Spend a day in Staunton, Virginia, with director K.P. Powell and discover why Thornton Wilder’s Our Town remains one of the most beloved plays ever written.
From the Historic Staunton C&O Train Station and The Split Banana to community gathering spaces like Staunton Books & Tea and Collin’s Market, K.P. explores the places, people, and everyday moments that inspired his vision for Our Town at the American Shakespeare Center.
Along the way, he reflects on what makes the play so moving: the little moments we often overlook, the communities that shape us, and the connections that remind us we’re not alone.
Check out the Downtown Staunton businesses featured:
- The Split Banana: https://www.thesplitbanana.com/
- Staunton Books & Tea: https://www.stauntonbooks.com/
- Collin’s Market: https://collinsmarketva.com/
- USA Today Best Selling Author Summer England – @summernengland
(Transcript auto-generated by YouTube)
0:00
This train station got here a year after the first act of Our Town.
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20 seconds
Hi, I’m K.P. Powell, director of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town here at the American Shakespeare Center, and I’m going to take you along with me as we spend a day
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27 seconds
in our town, get it, of Stanton, Virginia. Let’s go.
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34 seconds
My first impression was that this is really boring. Um, I had to read it when I was in grad school. We had this like
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41 seconds
long extensive reading list of like 200 plays and books and things, and Our Town was one of them, and it was super famous, and I read it, and all I kept thinking was nothing happens. This is so boring.
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52 seconds
It’s like oh the guy delivered the milk again and everyone’s asking about the weather. But then uh once I did it and once I like saw it I was like pulled
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1 minute
into like oh but that’s really all that matters in life. Like when you think about the people you miss you think about oh do I still remember my grandmother’s voice? Do I still have a
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1 minute, 8 seconds
voicemail with it? What did their hands feel like? You know, what did it smell like in their home or in their kitchen or being remembered like dogs or having
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1 minute, 16 seconds
cat hair everywhere? It’s like those are all the little things that actually make life worth living.
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1 minute, 22 seconds
Hello. But they’re making the waffle cones and like they let the smell drift out. You’re like, I see what you’re doing. The smell of a waffle cone. Who knew I would love that?
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1 minute, 34 seconds
Upon seeing Our Town, one of the things I noticed was how fast it goes, which I think really plays into
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1 minute, 42 seconds
It’s own message about how fast life goes. That like you start and it feels like, well, nothing’s happening and all of a sudden you get towards the end and it’s over and you’re like, “Wait a minute. Why am I heartbroken?
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1 minute, 52 seconds
Why am I filled with joy? Why I’m conflicted with so many different emotions that are battling each other.” But it’s because it’s constantly
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2 minutes
reminding you, hey, Yesterday was another day you didn’t talk to your brother. Yesterday was another day you didn’t start reading
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2 minutes, 8 seconds
that book or working out or whatever it is you want to do. And it can be inspiring or it can be
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2 minutes, 16 seconds
debilitating. And I think the hope is that we push people more towards the inspiring about like, hey, no, you didn’t do it yesterday, but you’re still
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2 minutes, 23 seconds
here today. You want to do something today? And oh no, it’s the star of the season, Summer England.
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2 minutes, 32 seconds
Are you on camera? I am.
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2 minutes, 34 seconds
Are you, do we have an ad? Do we have an ad for this? Speak into the mic.
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2 minutes, 39 seconds
Are we sponsored? Are we sponsored by Split Video?
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2 minutes, 41 seconds
Those of you who don’t know, please go purchase the book by author Summer England.
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2 minutes, 48 seconds
Say it like you mean it. USA Today bestselling author. Oh. Oh.
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2 minutes, 53 seconds
In a small town, you really feel how the community expects something from you.
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2 minutes, 57 seconds
And I like how in Our Town, especially doing it here, how it kind of reminds people how important community is, what it looks like for people to come
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3 minutes, 5 seconds
together, what it looks like when people block off the street and it fills with people. It’s a completely different feeling and vibe and energy.
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3 minutes, 12 seconds
And there are kids around and there are young people around and then there’s the older people sitting with their cigars watching the kids. And it’s
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3 minutes, 19 seconds
those things that I think, going back to the first question, makes Our Town pop. It’s all those little things of, oh, remember how this is there and
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3 minutes, 27 seconds
this is this and everyone hanging out. It’s the kind of community you can’t get in a big city.
3:36
3 minutes, 36 seconds
Our Town demonstrates in the most gentle way, the most celebrational way, how difficult it is to be a human being.
3:42
3 minutes, 42 seconds
Yeah, it is sad and difficult to sit with, but also a celebration because again, you’re not
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3 minutes, 50 seconds
alone. Every other human being has felt whatever it is you’re feeling. Well, not everyone, but at least one other. I think my other favorite line in the play
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3 minutes, 58 seconds
is, you know, humans were meant to go through life two by two. Taint natural to be lonesome. And I think that
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4 minutes, 7 seconds
that’s the most human thing that there is, that nobody wants to feel alone.
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4 minutes, 12 seconds
And it’s worse than if you’re in a small town, if you feel like you’re alone and isolated cuz you can feel the connection of everyone around you. And it feels
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4 minutes, 20 seconds
like something you’re excluded from. And so that line always kind of sticks out to me because that’s the
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4 minutes, 27 seconds
whole reason I do theatre is because of the ways that I’ve watched movies or things and in those moments felt like, oh, if somebody else felt this way, then
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4 minutes, 34 seconds
I’m not alone. And I think it’s so important in life to always make sure people don’t feel alone. My drive for doing theatre or performance of any
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4 minutes, 43 seconds
kind, whether it’s writing or directing or acting or standup or anything, is to get a group of people for a moment to
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4 minutes, 50 seconds
feel like one. That they breathe together, that they laugh together, that they sigh together, that they cry together, and you can leave going, “Oh, well, I wasn’t alone in that. I felt an
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4 minutes, 59 seconds
entire room feeling those things with me.” And again, I just think it’s important for any individual to never feel left out or alone.
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5 minutes, 14 seconds
I don’t know about you, when I go to the ballpark, that’s all I want is just a line of mustard.
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5 minutes, 19 seconds
For productions done at the ASC, you always need a strong ensemble. But for things like Our Town, it’s really hard to sell
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5 minutes, 29 seconds
to a small nit that small community vibe without it feeling real and authentic.
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5 minutes, 34 seconds
But it’s in those little things about making the interactions feel like, oh, we all know what it’s like when you’re walking down and you bump into somebody, it’s like, how are the kids? How’s the
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5 minutes, 42 seconds
dog? Oh, they’re going, “They’re in college already. Oh my god.” All those things are the more that they can feel that energy between the actors, the more
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5 minutes, 50 seconds
that when the actors turn and invite them in with our audience contact that, they’re ready to go, “Yeah, I want to be a part of Grover’s Corners. I want
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5 minutes, 57 seconds
to help any way I can.” And there’s lots of moments where the actors in a traditional production would be talking to invisible people. Like that’s how it
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6 minutes, 5 seconds
is in the script. And I was like, well, we don’t do that. So all these invisible people, look who you have right here.
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6 minutes, 11 seconds
That gallant stool is now Mrs. Louise and this is Fred and this is Irma. So that they feel like, oh, I’m really a part of this town, right? Like trying to
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6 minutes, 19 seconds
transform Stanton to Grover’s Corners as opposed to trying to bring Grover’s Corners to Stanton. It’s like, no, we already know what this town is like.
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6 minutes, 27 seconds
So when Ron, who plays our Stage Manager, is like referencing the railroad tracks while we’re in the playhouse, it’s like, well, they’re over there, so why don’t we actually point towards the direction that the
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6 minutes, 36 seconds
railroad tracks are and which direction they go, so that anybody who happens to notice is like, wait, that actually is where our railroad tracks are. And it’s
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6 minutes, 43 seconds
those little things, I think, that help a play feel more specific and less like, hey, here’s us doing a play for you.
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6 minutes, 51 seconds
It’s like, no, here’s us doing a play with you. A play that’s inviting you to say, “Hey, take this with you as you leave and talk about it on the ride home
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6 minutes, 59 seconds
and talk about it when you’re sitting with your dog and think about all the ways in which you could help your community, right? How about how many times you’ve been asked to volunteer
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7 minutes, 7 seconds
for the school and you’re like, you know what, maybe I can do a little something.” That’s the hope, to have people more excited to be a part of their community as opposed to feeling
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7 minutes, 16 seconds
like a bunch of individuals saying, “What can I do to get myself ahead?” Like, “No, what can I do to make the world around me better?” and that we all
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7 minutes, 23 seconds
move ahead. That’s the hope. But, you know, anytime you come near the human race, there’s layers and layers of nonsense. Thornton Wilder, Our Town.
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7 minutes, 34 seconds
Thank you for spending the day with me here in Our Town. Please come and visit Our Town and check out Thornton Wilder’s Our Town playing now through
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7 minutes, 42 seconds
August 9th at the American Shakespeare Center, the world’s first recreation of the Blackfriars Playhouse, Shakespeare’s indoor playing space right here in Stanton, Virginia.