On Sunday, October 13, New York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett attended a production and met with the cast of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town at the Barrymore Theatre. Patchett’s #1 New York Times bestselling novel Tom Lake tells the story of a production of Our Town. Ann shared that despite Wilder’s play being the piece of writing she has read the most in her life, she had never seen a production of Our Town on stage until Kenny Leon’s production on Sunday. See photos of Patchett with the cast here!
The next day, on Monday, October 14, Symphony Space held a special literary event celebrating the synergy between The New York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett’s novel Tom Lake and the Pulitzer Prize–winning drama Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. The program featured a reading of the Stage Manager’s opening monologue from Jim Parsons, a reading from Tom Lake by Zoey Deutch and Ephraim Sykes, and a conversation featuring Kenny Leon, Ann Patchett, and Jim Parsons, moderated by Jeremy McCarter. Following the conversation and performances, Tappan Wilder (nephew of Thornton Wilder and head of the Wilder Family LLC) and Jackson R. Bryer (president of the Thornton Wilder Society) presented Patchett with the prestigious Thornton Wilder Prize.
Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, directed by Tony Award-winner Kenny Leon and featuring a cast of 28 actors, opened to critical acclaim on Thursday, October 10. The production is a New York Times’ Critics Pick and deemed “An Our Town for All Of Us” by critic Jesse Green.
