Photo Flash: First Look at Rubicon Theatre's OUR TOWN

Rubicon Theatre of Ventura presents the centerpiece of the company's 15^th Anniversary "Our Town/Your Theatre" Season, with Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic Our Town. This year marks not only Rubicon's 15^th anniversary, but also the 75^th Anniversary of Our Town's first production, which is being celebrated nationally. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production below!

Set in Grover's Corners, a quintessentially American town at the turn-of-the-last-century, Our Town is a powerful and poetic reminder of the precious nature of everyday existence. As the Stage Manager in Rubicon's production, Rubicon Artistic Director James O'Neil narrates Wilder's immortal tale of birth, love, marriage, death and daily life. "Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anyone to realize you," says Emily, played in our production by Lauren Patten (Rubicon's Anne Frank).

The large cast of 30, directed by Rubicon Artistic Associate Jenny Sullivan, also includes TOM ASTOR, DILLON FRANCIS, Joseph Fuqua, Robin Gammell, Stephanie McNamara, ELYSE MIRTO, Remi Sandri and many others.

Thornton Wilder's most famous play transports the audience into the everyday lives of the citizens of Grover's Corners, a fictional New Hampshire town in the early 1900s. With a minimalist theatrical environment created by Thomas S. Giamario (the Ovation award-winning designer of Rubicon's environmental production of Fiddler on the Roof), and only a few pieces of furniture to set the scene (by T. Theresa Scarano), we are guided through Our Town by the Stage Manager, the narrator and omnipresent voice of the playwright. The play is split into three acts - as the Stage Manager describes, "The first act [is] called the Daily Life. [The second] act is called Love and Marriage. There's another act coming after this: I reckon you can guess what that's about." The story centers on two families, the Gibbses and the Webbs; through each act, we watch George Gibbs and Emily Webb grow into adulthood and experience their journey through both the ordinary and the extraordinary moments of life, love and death.

Our Town premiered in New York on February 4, 1938 at Henry Miller's Theatre. Our Town cemented its place in history when Wilder was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1938. In the 75 years since its premiere in 1938, Our Town has become one of the classics of the Great American play canon. Our Town is produced so frequently by American schools, community theatres and professional regional theatres that the play is performed at least once every day. Through permission of the Wilder estate, Rubicon's current production is a part of the current national celebration, which includes readings and special performances in New York and Washington, D.C.

Rubicon's new production of Our Town will make use of the entire auditorium, with actors and audience members intermingled throughout the space (a number of seats are "onstage"). Set designer Thomas S. Giamario of Giatheatrix, who has created large-scale environments for Rubicon productions ranging from Fiddler on the Roof and Bus Stop to All My Sons, has created the playing space, which makes use of the theatre's balcony as the "choir loft" and also includes a ramp from the existing stage through the audience.

The lighting for the production is co-designed by Jeremy Pivnik, winner of the Angstrom Lifetime Achievement Award in Lighting from the L.A. Drama Critics Circle, and Tony Award-winner Peter Hunt, who designed lighting for the last production in which Thornton Wilder himself played the Stage Manager (photos available).

These designers are joined by Marcy Froehlich (Costumes) and T. Theresa Scarano (Set Dressing and Props). Kathleen Parsons and Linda Tross are Production Stage Manager and Assistant Stage Manager, respectively.

Rubicon's production during the company's 15^th Anniversary Season involves many actors who have worked with Rubicon through the years and many local professionals from the Central Coast. Young people who have grow up in Rubicon's youth programs over the last decade are also making their professional debuts in this production.

Returning Rubicon veterans include: Artistic Director James O'Neil as the Stage Manager; Joseph Fuqua (20+ plays with Rubicon including the title role in Hamlet) as Simon Stimson, Tom Astor (A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie) as Editor Webb, husband-and-wife Robin Gammell and Stephanie McNamara, who met in Rubicon's production of A Delicate Balance) as Professor Willard and Mrs. Gibbs, respectively; Remi Sandri (Children of a Lesser God, Hamlet) as Doc Gibbs; Ojai residents John Bennett Perry and Tony Perry (The Rainmaker), along with John's wife Debbie Perry; Ventura residents Tom Mueller (Gem of the Ocean), and his wife Sally Mueller; Santa Barbara-based actor Rich Hoag (Will Rogers' America); and Von Rae Wood (The Night of the Iguana, Steel Magnolias). Ventura native Dillon Francis (Defying Gravity and The Diary of Anne Frank) takes on his first Equity role as George Gibbs and Lauren Patten (The Diary of Anne Frank, Bus Stop, Fiddler on the Roof) plays Emily Webb.

Former participants in Rubicon youth programs who are a part of this mainstage production include Ventura County residents Joey Sponseller (Sam Craig), Xander Young (Wally Webb), Sydney Unseth (Rebecca Gibbs), Daniel Brackett (Joe Crowell and Si Crowell), Ahmed Asi and Jacob King (Baseball Players), and Jennifer Ridgway.

Actors joining Rubicon for the first time in this production are Elyse Mirto (Mrs. Webb); Ojai resident James Lashly (Constable Warren); Thousand Oaks residents Googy Gress (also alternating as Constable Warren) and son Gus Gress; and Anne Guynn of Santa Barbara.

Our Town begins previews on March 6, with the official opening on Saturday, March 9 (and a gala party following with the cast and local dignitaries in the Ventura City Hall atrium). Performances continue Wednesdays through Sundays through March 31, 2013 at Rubicon Theatre Company, 1006 E. Main Street in Ventura's Downtown Cultural District. For tickets, call (805) 667-2900 or go to www.rubicontheatre.org.