Our Town at Syracuse Stage | A Conversation with Bob Hupp & Tappan Wilder

Bob Hupp is Artistic Director of Syracuse Stage and director of OUR TOWN. Tappan Wilder, Thornton Wilder’s nephew and literary executor, spoke with him recently about his connection to the play and his experience directing it for audiences at Syracuse Stage.

Tappan:  Thank you for joining us today, Bob.  We’re looking forward to hearing about your production of Our Town at Syracuse Stage.  But first, tell us about how you first encountered Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire?

Bob: I think I first met Our Town, as so many do, in college. I made a comment while talking to the cast the other day about how the play had, in fact, been a through-line throughout my life. This is my second time directing it. I’ve done Skin of Our Teeth twice as well, the last production as recently as last summer. But because of the way it is structured, Our Town, such a beautiful play, speaks to me in entirely different and meaningful ways today than it did when I first directed it many years ago.

We talked about what it was like to create this production of Our Town as we emerge from the pandemic, and about the fact that during the pandemic we were afraid of our present and fearful of our future. For me, Our Town is the antidote to that fear.

I’m also interested in the ways in which the play speaks to us as a community. For example, when Howie Newsome comes around with the milk, and the town folk  have the same conversation over and over again about the weather— that, to me, is one of the most beautiful moments in the play.  Those constants, those predictable moments in our lives give us such comfort.

There are things in our daily lives that we ignore. And that we overlook. And during the pandemic, those became the things that we missed when they were gone. We see those every day, unspoken connections that we make with each other woven throughout Our Town.

We wanted, as a company to be cognizant of these little things—the things we take for granted—the things that Emily realizes when she looks back as she’s saying goodbye. 

It’s a very diverse cast in every way.  George and Emily are Syracuse University drama students.  And it also includes wonderful professional actors in town,  actors who also teach at the university, and  several actors up from New York City. So we have a wonderful blend of perspectives.  And because many cast members call central New York home, the community coming to see the show will see themselves on stage.  This “diverse” casting seemed like a wonderful way to celebrate this great play.

Tappan: Can you tell us about a part of the play that is difficult for the actors to grapple with?

Bob: Absolutely. There is a small moment, very difficult to get right, at the beginning of the wedding. It’s when George comes down the aisle and has a panic attack. He’s upset!  And when his mother comes to him he says, “Oh ma, I just to be a fella.”  But then a beat later, he says, “Ma, save Thursday nights. We’ll have dinner!” -- he’s suddenly back to himself.  The transition there is so abrupt.

Tappan: That is indeed a very mixed-message moment! I can see why it’s tricky for an acter to handle.  There was a production at Long Wharf some years ago.  The actor just stood up taller, as if he had become a man.  The internal adjustment was very dramatic.

Bob: That’s good. I’ll keep it in mind.

Tappy: Incidentally, there is a lot of laughter and humor in Our Town.

Bob: I agree with you, and I think we’re finding some of that humor.  Our preconception is that it’s such a somber play, and many ways it really isn’t.

Tappan: That’s great.  Well, you know Thornton always said there’s no plot in the play. You know what’s going to happen in every act.  It’s just what happens in his novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey; the dramatic suspense is taken away in the first few sentences.  That’s why people have struggled to adapt it for the stage, to find the novel’s nevertheless very real “dramatic” elements.

Bob: It’s true.  There’s no suspense. But it’s like with Brecht, when the plot is taken off the table, you can pay attention to the characters.

Tappan: The third act is a tough. How is that working out?

Bob: The third act is the tough one.  We’ve got an original score of solo cello that weaves its way in and out of the acts and we also have a water element in our production.  It came out of the idea that Syracuse in so many ways has been defined by water—the Eerie Canal, the Onondaga Lake which gave Syracuse it’s early affluence—so there are pools of water that the audience sees as the play evolves.  In the third act, when Emily returns to visit her mother on her 12th birthday, those moments take place in these one-inch deep pools of water. And the sound of the water reminds us that we’re in a different time.    

I didn’t want to get ultra local because I wanted the universality of the play to come forward, but I wanted to acknowledged the fact that we are doing this play in central New York, hopefully as we emerge from the pandemic.

Tappan: Fascinating staging, Bob. Now one final question: Why do you think Wilder’s work continues to resonate with us all, so many years later?

Bob: It is because the truths that Thornton Wilder included in Our Town are truths that transcend time. Those truths are as relevant to me today as they were when I was an undergrad learning about Thornton Wilder and Our Town.  I believe that those truths are constant in this changing world.  Our Town is a touchstone. Through whatever lens we look at the play, we can see something of our own lives and that gives us some insight into our condition.  It’s such a beautiful play to live with.  This is a play you don’t walk away from.

Tappan: Thank you, Bob for this moving tribute to Our Town.