Deja Vu All Over Again: Students tackle Wilder's puzzling piece

 

As a writer, Thornton Wilder’s most famous and beloved work is the quintessential “Our Town,” a play about turn of the 20^th century life in the fictional New England Town of Grover’s Corners. Produced countless times by theaters and schools alike, it’s a work considered as American as apple pie. 

One could argue, however, that Wilder’s 1943 Pulitzer Prize winning drama, “Skin of Our Teeth,” is a tougher love. At first, this play, which the students of Pierson High School will present this weekend, left the young actors scratching their heads in puzzlement. But over time “Skin of Our Teeth” has become a work the students have grown to love. 

Putting the plot into words, however, remains another matter.

“It’s really hard to explain,” says junior Luis Murillo who, in the course of the play’s three acts portrays a dinosaur, a broadcast announcer and… Luis Murillo. “It’s about family. What the human race has gone through and how they stay close to fight different things the world is throwing at you.”

“When I first read it,” said Murillo, “I thought, ‘What is this? I don’t get anything. This is nonsense. I don’t understand it.’ Then when you start doing it you get it.”

For the record, “Skin of Our Teeth” follows the chaotic, but predictable, life of the Antrobus family — George, Maggie and their children, Henry and Gladys, and the family maid, Sabina. The first act takes place as an ice age is setting in. Act two is set in Atlantic City as waters are rising and act three, on the heels of a major world war. 

From prehistory to happenings of Biblical proportions such as great floods and apocalyptic wars, the play also sneaks in characters from all sorts of literary sources. Adam and Eve are in here, as is Homer and figures from Greek literature. Henry’s name, for instance, was changed from Cain after he murdered his brother, the favorite son, Abel. To top it off, each act ends with impending doom, only to start again in a new time and place when the curtain rises once more.

“By the third act people should understand it keeps happening over and over,” explains senior Zach Fischman who plays George Antrobus. 

“He [Wilder] so cleverly disguises such a dense topic. I didn’t get it the first 20 times I read it,” adds Zach. “It’s such a great introduction to philosophy. Nothing like that is offered in this school.”

“You have to see it a couple times,” advises junior Celia Gianis who plays Esmeralda, a fortune teller. 

In addition to the scripted material, the play allows for local references as well, and there are times when the actors are directed to abandon their characters altogether. Though it was written in the early 1940s, the students have found these to be clever theatrical devices that may seem confusing, but in fact keep the script relevant and current — and fun.

“You see what I mean?” asks sophomore Holly Goldstein with a grin as she steps off the stage during rehearsals of the second act after admonishing fellow classmate, Liz Oldak (a.k.a. Sabina) who has broken character and threatens to cut the scene short.

 “I’m the stage manager,” says Holly. “But the way I’m doing it is as if I’m myself. It’s a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. It’s hard when people know you and they’re saying, ‘That’s not how you really are.’”

“I love this show,” adds Holly. “By the third act, it’s so dark and raw. It’s humanity. This is what people are.”

“There’s a lot of room for riffing,” adds Zach.

“It’s not written to make the audience feel comfortable,” warns junior Kathleen Comber who plays Maggie.

For director Gary Schulman, there is history repeating personally with this production as well. This is the 20^th production that he and producer Keith Holden have brought to the Pierson stage in the last 12 years.

“Eleven years ago, we did ‘Our Town,’” says Schulman recalling the names of all the older brothers and sisters of his current cast members who appeared in his plays over the years. Like history repeating the themes of mankind carrying on in the face of insurmountable difficulties rings as true today as it has during countless junctures in history. It’s a message the students haven’t missed.

“I think there are moments in the play that celebrate the human spirit in ways that are just so poignant,” says Schulman. “Especially in difficult times and when people are looking at challenge and change. I was curious to see if the kids would pick up on it. Immediately they said this is a play we have to do.”

“I was happy that they see things in the play that are so important. I think it’s also just a lot of fun to do the play within a play and different ideas of what can happen in the theater,” adds Schulman. “They had a lot of input into updating the lines. It expands what kids think can happen in theater.” 

“This whole play has been a learning curve,” he notes. “Every day we discover new things and every day they learn things about being performers.”

Schulman says that despite the difficult subject matter, “Skin of Our Teeth” is in fact a play that many colleges and even high schools dare to tackle.

“It’s so bizarre and there are so many technical difficulties and special effects. Given the state of our auditorium it was really nuts for me to try to do this,” he says.

Luckily, Schulman isn’t doing it alone. For “Skin of Our Teeth” he has enlisted the help of Jackie Dowling, a film school graduate and a Pierson alum, to design a set that takes the characters through the three apocalyptical settings on a budget. 

“I had to turn a house from the ice age to Atlantic City and back again after world war,” says Jackie. “Piece by piece, it’s been coming together.”

“The play’s a big metaphor. You watch people go through the motions, but everything they do and say means something else,” adds Jackie who, in the repetitive story line of the play, finds an apt analogy in what has been going on at Pierson since her time there in the late ‘90s. 

“This auditorium has always stayed the same,” says Jackie. “Every few years everyone talks about changes. But it’s all talk and in the end nothing happens. This play’s the same thing. It’s going through the motions and mankind having a sense of humor. You can either cry or laugh about it.”

“This is probably the most ambitious play we’ve done at a time when the theater is most in need of repair,” adds Schulman. “It’s been hard. We’re still waiting for lights to work, the sound system to work. Finally after 12 years, we’ve been able to get a new light board thanks to [superintendent] Dr. [John] Gratto’s support. Hopefully we’ll be seeing some change. This place is really in need.”

Maybe this time it will be different. Then again, consider, as these students have, that ultimately the play ends up where it began, with Sabina offering this line, “That’s all we do —always beginning again. Over and over again. Always beginning again. Don’t forget that a few years ago we came through the depression by the skin of our teeth. One more tight squeeze like that and where will we be?”

Performances of Thornton Wilder’s “Skin of Our Teeth” will be offered at the Pierson High School auditorium at 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, December 4 and 5, and on Saturday, December 6 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. 

Above: Students Liz Oldak and Zach Fischman in rehearsals for "Skin of Our Teeth"