The Benjamin T. Rome School of Music

From February 25 to March 2, The Catholic University of America will present a series of lectures, films, roundtable discussions, and musical and dramatic productions exploring Thornton Wilder’s classic play Our Town, which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1938.

Coordinated by musicologist Grayson Wagstaff, Associate Professor, with the assistance of Andrew H. Weaver, Assistant Professor, the events are part of The Catholic University President’s Festival of the Arts presents…Wilder and Wilder (Thornton, that is…), which will culminate in alternating performances of Wilder’s Our Town and the Washington, DC premiere of Ned Rorem’s 2006 opera based on the play.

The opera, featuring students from the School of Music opera studio and the Catholic University Symphony Orchestra, is being directed by James Hampton and conducted by Murry Sidlin, Dean of the School of Music. The play is being directed by Mary Hall Surface, with a cast made up of students from the School of Music’s Musical Theater program. The festival will also feature the world premiere of two “mini-operas” based upon short plays by Wilder, as well as fully staged productions of four additional short plays with new incidental music, all composed by Catholic University students and faculty under the guidance of Andrew Earle Simpson, Associate Professor of Music and chair of composition programs. A co-production with Catholic University’s Drama Department, these performances will feature directors and actors from the Drama Department and singers and instrumentalists from the School of Music.

The lectures will cover a wide range of topics including the historical and cultural context of Wilder’s play, the playwright’s legacy, and the process of transforming this classic play into a sung drama. The distinguished speakers include Tappan Wilder, Thornton Wilder’s nephew and literary executor; eminent Wilder scholars Lincoln Konkle, Professor of English at The College of New Jersey, and Christopher Wheatley, Professor of English at Catholic University; musicologist Elise Kirk, CUA alumna and leading scholar on American opera; and Helen Langa, Associate Professor of Art History at American University. As a special highlight, the premieres of the mini-operas on Wednesday evening will be preceded by a roundtable discussion featuring Tappan Wilder, Ned Rorem, and J. D. “Sandy” McClatchy, librettist of the opera. The festival will also feature two film screenings: the 1940 movie Our Town with music by Aaron Copland, and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1943 movie Shadow of a Doubt, for which Wilder wrote the screenplay.

Wagstaff noted that “bringing these eminent scholars together is an exciting opportunity for us and especially for our students. After working so much on the opera and play, this gives them the chance to learn more about these important works from a variety of perspectives.” Weaver added that “this festival is a true interdisciplinary collaboration between various departments of Catholic University as well as other area institutions.”

Sidlin further noted that “this is the ideal opportunity for people to be doubly reminded of the significance of one of America’s most important plays. We’ve known about Wilder the dramatist. This will be one of the few times that music and the works of Thornton Wilder have been explored through the opera of Our Town and his mini plays.”

For more information about Wilder and Wilder (Thornton, that is…), call 202-319-5414 or visit http://music.cua.edu. Tickets to the play and opera are $20 for general admission and $10 for seniors, CUA faculty and staff, and students. All other events are free and open to the public. CUA is located at 620 Michigan, N.E., Washington, D.C.

Monday, February 25

4:10 p.m., Lecture: Wilder’s Our Town: Play, Film, and Opera

John Paul Hall, Ward Hall, Catholic University
Tappan Wilder, nephew of Thornton Wilder and literary executor and scholar of his uncle's works, will speak on “Our Town in the 21st Century.” Lincoln Konkle, Professor of English at The College of New Jersey will speak on “Our Town: From Play to Opera.” Konkle is the author of several works on Wilder and other twentieth-century American playwrights, including the book Thornton Wilder and the Puritan Narrative Tradition.

7:30 p.m., Film Screening: Our Town

Aquinas Hall (formerly the Life Cycles Institute) Auditorium, Catholic University
Thornton Wilder wrote the screenplay to this 1940 movie, and the score was composed by eminent American composer Aaron Copland. The film will be introduced by Grayson Wagstaff and Lars Helgert, Ph.D. candidate in musicology at Catholic University.

Tuesday, February 26

11:00 a.m., Lecture: Wilder, American Culture, and New Music for his Plays

John Paul Hall, Ward Hall, Catholic University
Christopher Wheatley, Professor of English at Catholic University, will speak on “Thornton Wilder and America in the Thirties.” Wheatley, a former Thornton Wilder Fellow at Yale University’s Beinecke Library, has published numerous articles on Wilder and is the editor of Twentieth-Century American Dramatists, vol. 266 of the Dictionary of Literary Biography. Andrew Simpson, Associate Professor of Music at Catholic University and chair of composition programs, will discuss the new music created by CUA composers for Wilder’s short plays.

7:30 p.m., Film Screening: Shadow of a Doubt

Aquinas Hall Auditorium, Catholic University

This classic 1943 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock features a screenplay written by Thornton Wilder. The film will be introduced by film scholar Max Alvarez, who has served as a film critic, curator, lecturer, panelist, and researcher for numerous organizations including the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the National Gallery of Art. Alvarez has also published the Index to Motion Pictures Reviewed by Variety: 1907-1980.

Wednesday, February 27

7:30 p.m., Playing, Singing, and Talking Wilder: Roundtable Discussion and Premieres of New Music for Wilder's Plays

Ward Recital Hall, Catholic University

Tappan Wilder, composer Ned Rorem, and librettist J. D. "Sandy" McClatchy will discuss the opera Our Town and the process of transforming Wilder’s classic play into a sung drama. Grayson Wagstaff will moderate. Following the discussion will be premieres of two “mini-operas” setting short plays by Wilder, as well as fully staged productions of four additional short plays with new incidental music by CUA composers. David Searle, Director of Orchestral Activities and Conducting Studies at CUA, will conduct.

Thursday, February 28

11:00 a.m., Lecture: Our Town, American Opera , and the Visual Arts

John Paul Hall, Ward Hall, Catholic University

Musicologist Elise Kirk, CUA alumna and independent scholar, will speak on “American Chamber Opera: A Historic and Cultural Overview.” Kirk, a leading scholar on opera in the United States, is the author of American Opera. Helen Langa, Associate Professor of Art History at American University, will speak on “Enthusiasm and Anguish: American Visual Culture in the 1930s.” Langa, a specialist on American art and culture in the twentieth century, is the author of Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930s New York.

Thursday, February 28 and Saturday, March 1

7:30 p.m., Our Town: The Opera

Hartke Theatre, Catholic University

Murry Sidlin, Dean of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, conducts singers and instrumentalists from the School of Music in the Washington, DC premiere of Ned Rorem’s opera, Our Town. James Hampton is the stage director.

Friday, February 29 and Sunday, March 2

7:30 p.m. (Friday) and 2:00 p.m. (Sunday), Our Town: The Play

Hartke Theatre, Catholic University

Director Mary Hall Surface leads students from the Musical Theater department of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music in a production of Thornton Wilder’s classic 1938 play.

Last Revised 21-Feb-08 11:44 AM.