By Nathan Duke
Staff Writer

Henry W. Moore Middle School students have rehearsed for over a month to bring “Our Town” to their town.

STAGE STRUCK –Alyssa Chambers, left, plays Emily in A production of “Our Town.” She rehearses her lines with Troy Finch, right, as others look on. (Nathan Duke Photo)

Eileen Suckley, who teaches seventh- and eighth-graders at the school, has directed the 25 students in grades 6 to 8, and provided for many of them an introduction to acting.

Suckley said Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” is a great introduction for middle school students because of its difficulty. She said if the students can grasp the material in this play, others will come more easily for them in the future.

“This is typically a high school-level play and definitely the hardest we have done at Henry Moore,” she said. “It has been kind of a stretch, but (the students) have risen to the challenge. They have often given up their recess period to rehearse, and come in on Sundays. They really want to give good performances.”

For many of the students, participation in the play is a fun extracurricular activity. For others, like 14-year-old eighthgrader Alyssa Chambers, it could be the beginning of an acting career.

“I’m thinking about a career in acting, I guess, because I’m just a big drama queen,” she said. “I’d rather do film acting than stage, though, because I can’t project my voice very well.”

Chambers plays the role of Emily in the play. K.J. Deyett, a 14-year-old eighth-grader who will play the stage manager, or narrator, in the play, has also considered work as a thespian.

“I’d love to try a comedy play,” he said. “Eventually, I’d love to do something like ‘Saturday Night Live.’”

Deyett said he will audition for other plays when he attends Pinkerton Academy next year.

Suckley said the play is a good swan song for the eighthgraders, who will move on to high school next year.

“There are many parallels between Thornton Wilder’s view of small town life and life in Candia,” she said. “Many of the students in the play are thinking about what is next – high school, then college. This play tells them to remember their roots, where they came from.”

“Our Town” is set at the end of the 19th century in Grover’s Corner, N.H., a small town. In the play, Emily Webb, in the afterlife, thinks back on her life and how she let it pass her by.

“The idea of the play is that we can find so much importance in the mundane rituals of our lives,” said Suckley. “The students are participating in a play that people have done many times before, but every time it feels new.”

Suckley said that aside from the few students interested in acting careers, many of them have expressed interest in participating in future plays, either with the school or elsewhere.

“I’d say half of the students this year are return players, and many of them are very vocal about continuing in high school or at a college level,” she said.

Several of the students agree with Suckley’s parallels between “Our Town” and Candia, though for more humorous reasons.

“There’s always a little gossip going around in town, and we are a little bit shielded from the outside world and bigger cities,” said eighth-grader Shane Duffy, 14, who plays Dr. Gibbs in the play.

Suckley chose “Our Town” for the students to perform following Consider Candia, a research project assigned to students that required them to scour town archives and town records to learn about the town’s history. Students turned in the project before the decision to put on “Our Town” was even decided. However, Suckley felt the play would complement the project.

“This was a fabulous parallel. ‘Our Town’ is a philosophical play and the project gave students a historical background of their town,” she said. “I think it was a great chance for analytical thinking.”

“Our Town” was performed on Friday, April 1, at Henry W. Moore School.