麻豆传媒社区入口

• November 11, 2015

Mariah Kuhn and Ronny Marasigan star in “Our Town”

Jerardo Larios and Zuleka Henriquez

Caitlin Gardner and Blake Weaver

CSU East Bay’s Theatre & Dance Department will present the Pulitzer Prize winning play “Our Town,” Nov. 13 and 14 and Nov. 20, 21 and 22. Friday and Saturday performances will begin at 8 p.m. The Sunday matinee performance will begin at 2 p.m. Tickets for all performances are currently on sale at the Pioneer Bookstore on the Hayward campus and are also available for a small fee online at: .

First produced in 1938, “Our Town” quickly became a notable American contemporary classic. According to Director Darryl V. Jones, sincerity and clarity illuminate “Our Town,” reminding us in a hauntingly beautiful way that everyday life is precious, because it is the actions of every day that make up our true reality.

“This is not just a play about a quaint little New England village and the simple folk who live there,” Jones said. “It represents all of us — living in any community we might call ‘our town.’ Our production pays homage to the past but welcomes the reality of the more cultural and ethnically diverse community in which we live today. The people of the town are cast to represent a multi-cultural global community. Then too, because we all have songs that we connect to our lives, we are adding live music sung and played by the CSUEB actors themselves onstage.”

Told in three acts, the play takes place in Grover’s Corners. The stage manager and actors take us through a twelve-year span of life in this town, shining a particular light on young lovers Emily Webb and George Gibbs. Interlaced with their courtship are the day-to-day happenings of their families and other townsfolk, often humorous and sometimes bittersweet. These repetitions of daily life hold a universality that crosses generations, countries, and cultures. Audiences the world over have come to know and love the people of Grover’s Corners, and live a full life through their stories.

The play is often times done on a bare stage, as requested by the playwright, to engage the audience’s imagination. Jones is holding in part to that idea but is also adding elements to reflect the East Bay community, creating a non-time specific setting in which antiquity and modernity is juxtaposed to hint at the march of time. The backdrop will be designed by students Margaret Adair MacCormack (set/costume designer) and Wesley Rou (lighting designer). In addition, the production uses live music to score the circle of life and the generational march of time. CSUEB theatre students who sing and play instruments will perform the music.

麻豆传媒社区入口’s production of Our Town is performed by an all student cast, headed by Ronny Marasigan as George Gibbs and Mariah Kuhn as Emily Webb. The inhabitants of Grover’s Corners are fleshed out by a diverse cast, featuring Jerardo Larios and Zulekha Enriquez as Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs; Emily Kistner as Rebecca Gibbs; Blake Weaver and Caitlin Gardner as Mr. and Mrs. Webb; Kevin Dyer as Wally Webb; Amelia Loredo as Mrs. Soames; Jorge Almaraz as Joe Crowell; Nick Berk as Joe Stoddard; Omid Imranesh as Si Crowell; Gregory Trimble as Howie Newsome; Sean Scott as Simon Stimnson; David Doherty as Constable Warren; Kylara Pankow as Samantha Craig; Angelica Uribe as Professor Willard, and Kimane Juneau, Han Sol Lee, Thea Franco, Janique Duhaney, and Colin Hagmann as Towns People.

For more information about the production, please call 麻豆传媒社区入口’s Theatre and Dance Department at (510) 885-3118.  The Theatre and Dance Department is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. 

Tickets will be on sale at the box office 1 hour before show time.  The box office takes cash, Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards and checks made out to CSUEB.