14th. Friday and Saturday performances will be at 7:30 with a Sunday matinee at 2:30 pm. And we’ll do it all over again the following weekend of October 21st. So you will have six opportunities to see the play. Tickets are available through Eventbrite at this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/thornton-wilders-our-town-tickets-418205823877?aff=ebdssbdestsearch and they are on a sliding scale from $5 to $25.00. We are hoping to fill the house, so please tell your friends and family.

As always, thanks for following my creative adventures. Please keep in touch, stay well!, and enjoy!

~Robin