The Siloam Springs Center for the Arts (SSCA) production of "Our Town" premiered at the Chautauqua Amphitheater in downtown Siloam Springs last Saturday.
The show, free to the public, drew a large and enthusiastic audience.
Many familiar faces in the community were present both in the audience and cast, which included several debuting actors like Don Warden, director and historian at the Siloam Springs Museum; Jayme Amonson, on staff at Grace Episcopal Church in Siloam Springs; and Margaret Paulzine, volunteer at the Manna Center.
"This is my first time in a play, but it has been on my bucket list for years," Paulzine said.
A number of young actors made their debut as well, among whom were Phoenix May, a 10th grader at Don Tyson School of Innovation and an aspiring baker; Aidan Gayler, a ninth grader and baseball and basketball player at Siloam Springs High School; and the youngest cast member at 12 years old, Paxton Weathers, a homeschooled seventh grader who enjoys everything from woodcarving to programming.
"I like having kids in my cast because I was that kid...loved theater and didn't really have an outlet for it," said director Jeremy Kelly, who's also a member of the SSCA board. "If you're a kid and you feel a little bit like an outcast, find a theater group, because we're all dorks. We all just get along and everyone accepts people for who they are."
"Our Town," written by Thornton Wilder and first published and produced in 1938, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning classic that has endured as a staple of American schools and community theaters. The play, at the time of its publishing, was considered wildly innovative for a lack of props and scenery, concerns the cycle of life, love, and death in a typical small American town.
The motif and message of "Our Town" seems appropriate to the Siloam Springs context, and the Chautauqua Amphitheater's location in downtown Siloam's Memorial Park made it a fittingly evocative venue.
The show marks the seventh production by the SSCA, which formed in 2018. The SSCA's mission is "to educate and encourage cultural awareness through visual/audio performance, theatrical production and educational opportunity in Siloam Springs and surrounding communities."
The SSCA is planning a Christmas-themed production for December and will be holding a wine-tasting fundraiser -- which will be a ticketed event -- at the Park House Kitchen + Bar on Oct 16.