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The Stage Manager Is A Man Of

Many Roles Essay, Research Paper


The Stage Manager is a man of many roles. Usually a stage


manager is part of the non-acting staff and in complete charge of


the bodily aspects of the production. In Thornton Wilder?s Our


Town, the Stage Manager goes well beyond his usual function in a


play and undertakes a large role as a performer. In Our Town the


Stage Manager is a narrator, moderator, philosopher, and an actor.


Through these roles the Stage Manager is able to communicate the


theme of universality in the play.


The main role of the Stage Manager is that of narrator and


moderator. He keeps the play moving by capsule summations and


subtle hints about the future. "I?ve married over two-hundred


couples in my day. Do I believe in it? I don?t know? M?.marries


N?.millions of them. The cottage, the go-cart, the


Sunday-afternoon drives in the Ford, the first rheumatism, the


grandchildren, the second rheumatism, the deathbed, the reading


of the will-once in a thousand times it?s interesting"(699). Here the


Stage Manager is giving insight about George and Emily?s future.


He is hinting about their life and fate to come. "Goin? to be a great


engineer, Joe was. But the war broke out and he died in France. All


that education for nothing" (673). The incidents discussed about


are great events in George, Emily, and Joe?s lives. The Stage


Manage emphasizes that the short things in these people?s lives


are overlooked. There isn?t realization that it is the small parts of


their lives that make a difference.


His role as narrator differs from most narration. The Stage


Manager?s narration shows casualness. The casualness connects


the Stage Manager to the audience. "Presently the STAGE


MANAGER, hat on and pipe in mouth?he has finished setting


the stage and leaning against the right proscenium pillar


watches the late arrivals in the audience."(671) The informality is


evident since he smokes a pipe, wears a hat, and leans formally


against the proscenium pillar. He also greets and dismisses the


audience at the beginning and end of each act. The stage manager


interrupts daily conversation on the street. The Stage Manager


enters and leaves the dialog at will. He is also giving the foresight


of death in the play. His informality in dress, manners, and speech,


connects the theme, universality, of the production to the


audience. His actions make the audience feel that he is a part of the


audience. It is as though he is "one of the guys" or one with the


audience.


Philosophy was also another of the Stage Managers avocations.


His philosophies are about daily life, love and marriage and death.


"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? -every,


every minute?(708) Every, every detail in one?s life has an impact.


It effects life from that moment forward. Each detail impacts the


whole universe. "Only this one is straining away, straining away all


the time to make something of itself. The strain?s so bad that every


sixteen hours everybody lies down and gets a rest"(709). This


philosophy on daily life is that every single detail matters and the


living overlook the small things. People strain over the big things


in life and do not take the time to enjoy the ordinary "small" events


in life. "Almost everybody in the world gets married-you know


what I mean? In our town there aren?t hardly any exceptions. Most


everybody in the world climbs into their graves married?People


were made to live two by two" (696). His philosophy on love and


marriage is traditional. He represents the feelings of a large


population that do not want to live the single life. This philosophy


on love and marriage is universal, pertaining to many people. The


Stage Manager takes this universal theory and relates it to one


couple, in one place, in one period of time. "Now there is some


things we all know, but

we don?t take?m out and look at?m very


often. We all know that something is eternal. And it ain?t houses


and it ain?t names, and it ain?t earth, and it ain?t even the


stars?everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal,


and that something has to do with human beings?You know as


well as I do that the dead don?t stay interested in us living people


for very long. Gradually, gradually, they lose hold of the


earth?and the ambitions they had?and the pleasures they


had?and the things they suffered?and the people they loved"


(701). The Stage Manager?s philosophy on death is unique. It is


more of a philosophy on life than of death because the dead feel


sorry for the living who cannot fully appreciate life. The living


cannot see that every detail matters. Every detail has a universal


effect. Our Town is based upon the Stage Manager?s philosophies.


The Stage Manager is part of the community itself. He is an actor.


He plays several minor roles throughout the play. The significance


of the Stage Manager taking on these roles is that anyone, any


insignificant person who one meets on the street is important. In


Act I, he plays a woman in the street whom George has


accidentally bumped into while chasing a baseball. As Mrs. Forest,


The Stage Manager says, "Go out and play in the fields, young


man. You got no business playing baseball on Main Street"(679).


Although it is the Stage Manager playing Mrs. Forest the


character still has an impact over George?s actions. In Act II, he


plays Mr. Morgan, the druggist and soda jerk. Mr. Morgan serves


George and Emily while George proposes to Emily. Such a small


role has a large impact. The Stage Manager plays this part


demonstrating that an insignificant person is involved in a large


event. The Stage Manager also assumes the part of the minister


who performs the marriage ceremony. In Act III he is Emily?s


contact between the living and the dead. He presents the theme.


The most minor person or episode makes an impression.


The Stage Manager shows that the scope of Our Town is wider


than just the daily events of several ordinary people in a small New


Hampshire town in the early 1900?s. "The name of the town is


Grover?s Corner?s, New Hampshire-just across the Massachusetts


line: latitude 42 degrees 40 minutes; longitude 70 degrees 37


minutes"(671). The play begins in a particular place on a particular


day at a precise moment. "There are the stars-doing their old, old


crisscross journeys in the sky?"(709) The play ends in space. Not


a particular place. Not a particular moment. "?we want to know


how all this began-this wedding, this plan to spend a lifetime


together. I?m awfully interested in how big things like that


begin"(961). "I?ve married over two-hundred couples in my day.


Do I believe in it? I don?t know? M?.marries N?.millions of


them"(699). The Stage Manager makes a general statement about


an aspect of human nature and here can relate it to George and


Emily. He presides at George and Emily?s wedding with the initial


comment about the whole question of marriage. He discusses other


aspects of weddings and refers to wedding customs in Rome. His


remarks transcend to a particular place, Grover?s Corners, of the


particular couple, George and Emily.


The Stage Manager puts Grover?s Corners in perspective with the


rest of the world and ultimately the universe itself. The Stage


Manager communicates the theme of universality through his


narration, moderation, philosophies, and acting. The implication


here is that there are many Grover?s Corners and countless


characters like those in the play, who have, are, and will continue


the cycles of daily life, love marriage, procreation, and eventually


death. The name of the play itself is indicative of its universality; it


is indeed our town and the human predicament which is its


purpose.


357

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