Our Town, Thornton Wilder鈥檚 Pulitzer Prize-winning portrait of small-town American life, is taking on a new cultural perspective in Miami, Florida.
Miami New Drama, the non-profit theatre company launched in 2016 by Tony Award-nominated playwright Mois茅s Kaufman and Venezuelan-born director-playwright Michael Hausmann, was authorized by the Thornton Wilder Estate to re-imagine the New Hampshire town of Grover鈥檚 Corners as an immigrant-filled, 21st century Miami.
Emily Webb and George Gibbs, whose lives are traced over the course of Wilder鈥檚 poetic play, are now Latino and Haitian-American characters in Hausmann鈥檚 vision. Sections of Wilder鈥檚 original dialogue have been translated into Spanish and Creole by Pulitzer Prize-winning Cuban-American playwright Nilo Cruz and Haitian-American playwright Jeff Augustin鈥攂oth of whom hail from Miami.
The guiding vision behind this new look at Our Town, the creative team says, was to examine and challenge the American desire for nostalgia with the progressive founding principals that continue to shape our culture today.
This marks the first time a multi-language production of the 1938 classic has been authorized and endorsed by the Wilder Estate.
Hausmann, who serves as the theatre鈥檚 artistic director, also directs Our Town, which premiered October 26. Miami critics have praised the production, which is in its final week of performances through November 19.
The cast includes Keith Randolph Smith (Spike Lee鈥檚 Malcolm X, Broadway鈥檚 Fences and Jitney) as the Stage Manager, Venezuelan television and film star Carlota Sosa as Mrs. Webb, Venezuelan film actor Luigi Sciamanna as Mr. Webb, Thallis Santesteban as Emily Webb, and Martin K. Lewis as George Gibbs. The cast is completed by Jeni Hacker, Steve Gladstone, Robert Strain, Chantal Jean-Pierre, and Gabriel Bonilla.
Performances take place at the Colony Theatre, located at 1040 Lincoln Road, Miami. For tickets visit .
View photos of the production below:
