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Drama and Musical Shows

Malton Grammar School Dramatic Society

President: (P. T. Taylor, Esq.)
presents

O U R  T O W N

a play in three acts by Thornton Wilder.
December 11th, 12th & 13th, 1963.
The action of the play takes place in Grovers Corners,
New Hampshire, U.S.A.

CAST IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:-

  • Stage Manager Richard Young
  • Dr. Gibbs Anthony Cadamy
  • Joe Crowell Timothy Evans
  • Howie Newsome Clive Duggleby
  • Mrs. Gibbs Petronella Robertson
  • George Gibbs Jean Walker
  • Rebecca Gibbs Simon Reed (not sure about this, but it is in the programme. S.F.)
  • Rebecca Gibbs Carol Robson
  • Wally Webb Peter Coster
  • Emily Webb Pamela Thompson
  • Professor Willard David Greaves
  • Mr. Webb David Evans
  • Woman in the auditorium Christine McMaster
  • Man in the auditorium Geoffrey Foster
  • Simon Stimson David Greaves
  • Mrs. Soames Susan Wood
  • Constable Warren Philip Lonsdale
  • Si Crowall Christopher Taylor
  • Baseball players David Hopper, Geoffrey Foster
  • Sam Craig Richard Dickinson
  • Joe Stoddard Derek Cadamy
  • Dead Man Bryan Maw
  • Dead Woman Christine McMaster
  • Stage Manager: Richard Young
  • Assistant Stage Managers: Christopher Taylor, Timothy Evans
  • CHOIR Helen Smith, Angela Williams, Beryl Ross, Lynda Smith, Lynn Kirby
  • PEOPLE OF THE TOWN Christine Cook, Audrey Skelton, Christine Braithwaite, Mary Bayfield, Elizabeth Thorp, Marion Lowe
  • COFFIN BEARERS: John Smith, Bernard Joyce (Thurs. and Friday), David Hopper, Geoffrey Foster, John Heeley (Wednesday)
BEHIND THE SCENES:-
  • Stage Director: Mr. P. G. Mason
  • Costume: Miss D. M. Clarke
  • Lighting: Mr. J. B. Greaves
  • Sound: Peter Rolls and John Hanson
  • Organ music played by Anthony Kirby
  • Prompter: Mr. P. R. Wellard
  • Noises off: Philip Lonsdale, Timothy Evans, Christopher Taylor
  • Training of the Choir: Miss G. R. Blake
  • Stage carpentry: Mr. A. Dowding
  • Make-up: Sheila Brigham, Jennifer Bradley, Rosemary Taylor, Pamela Inman, Jacqueline Cundill, Angela Williams
  • Front of house manager and sale of tickets: Mr J. F. Reed
  • Production by: Mr Leslie W. Lawley
  • Help with rehearsal teas: Jean Walker, Petronella Robertson

We are grateful to friends of the School for the loan of properties and materials

Plays continued to be staged in the 1960s, but in the Dramatic Society Album there is a gap in photos between 1960 and 1963. The photos below are from that album. A programme is also available. There is also an article about the production in the 1963 edition of Yorkshire Life, when the magazine ran a feature about the school.

Thornton Wilder is a modern American dramatist who may be known to some as the writer of "The Bridge of San Luis Rey". Like the novel, this play deals with life, death, love, and the trivialities of every day. The author uses no conventional scenery or stage properties to give his theme a normal theatrical shape. Instead the layout of the town, its history, even its climate are presented to the audience through the Stage Manager. He is responsible for setting the scene and placing whatever properties the author allows him. He is also the equivalent of the radio commentator and the television compere. The action of the play, telescoped by the interruptions of its time sequence and varied by the Stage Manager's other interventions, is the life of any town, of any human, from the cradle to the grave.