Thornton Wilder and his play "Our Town" In-Person
Join us for an in-person screening of a 2024 virtual panel discussion on Hamden's famous triple Pulitzer Prize winning author Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) and his play Our Town which was written in 1938.The panel discussion was organized in conjunction with the 20th anniversary production of Our Town by the Whitney Players in January 2024. It was moderated by Ray Andrewsen, longtime morning show host of WQUN. Panelists were Dr. Jackson Bryer, Professor Emeritus of English, University of Maryland and President of the Thornton Wilder Society, and Thomas S. Hischak, Professor Emeritus of Theatre, State University of New York at Cortland, and author of The Thornton Wilder Encyclopedia.
This event is offered in connection with the town wide program series
Hamden Through Time (1938): One Year, One Town, 1,000 Stories.
It will be held in Miller Library's Friends Room. It is free and open to the public. Registration is recommended. Seating is limited.
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Thornton Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes - for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1928) and the two plays Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1943). He won the U.S. National Book Award for the novel The Eighth Day (1968). He is the only writer ever to be honored with Pulitzer Prizes in both fiction and drama. He was born on April 17, 1897 in Madison, WI and died on December 7, 1975 in Hamden, CT. He was educated at Yale University, Oberlin College, Princeton University and Berkeley High School. He taught French at Lawrenceville School, and from 1930 to 1937 he taught at the University of Chicago. In 1930 he had a house built for his family in Hamden, CT which was financed from the earnings he received for The Bridge of San Luis Rey. It was "the house that the bridge built". This house was designed by Alice Trythall Washburn, one of few female architects working at the time. His sister Isabel lived there for the rest of her life. It was his home base, but he travelled extensively. He received several awards for his military service in WWII. He was a visiting professor at Harvard University. He won the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 1957, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. He was proficient in four languages. His play The Matchmaker became the 1964 hit musical Hello Dolly. He died in his house in Hamden on December 7, 1975, at the age of 78 of heart failure. He was interred at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hamden.
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 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.
Prof. Thomas Hischak was Professor of Theatre at the State University of New York at Cortland from 1983 to 2015 where he has received such honors as the 2004 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity and the 2010 SUNY Outstanding Achievement in Research Award. An internationally recognized author and teacher in the Performing Arts, he has published over thirty non-fiction books about theatre, film, and popular music. He recently published The Thornton Wilder Encyclopedia. Several of his books have been cited as Outstanding Non-fiction Books by the American Library Association. Prof. Hischak is a Fulbright scholar who has taught and directed in Greece, Lithuania, and Turkey. His playwriting awards include the Stanley Drama Award (New York City) for Cold War Comedy and the Julie Harris Playwriting Award (Beverly Hills, California) for The Cardiff Giant. Hischak is currently an Adjunct Professor teaching film and theatre at Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL.