Our Town Act 3, part 1, Penelope Ann Miller monologue

[Raina430]

I played the mother in high school. I was supposed to play Emily but the nuns thought it would build my character if I didn't get to express my ability so gave it to a younger girl who couldn't act and was shy and retiring ); Even then, these lines broke my heart. In the culture families still for the most part don't see each other. Guess it's easier to go on programmed behavior. But the disastrous consequences are all around us.

[redredshoes]

She is fucking heartbreaking. Wow.

[37hoon]

I like Penelope's facial expression tense and plentiful

[bigben055]

I played Simon Stimson 2 years ago and this scene stills brings tears to my eyes. I held my tears in during the week of productions. Wilder is a master!

[bluedoris88]

I will see this play, this summer ,in the open air theatre in Porthcurno, Cornwall,England,(look it up) I hope its half as good as this!

but I doubt it! This is truly excellent. the professionalism of this cast is awesome.

thanks so much. geoff

[Joseyoy92]

It's mother from six feet under, love it.

[JMB545]

I recently played Emily in a production of this wonderful play. And I'll be honest I thought I understood the concept of it while performing it, but I knew I was missing something I needed to complete the character and truly detatch myself from reality, and it wasnt until the production ended completely. I was absolutely heartbroken because i realized exactly what emily had felt.

[slownoman]

This is as heartbreaking, beautiful, and true as theater gets. Our eldest daughter performed this at the end of her senior year in high school and won a scholarship in performing arts. the judges were weeping. How could they not?

[DLJmisty]

Alright, ive been trying to find this part of Penelopes burial at where i believe they plaid a song during that time. any one know where i might be able to find it?

[electragoob]

I am playing Myrtle WEbb in our production. Opening night is in a few weeks, ACT 3 is the hardest thing for me. I run out of stuff to do after I list the things Emily got for her birthday... but it is such an amazing play, i just want to sit and watch Emily talk. It's amazing.

[salar021021]

Who showed up in Grover's Corners for the event?

Her husband?

[MissMusicXD]

wow this is heartbreaking.

[katsimblet]

this is the most beautiful performance!

[helen62442]

She reminds me a lot of Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz..

[ParisLondonRoma]

I saw this on Broadway. One day I was hanging around in New York with nothing to do and I went to this play out of the blue. I didn't know any of the actors at the time but I was pretty mesmerized by the whole production. I was not surprised it won Best Revival award that year. The day after I saw the play I saw Spalding Gray walking around in Cold Spring New York.

[XxXMissPeppermintXxX]

I just performed this play for my school last night! I played Rebecca. I fell in love with the play =)

[faxbbandfrogs]

@XxXMissPeppermintXxX

I play Mrs. Gibbs in our school's production! Opening night is two weeks from Friday for us! I'm a little excited and very nervous because it's the first time I've acted in anything.

[xeroxephyr]

In Corpus Christi, Texas at the Texas Thespian Convention (for high school students) there was an All-State cast that performed this show. It was better than any professional production I've seen.

[DLJmisty]

I remember watching this and i remember i think the music? at her funeral.

though ive been searching and i cant find the whole play of this one, it makes me sad haah.

[lilbluehersheykiss]

i just saw this show as a cappies critic. 7.

[mbond1694]

My school is doing this play :)

I'm stage manager. Not the role, but the person behind the stage and stuff. Lol.

[jackswife17972]

BEST Emily. Hands down.

[pistacio891]

wow! this is amazing!



[gizmo2084]

I own this movie on VHS and I watch this scene anytime I need to be grounded; smell the roses.

[pnklmonade127]

When I was a sophomore in high school, my english class watched this play. not all of us got along, we were divided socially, economically, racially- we didn't even care about theater, but by the end of it, we were all crying together. I'll never forget that.

[MilesEditingCompany]

She got a postcard album from George, but what did Emily get from her Mom? A dress?

[xXxDEADP00LxXx]

im doing this play right now i need to learn to portray joe stoddard

[downeastboy84]

who palyed the nator

[dansato]

@downeastboy84 Spalding Gray plays the Stage Manager (narrator).

[mizzybranson]

where can i find this entire production?

[dansato]

It's out of print. You might want to ask WNET to re-release it on DVD.

[TorchwoodRI]

It actually is on DVD. It's called "Thorton Wilder's Our Town: Two Historic Productions on Two DVD". It is budled with the 1977 NBC production with Hal Holbrook as the Stage Manager.

[faxbbandfrogs]

@dansato

I didn't know it was out of print. We have it on VHS at our school.

[skilletlastnight]

we read play in class about a year after my brother died, my teacher made me read this part. i started crying halfway through and it broke my heart. its so true, i always wish i could go back and change things and say things i didn't think about saying or get the chance to say. it breaks my heart that i can't.

[0214Yumi]

my schoold done this play back in nov and the werid thing was i was a girl pretending to be a guy to play baseball player number one(all three baseball players were girls) cause we didn't had enough guys

[QTS97]

I play Si Crowell in the South Simcoe Theatre's production of this play.

[SingingPrincess247]

We're doing this play at my School!

[CrziedAnce94]

I was Mrs. Gibbs in this play during my 8th grade year..I think that I appreciate it even more now as a high schooler...I was just thinking about this play and the many memories behind it... It has a great moral!!!!

[forestnymph02]

indeed this is the best part! and how true this is! T_T

[utunderground]

I was 21 years old when I first saw this play from Thorton Wilder. I was tramatized after seeing this act. I cried for days, because it is so true. I still try so hard to grasp every momment of my life. I sometimes wonder, if it has keep me from excelling during my life, not wanting to become so involved in being successful that I not enjoy the simple things.

[dansato]

Thornton Wilder would probably have questioned how you defined "excelling" and "successful." You could be less wealthy, but more successful.

[Chiwowwow2]

Not a fan of the play but I love the message behind it.

[meganmurphy1212]

Wonderful production and fine acting.

~Megan and Will

[c00lc0uch]

Only watching this for a paper. Don't want to do it...

[GrecoWrestlerNJ70]

yeah i know what you mean...i didnt really like this play.

[alwaysan4ev3r]

the best part in the whole play (:

[MeghanBlack]

I was Mrs.Webb and I loved every moment of it we learned a hard lesson when the play was over I miss it so much but whats so funny is now that the play is finished I am now dating Mr.Webb

[oslapedo]

I adore this play, I'm Mrs. Gibbs in our school's production. Mr. Webb's actor in this version is so funny~

Mrs. Gibbs doesn't seem very "pleasant" though [in this version]

[Klw7700]

I'm performing this part and Emily's monolouge at my school. I think the emotion in this is beautiful. I hope I don't muck it up lol.

[kikiknit]

Read this in high school, saw it at the Barrow St. Theater in NYC last summer. It's so intense--and still current.

[deathgoose9]

Devastating.

[TheOriginalXake]

Yeah, My school's doin this too, I got the part of Simon Stimson. :)

[ADAIVl]

this play is UNLIKED by me and i have to write a paper on it :(

[TaylorIsStellar]

im the stage manager(: were doing this play at my school now...kenwood high school.!!!

[tierraxxx]

i've played Emily in my graduation perforamcne and it is the most difficult part to play. The emotion is soooo strong.

[picassoui]

why wasn't her brother Wally with the dead ?

[MrMusicstone]

my schools putting this on, i got stage manager!

[MrGuitarperson2727]

my school is putting this on for fall play. got the part of doc gibbs, even though i wanted the stage manager part, but im happy anyway.

[MeghanBlack]

i got the part of Mrs.Webs I'm so EXCITED WOOTO congrates to my fellow people below me everyone i hope you all break a leg with your plays

[xxmilbankpiranhaxx]

just tried out for this play and just now heard that im goin to be george ( Milbank High School) SD

[3folkfleur]

congrats man.. i just auditioned for this play a copule days ago too.. this morning they told me that i'm playing mrs. gibbs

[IXIPEDROIXI]

I WAS DR.GIBBS lol

[TokioHotelForeverXx]

My school is doing this play! (cheyenne HS IN LAS VEGAS!!!) but anyways, I want to audition kinda scared. I'm gonna try tho, hopefully I get a good part! if any at all! =D

[knaubone]

DO IT!! - I did ( 25 years ago) You will never forget it nor will you ever regret it. I was Joe Crowell. This is a classic!

[TokioHotelForeverXx]

okay I think I will thanks!!

[TheLittleLadie]

We have auditions monday, and I am incredibly nervous, but completely excited :D

I do take acting very seriously, when I got the lead last year I cried. It's very emotional but such a thrill.

I want to see the movie,but I simply cannot find it. And I agree, it is much for American.

Simply because most people connect small rural town to America.

[LauriElphaba]

We've performed this in my school, in Italy, and we won a competition between schools of all Italy...we were so moving, I remember all the audience was crying...I was crying too, actually! :)

[MeghanBlack]

My school is putting this on I'm hoping to get the part of emily

[redwhiteandbluecandy]

this was the gayest ass book in the whole god damn world!!

[muttzart]

Didn't Spalding Gray (playing the Stage Manager) commit suicide a few years ago as a result of depression? It kind of makes you think. A play dealing so intensely with the fundamental marvellousness of life - the extraordinary within the ordinary - it surely must have resonated with him at times. Knowing how wonderful life is - the surprising magic and mystery of it - it's hard to imagine a state of mind that can then so wilfully put an end to it. RIP Spalding.

[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.

[TheLittleLadie]

We're perfoming this at my highschool,

you're words make the play seem all the more real.

[muttzart]

Thanks - hope the production goes well. It's profound and difficult stuff for a school production, so you've got your work cut out. But maybe all the more reason for doing it. Even young people can know what's it's like to lose things - and to miss things than can never be again.

[TheLittleLadie]

Yes I've been doing some very intense studying for the part.

I'll only be a sophmore, but I'd really like to be Emily.

I was the lead in our musical as a freshman, so that might help.

Just these videos have made me cry.

[muttzart]

Plenty of time to be Emily. Have they cast the play yet? You obviously take your acting very seriously. It's not a play that gets staged much in the UK. At least I've never seen it. The way it's written - the old-fashioned turn-of-the-century small-town Americana - I guess it has more resonance in the US (even though the themes are universal). Have you seen the clips on here of the old movie version? Been wanting to see that - but it never gets shown over here.

[TheLittleLadie]

I havent replied in so long,

I didn't get Emily. I got Mrs Gibbs.

Its understandable I suppose.

I'm not always happy how our Emily performs but I'm mature.

I understand the suicide thing,

I've slipped into a tiny depression since the production began.

It's hard, but I love it so.

[muttzart]

So you didn't get the part you wanted? Sorry to hear that, but - in life as in art - we often don't get the part we feel we were born to play. Don't be downhearted, though. Life is an unfinished experiment, and there's always tomorrow. Or the day after that. Or the day after that . . .

[TheLittleLadie]

@muttzart I agree with you, sometimes it is difficult.

Although, our musical prep day for our spring prduction is next week.

I'm so excited. I can't wait to start again.

[wetsons]

What? Wally is Dead?!!!

What about the Beaver?

[rockgor]

America's most popular play; a Pulitzer Prize winner. And I never heard of it till I was in my 50s.

The stage manager says, "The day is winding down like a tired clock."

He could have said the same thing about our lives.

Tx 4 posting.

[skbeachhgirl]

i read the book one eye laughing, another weeping. that led me here.

[haleypoprock]

really? how? I read that book but I don't remember any of 'our town' being mentioned

[skbeachhgirl]

in the very end it is the script they get and will play.

[SaraZee67]

i have no clue who that actress is who plays emily, but just... wow. i'm in tears.

[hayabb777]

omg.. im freaking out..

i have auditions for this play tomorrow.. :O

i really wanna be emily webb :)

the girl that is playing her here is a really gd actress

[punkfish79]

how was your try out? Did you get the part?

[hayabb777]

my drama teacher said i did really well :) but no one in my grade (9th grade) is getting the part of emily webb... the drama teacher actually decided to choose a younger girl to play emily webb... he says that we (9th graders) are too old to play emily.. he wants emily to be very young

[kkmm222159]

good play!

love it!

[exackerly]

Turns out Spalding Gray can't act...

[hayabb777]

who's spalding gray?

[exackerly]

Plays the stage manager here. Better known as a monologist.

[roastie4]

im doing this play at college and i fucking hate it its so boaring it makes me sleep infact when i am learning lines i tend to fall asleep but i will say the message is amazing but i dnt think i will ever go to an audition to do this proffesionally

[exackerly]

I'm pretty sure if you're bored the audience will be too...

[roastie4]

yer thats fair enough but i can do this little thing called act so im not going to make it look like i am board its just the shittest play ever

[danman25]

im not doin this play or anything but i read the book which is really just the play in book form and im just wondering how the stage manager or whoever the guy that says "now its 9 years later etc." remembers his lines because there is sooooooo many of them unless they stressed it out in the book

[MajorActivitesBoard]

this play sucks.

[analduct]

i agree, its shit.

[bohemianmoviefreak]

so heartbreaking im crying right now :( brilliant play

[jenna180792]

Did this play at school. Was a lot of fun but didnt turn out as good as this though. But For an year 11 play i think we did a great job i have to say :) Love the play

[Jokerice]

gotta love spalding gray

[yankeemd]

Wow! I think this is one of the best recordings of this I've ever seen (it usually doesn't record well in my opinion, it's made to be live on stage). I played Emily myself not too long ago so I tend to be critical, but Ms. Miller does and excellent job in my opinion. I think a lot of actresses forget how young Emily is supposed to be but Ms. Miller was very believable!

[bloopbloop13]

im on my sisters acct once more too lazy to sign out but i got the part for mrs. webbb (:

[luvHSM2]

We are doing this play in my school and I want to audition for the part of Emily, if anyone has any tips please tell me cause I really really want to get the part of Emily.

[ilovegeorgehearn]

im doing this play for my school.

[meagansxfamous]

someone recommended i watch this.

i was emily in our town last year and i thought i did really good but after watching this, theres a lot more that i could have done.

[XswordpenX]

Oh, thank-goodness!!! I'm auditioning for Emily Thursday-- I desperately need the part, and I was completely stuck on how I should give her a "voice"!! Now, I see this, and this actress is perfect, just perfect! she embodies everything I saw on paper! I will be watching this like tha bible every spare moment I get!! THANK YOU! :D

[zachxhott64]

yes she is!

[emrihi]

wow. she's amazing.