Tickets Now on Sale for Upper School Performing Arts Production of Our Town

The Upper School Performing Arts Department is pleased to present its winter production, Our Town, on Friday, February 27, and Saturday, February 28, at 7:30 p.m. Audiences will take their seats for the Pulitzer Prize–winning drama at the iconic South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC). To purchase your tickets, visit SOPAC’s website, here.

Widely praised by the playwright Edward Albee as “the greatest American play ever written,” Our Town explores life in the small community of Grover’s Corners in three acts: “Daily Life,” “Love and Marriage,” and “Death and Eternity.” The play follows the everyday experiences of the Webb and Gibbs families as their children grow up, fall in love, build a life together, and ultimately face mortality in one of American theater’s most famous scenes. The show is narrated by the character of the stage manager and uses minimal props and sets.

Says Hannah Kelley ’26, “The audience can look forward to an emotional journey through the ups and downs of everyday life. It’s such an interesting challenge as an actor to be involved in a production where there are no props and we have to portray the detailed activities of everyday life with only our physical body language.”

“I think the lack of a set is one of the most important elements of this play,” says stage manager Samantha Heck ’27. “The set consists of two ladders, two tables, about a dozen chairs, and a few stools and benches. There’s much more emphasis on the lines and what the characters are saying, not what they’re doing. During the three acts, we watch the progression of time without the pieces of the set changing at all; we see it only through the verbal and physical changes from the characters.”

The show is directed by Keri Lesnik P ’27, Upper School Theater teacher. It will run approximately two hours with one 15-minute intermission, and is appropriate for all ages.

Cast: Mia Ramos ’26, Cecília Hirawat ’26, Kendi Littletree ’27, Eva Obalde ’29, Vivienne Vengroff ’27, Hannah Kelley ’26, Emily Foerster ’27, Ana Monteiro ’27, Sydney Chen ’28, Arabella Crofton ’28, Gita Shirhattikar ’28, Annabelle Lesnik ’27, Nicole Hoffman ’28, Sarah Mattle ’28, Austen Fiala ’28, and Caroline Slattery ’28.

Stage management team: Gracen Hill ’27, Samantha Heck ’27, Sophia DeFoe ’27, and Suzy Salazar ’29; logo design by Kendi Littletree ’27; cast headshots by Ani Mendieta-Frost ’26.

While the Kent Place Leadership Center for Athletics, Wellness, and Performing Arts is under construction, performing arts students have had the unique opportunity to perform at SOPAC, a stage that regularly welcomes world-class talent and Broadway performers. This will be Kent Place’s second production at SOPAC this academic year.

Traveling to SOPAC
SOPAC is located at 1 SOPAC Way, South Orange — just 20 minutes from the Kent Place campus. For directions, click here.