Get thee to Grover’s Corners. That is, Grover’s Corners at Culver City High School. The Academy of Visual and Performing Arts program is performing “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder this weekend and next weekend, and the show is just wonderful.
I had never seen the play before and I had never read it. I was under the impression that it was a little stuffy and boring and stiffly Northeastern. In the hands of our teenagers, under the direction of Justin Lujan, it is none of the above. It is warm and loving and sad and completely engrossing. The production is quiet and spare, with few props and little set, but the stage is filled with the spirit of Olivia Finnegan as the Stage Manager, and of Kelsi Parsons, Chris Clark, Tennesee Westmorland, Kayla Valentine, Evan Wilson and Lilah Wally as the families around whose lives the story revolves. Many of these actors have been working on stage with Dee-lightful Productions since they were in elementary school and they are confident and very, very moving on stage. Others were part of Culver City Middle School’s theater program, where they also received excellent training.
The show will be performed again Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday matinee, and then again next week Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and a Saturday matinee. Here’s a link for the schedule and to buy tickets. The show is in the Sony Pictures Black Box Theater at the back of the Robert Frost Auditorium, so tickets are limited avpaourtown-eorg.eventbrite.com/ The show is definitely worth your time.
“Our Town” could not have happened without director Justin Lujan and theater artistic director Jill Novick. They both must have put in an amazing amount of time to make the play happen.