Thornton Wilder
Thornton Wilder (1987 - 1975) was an American writer and playwright. He is most well known for Our Town and The Skin Of Our Teeth. Wilder was the winner of three Pulitzer Prizes and the National Book Award.
- Thornton Wilder: BritannicaThornton Wilder, in full Thornton Niven Wilder, (born April 17, 1897, Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.—died December 7, 1975, Hamden, Connecticut), American writer whose innovative novels and plays reflect his views of the universal truths in human nature. He is probably best known for his plays.
- Thornton WilderOfficial website of Thornton Wilder.
Research & Reference
- Thornton Wilder: Credo ReferenceA Credo Reference landing page on Thornton Wilder. This page includes links to reference works, journal articles, and a mind map.
- Thornton Wilder PapersThe Thornton Wilder Papers consist of correspondence, manuscripts, personal and business papers, printed material, photographs, memorabilia and audio tapes documenting the life and work of American author Thornton Wilder. The papers span the years 1900-1983, with the bulk of the material dating from the period 1935-1975.
Streaming Media
- Lilli Palmer interviews Thornton Wilder in 1952This is episode number 17 of Lilli Palmer's NBC daytime program. Her guest on this filmed program is Thornton Wilder who, rather than discussing his own works, discusses the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega. Interviews of Wilder are rare and it is wonderful to experience his enthusiasm for Vega.
- Our Town: Character Studies ConversationsIn Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, the time is 1901 and the place is America’s collective memory. But Thornton Wilder’s Our Town is not the sentimental nostalgia piece most people perceive. This program hosted by Eli Wallach offers wide-ranging and extraordinarily deep insights into the play from those who arguably know it best: Our Town alumni who over the years have brought the play to life on stage and screen. Interviews with Paul Newman (Stage Manager); Cynthia Nixon and Maggie Lacey (Emily Webb); Paul Newman, Ben Fox, Harvey Evans, and Eric Stoltz (George Gibbs); James Rebhorn (Doc Gibbs); Frances Conroy (Mrs. Gibbs); Jeff DeMunn (Editor Webb); and Stephen Spinella (Simon Stimson) are featured. Our Town director James Naughton and Tom Jones, writer of the musical adaptation Grover’s Corners, also contribute. A viewable/printable instructor’s guide is available online. A Films for the Humanities & Sciences Production.
- Out Town: PBS MasterpieceVeteran actor-director Paul Newman makes his first Broadway appearance in four decades in this sold-out Westport Country Playhouse production of the Thornton Wilder classic. Newman plays the Stage Manager, who narrates the immortal tale of Grover's Corners, U.S.A., and its citizens. The superb cast of OUR TOWN includes Frank Converse, Jane Curtin, Ben Fox, Jayne Atkinson, and Stephen Spinella.
Author's Works & Perspectives
Thornton Wilder: Collected Plays and Writings on Theater
Tender, beguiling, suffused with feeling and wit, the remarkable plays of Thornton Wilder occupy a unique place in American culture. His most celebrated play, Our Town, has achieved iconic status as an expression of the spirit and pathos of small-town American life; adapted for the movies and the operatic stage, it continues to resonate with audiences responding to its formal elegance, plainspoken poetry, and moving evocation of the inevitability of loss.
Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights
"Don't use your conscious past. Use your creative imagination to create a past that belongs to your character. I don't want you to be stuck with your own life. It's too little." nbsp; "You must get beneath the words before you can say them. The text must be in you. It is your job to fill, not to empty the words. They can only be used if they come out of what you need to say."nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; --Stella Adler nbsp; From one the most celebrated and influential acting teachers of her time, of all time, whose generations of students include Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn, Eva Marie Saint, Diana Ross, Robert De Niro, Warren Beatty, Annette Benning, Peter Bogdanovich, Mark Ruffalo--the long-awaited companion volume to her book on the master European playwrights Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov ("Evidence," wrote John Guare, "that Stella Adler is hands down the greatest acting teacher America has produced . . . Nobody with a serious interest in the theater can afford to be without this book").