Another Day’s Begun: Exploring Our Town at Pasadena Playhous

Pasadena Playhouse has announced the live streaming of Another Day's Begun: Exploring Our Town on PlayhouseLive, MARCH 11, 2021 at 6:30pm PT, presented by Pasadena Playhouse and Vroman's Bookstore. Another Day's Begun: Exploring Our Town will be available on demand beginning MARCH 12.

This special event celebrates Our Town, the quintessential American play, with performances from previous cast members and a conversation with Jane Kazmarek, who played the Stage Manager in the 2017 Pasadena Playhouse/Deaf West production, and author Howard Sherman, author of the new book Another Day's Begun: Thornton Wilder's Our Town in the 21st Century.

Kazmarek and Sherman guide us through the enduring legacy of Thornton Wilder's masterpiece with excerpts from Our Town performed by Kazmarek herself, Youssef Kerkour, Keith Randolph Smith and Alexandria Wailes.

The evening is also a virtual celebration of Sherman's new book, which explores thirteen key productions of Our Town, including the landmark 2017 production by Pasadena Playhouse and Deaf West Productions. Another Day's Begun: Thornton Wilder's Our Town in the 21st Century is now available in stores (Methuen Drama, $26.95).

A work of startling originality when it debuted in 1938, Thornton Wilder's Our Town evolved to be seen by some as a vintage slice of early 20th Century Americana, rather than being fully appreciated for its complex and eternal themes and its deceptively simple form. Another Day's Begun: Thornton Wilder's Our Town in the 21st Century shines a light on the play's continued impact in the 21st century and makes a case for the healing powers of Wilder's text to a world confronting multiple crises.

Through extensive interviews with more than 100 artists about their own experience of the play and its impact on them professionally and personally - and including background on the play's early years and its pervasiveness in American culture - Another Day's Begun shows why this particular work remains so important, essential, and beloved.

80 years after it was written, more than 110 years after its actions take place, Our Town continues to assert itself as an essential play about how we must embrace and appreciate the value of life itself. Another Day's Begun explains how this American classic has the power to inspire, heal and endure in the modern day, onstage and beyond.

Another Day's Begun: Exploring Our Town will be available to view for free on PlayhouseLive MARCH 11, 2021 at 6:30pm PT. Once you create your free account at www.playhouselive.org, Another Day's Begun: Exploring Our Town can be watched on any of the PlayhouseLive apps including Apple OS, Android OS, Roku, FireTV and more. Closed captioning is available and ASL will be provided by Elizabeth Greene. Spanish captioning will be available for on-demand viewing subsequent to the live event.

Other PlayhouseLive programming highlights include:

Poet, performance artist and professor Javon Johnson in Still., a timely one-man performance about the complexities of the Black experience, commissioned by Pasadena Playhouse and kept online by popular demand. Still. can be rented for $19.99.
In the second episode of Intermission with Hashtag Booked, hosts LaNisa Frederick and Danielle Pinnock take an intermission with Jeff Perry ("Scandal") to talk about his distinguished career in front of the camera and his roots in the theatre. Jeff will recount the beginnings of Steppenwolf Theatre Company and share some insider stories about his time with Laurie Metcalf, John Malkovich, and more. Intermission with Hashtag booked is available for free to the public.

Additional information about PlayhouseLive and its programming, including new announcements and pricing specials, are available at www.playhouselive.org.