The Stage Manager In Thornton Wilder's Our Town

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As an author, Thornton Wilder is known for his unique and creative style of play writing. In contrast to the modern plays of his day, the dramatist revealed many new concepts in the world of play writing that influenced literature forever. One of the ways Wilder expressed his new found idea was in Our Town with the Stage Manager. As a writer Thornton Wilder demonstrated his most known idea in Our Town, the Stage Manager. The Stage Manager is normally a reserved and collected character, which enjoys telling the audience about his town (Austell 95). He speaks words that are normal American everyday speech (Papajewski 5).There is usually no age or physical size told about him (Austell 95). The Stage Manager provides detail about the background for the acts (Ballet 77). He talks about Grover Corner’s as if it…show more content…
In Our Town, the Stage Manager acts as Wilder’s mouthpiece (Burbank 76). An example of this is that he reveals to the viewers the names of the producer, director, author, and actors at the beginning of the act (Haberman 22). He also points out to the audience that the play is not reality (Kuner 51). In contrast to a narrator, the Stage Manager is an omniscient character who can stop and fast-forward time (Galens 226-227). Many times he stops in the action of the play to respond to the questions asked by the audience (Burbank 76). In some instances he stops to give information to the viewers about the past and future of the characters. Another way the Stage Manager is different from a narrator is that he can take place in the action of the play (Papajewski 5; Kuner 5). There were times in the midst of the play he acted as one of the characters such as Mr. Morgan and Mrs. Forrest (Galens 227). The main reason he takes part in the play is to be able to say more information
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