Our Town Act 3, part 2, Penelope Ann Miller monologue

[EVideoJ77]

Okay, this is is great, and it makes me cry, but it just makes me so mad. The dead would rather feel nothing at all instead of the grief and regret that Emily just went through. And I just can't see how that would make them happy.

[sunshinegirlful]

Her performance as Emily is mind blowing! I had a lump in my throat the whole way through that speech!!!

[faxbbandfrogs]

This was the first play I was ever in. I was Mrs. Gibbs in our High School's production, and it's still my favorite play of all time.

[37hoon]

Human beings are ignorant and blind like worms. Wilder shows a transcendentalist vision which whispers you should leave the ground and go up higher to have a bird's eyeview.

[TheMaria1901]

She's soo beautiful!

[MakiaLink]

wow, such a powerful scene! I was just awarded Emily's role in my college's production. I hope I can do her justice.

[BabbbyyyDaisssyyy209]

i love this play <3 i have played it my freshman sophmore nd junior year :)

[michelleb17028]

Outstanding...watched it many moons ago in high school...it touches me now just as it did then

[slownoman]

If you can watch this dry-eyed, make an appointment with a cardiac specialist: your heart is gone.

[stupiditystupefied]

She is so beautiful.

[franimalistic]

Some of this play is too sentimental for me, but when George goes to her grave at the end I always lose it! Such a wonderful moment.

[hubbardfox]

I know Wilder wanted the Stage Manager to be distant, simple, and not over dramatic but I think Spalding Gray was a little too stiff and unfeeling even for playing a New Englander (at least in this particular section of the play) But I could just be missing the point of the Stage Manager. I enjoyed Newman's portrayal.

[pnklmonade127]

goddamn this play! *crying in my office*

[brainsparkles]

A.J. Langer in "My So-Called Life" does a better job with this monologue. P.A. Miller

is over-acting, in my opinion. The former version is on YouTube. It's short, but wonderful. Makes me cry every time. (Btw, it's a much shortened version of the scene. Still great!)

[hubbardfox]

@brainsparkles After watching the "My So Called Life" clip I agreed with you but I got to thinking and I changed my mind. While A.J. Langer was wonderful in her abbreviated portrayal of Emily it would have never worked on the stage. It was a little teen "angsty" for me. I don't think P.A. Miller's performance was overdone but even so I think there needs to be some presentational element to the performance as right from the get go the play acknowledges itself as a play.

[BroadwayFanatic2008]

I have an audition for this show coming up, with this as the audition monologue. She does this beautifully, and it's really helping me out to be able to see a version of someone playing this part. :) Thank you for uploading this!

[searcherboy]

I saw this production after Spalding Gray and Eric Stoltz left the cast. I think Miller had been replaced by Helen Hunt. Don Ameche played the Stage Manager and couldn't remember half his lines. He had a prompter offstage, practically yelling the text to him across the huge stage. It was still very good.

This play gets done by every high school and amateur group going - it's almost a cliche. But done right, as it was here, this play is an amazing thing to experience.

[shoppinglegends]

im thinking of doing this monologue for an audition. im 16 do you think its too old??

[MilesEditingCompany]

Truly a great play and has alot of important life lessons you can learn from it!

[giosolis14]

puta

[romobeanie]

It's still hard to understand why out of the million things Emily said goodbye to, she didn't think of saying goodbye to George.

[littlecupcake92]

@romobeanie The author meant for her to say goodbye to simple things to show how, in death even the ordinary is extraordinary.

[rlpniew]

Not my favorite rendition of the play, but Ms. Miller is the definitive Emily.

[ah1998]

ammmaaaazzing play and performanes, but what's with the terrible camera work? it cuts off everything! it's a play, not a newscast

[BelCantoBoy]

The Ned Rorem opera of this is fantastic!

[fuhmeregan]

Kid age best to see this appreciate life etc.

This actress makes it work it's her we're watching, the screenplay is commonplace fiction was popular in those days, Alfred Hitch, sci fi of the 50's etc. ............ but it does say live for the moment, at least, as a sub plot

[lKagomeHigurashi]

Man the the Bool is so boring I have to read it even if I don't want to 4 my class yeak

ufff but see in is more interesting than the book I prefer Twilight or HP!

[3folkfleur]

Miller is amazing! so talented <3

[bvotips]

anyone who can get to new york right now needs to see Our Town at Barrow Street.

Unbelievable.

[togahog]

I saw it and it was unbelievable!

[SpArKlEz4323]

I watch this entire play in class, and it was just wonderful. It was so full of emotions.

[TheLittleLadie]

I believe if I saw this with Emily screaming, I'd be very upset.

[dcba321huh]

this was beautifully done

[doobeedoo58]

I wholeheartledly agree...this is an emotional part of the play. And my apologies...not big fan of PAM. Screaming??? that's not what Thornton Wilder had in mind I don't think...unless he wanted this produced in Noh theatre...LOL...compared to Noh PAM is pretty calm...LOL..but you are correct of your previous analysis of this part of the play...Emily does realize she did pass up a chance to live and there is regret about not doing that. Sad, but I think we all do that sometimes!!

[doobeedoo58]

I realize the point you are making here about Emily and the role in general, however, my comment was directed more toward Penelope Anne Miller and her annoying habit of overacting.  I have seen her in movies and on PBS Playhouse Theatre plays and in each part she plays she riduculously overacts. I've seen Our Town performances with amateur actresses in the role of Emily who have delievered the part superbly. But here PAM overacts this to distraction.

[muttzart]

Great play. Very powerful. Never seen it performed, but it moved me to tears when I read the script as a young man years ago. This performance is really good - but not as much as my own reading of it. Always had a keen sense of my own mortality - even then. And when I say 'then' . . . I mean 25 years ago . . . as though it was yesterday.

[doobeedoo58]

is it just me or did Penelope Ann overact this whole thing...no offense but I jus think she does that a lot in all the roles she plays. But not as bad as Jim Carrey overacting...stab that mofo with a hot tire iron and put it out of it's misery...

[thisisryanblood]

Her voice may be annoying, but I believe what she's saying. That's what matters to me.

[KillFromTheHeart]

I've taught this play to high schoolers for 20 years, and this version is magnificent. Also seek out the powerful doc OT: Our Town.

[harbeast054]

this is so bad it makes me angry

[ChachiArcola]

Is that Spalding Grey? P.A.M. was always prettier than the other triple named girl who was also always on letterman in the 80's. She appears to be equal to or greater than at acting as well.

[Steolicious]

hilarious

[MattsKitchen]

Thank you for posting this! I originally saw when it first was broadcast and then stupidly missed the chance to buy it on DVD. I remember being struck at the time by Penelope Ann Miller's monologue. It's perfect! This means even more to me know than when I saw it at the age of twenty-eight. Especially after losing my father and sister this year.

[kittylove5555]

is this the emily character?

[dansato]

yes

[djrichm]

powerful scene! A1 performance!

[bohemianmoviefreak]

so heartbreaking im crying right now :( brilliant play

[yellowbonbons]

that is act two at the beggining of the schools out scene right before the soda shop

[iwearlaundry]

haha yeah, i need the same part that booboobear needs.

[tacetviola]

Spalding Gray!!!

[dlfoster107]

I haven't seen this play since college. Many, many years ago and I still remember it fondly and found that I knew the words. This is a great performance.

Was that Francis Conroy from 'Six Feet Under' as Mrs. Gibbs?

[dansato]

Yep, it's the same Frances Conroy.

[ADDc09]

can u upload the whole play please:)

[Juamoa]

Incredible, these actors really bring it to life

[carltonpowers]

Absoulutely fabulous, and she does it so well. This makes me cry every time I watch it- I've come back to it four times in the past few months. That play was art...

[Actorbydestiny]

this is art at its purest form. thank you to whoever posted this video

[broadwaybound4eva]

This is my favorite part in the play ...

[istoleolivia]

Beautiful...