Thornton Wilder's World: His Writing & Themes. A Virtual Panel Discussion.
Thornton Wilder (1897-1975), Hamden resident and winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, was a titan of 20th century American literature. His most famous play, Our Town, has been called “the finest American play ever written” and continues to awe audiences.
Moderated by Ray Andrewsen, this free virtual panel discussion is offered in connection with Thornton Wilder's birthday on April 17 and in conjunction with the Thornton Wilder Writing Competition Award Ceremony on April 22. Panelists are Dr. Jackson R. Bryer, Emeritus Professor of English, University of Maryland, President of the Thornton Wilder Society; Marydell Merrill, Director, Hamden High School Mainstage Ensemble; and Walton Wilson, Professor in the Practice of Acting, David Geffen School of Drama, Yale University.
To attend, please register here or call 203-287-2680.
Ray Andrewsen was the Executive Director of the Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce and formerly Director of Membership Services for the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce. He was the General Manager and local morning radio voice on Quinnipiac University’s WQUN in Hamden for over 22 years. Mr. Andrewsen has interviewed thousands of local and national guests. WQUN was voted the New Haven area’s Best Radio Station as recently as the 2018 CTNow reader’s poll. Ray has extensive civic experience having served on the board of directors of the Connecticut Broadcasters Association, Hamden Regional Chamber of Commerce, Christian Community Action, Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers, Schooner Inc, and he is a past PTA president of Ridge Hill elementary school in Hamden. Ray is currently the president of the advisory board of the Salvation Army of New Haven, serves on the board of Clifford Beers Clinic, operations committee of the Ulbrich Boys and Girls Club, member of the New Haven Rotary, and panelist on the Hamden Juvenile Review Board. Ray received the Hamden Citizen of the Year Award from the Hamden Elks, Notable Citizen of the Year Award from the Hamden Chamber of Commerce, Community Impact Award from the Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce, and the Arnold Dean Award for Connecticut Broadcasting from the Franciscan Life Center in 2019.
Dr. Jackson R. Bryer is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Maryland, where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses for 41 years. He is the editor, or co-editor of more than twenty-five books on American playwrights. He was the cofounder and coeditor of Resources for American Literary Study. He was a member of the Board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation for thirty years and serves as President of the Thornton Wilder Society and of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society. He is the editor of Conversations with Thornton Wilder (1992), and co-editor of The Selected Letters of Thornton Wilder (2008). He is the author, editor, or co-editor of books on F. Scott Fitzgerald, Eugene O’Neill, Ernest Hemingway, August Wilson, Lillian Hellman, Thornton Wilder, Lanford Wilson, William Inge, Carson McCullers, William Styron, Louis Auchincloss, Samuel Beckett, Wallace Stevens, and Hamlin Garland
Marydell Merrill is the Director of Hamden High School Mainstage Ensemble. As an actor she has performed with several Connecticut companies including Long Wharf Theatre and Connecticut Free Shakespeare. She is an audio describer for the vision impaired and describes several productions every season for Yale Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage and The Bushnell. As a workshop presenter she has presented at the Yale Repertory Theatre WILL POWER! teacher workshops, as a Master Teaching Artist for Break dancing Shakespeare at Hartford Stage, and at several educational theatre festivals at the state, regional and national level, including the International Thespian Festival. Ms. Merrill was the recipient of the 2014 Inspirational Theatre Educator Award from the International Thespian Society, and the Hall of Fame Award from the North East Educational Theatre Festival. Her work with middle school students was featured in the fall 2014 issue of Teaching Theatre.
Walton Wilson is Professor in the Practice of Acting, David Geffen School of Drama, Yale University. He was apprenticed to and designated as a voice teacher by Kristin Linklater and was later trained and certified as an associate teacher by Catherine Fitzmaurice. He also studied voice with Richard Armstrong, Andrea Haring, Meredith Monk, Patsy Rodenburg, David Smukler, Jean-René Toussaint, and members of the Roy Hart Theatre. He has served as voice, text, and dialect coach for productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in regional theater, including a multitide of new plays and adaptations by American and international theatermakers. He has held faculty appointments at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, Fordham College at Lincoln Center, Emerson College, and Southern Methodist University, and has been an artist-in-residence at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, American Repertory Theatre, Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center/National Theatre Institute, Shakespeare & Company, Swine Palace Theatre, GEOKS Singapadu (Bali), LaSalle College of the Arts (Singapore), Shanghai Theatre Academy (China), Sfumato Theatre Laboratory, Plovdiv State Drama Theatre, New Bulgarian University (Bulgaria), Titan Teatersköle (Norway), and Fundaçao Gulbenkian (Portugal). He has also led voice workshops for community organizers, military veterans, museum curators, architects, prison inmates, and interfaith ministers. His professional acting credits include productions off-Broadway and in regional theatres and Shakespeare festivals across the United States. He is a frequent collaborator with Double Edge Theatre (Ashfield, MA), The Lunar Stratagem (Hudson, NY), and Pro Rodopi Arts Centre (Bostina, Bulgaria).