Robert F. Kennedy Junior High had a long...
Proud theatrical tradition.
Who could forget Scotty Gruenwald's tortured John Proctor in "The Crucible"?
Or Tony Faranucci's towering Tevya in "Fiddler on the Roof"?
Sure, it wasn't Broadway. But for many of us...
The excitement brought out one undeniable feeling.
Total apathy.
Students, if I may - a moment of your time!
Stu-dents!
Who's that?
That's Mr. Weber - the new dramatics teacher.
Geek.
Definite geek.
He's not a geek! He's just...dramatic.
The fall play this year...
will be Thornton Wilder's "Our Town".
Auditions... Will take place this afternoon.
I invite all of you to come, be a part of this...
haunting tapestry...of memory, and dreams.
At the buzzer - he shoots!
Ya think I should do it?
Do what?
Try out for the play.
You're kidding, right? I'd had some experience in this field, myself...
Last year in Miss White's class.
So I knew whereof I spoke.
No...That'd be a bad idea, Winnie.
Why? I think it could be fun!
Fun? Do you know how many speeches you have to memorize? I mean, it's like taking eighteen biology tests!
I'm a pretty good memorizer.
Not to mention it's horrible.
I mean, you're standing out there all alone.
Your ears start to sweat - nah... Nah...I don't recommend it.
I probably wouldn't be good, anyway.
OK - so I'd rained on her parade.
I had to set her straight.
No one in their right mind volunteers to be in a play.
I'm gonna try out for that play. How about you?
Says here ya get of of seventh-period for rehearsals.
Seventh-period?
Gym?
Maybe Mr. Weber was a geek.
But he was a smart geek.
Theater offers you...
A chance...to surprise yourself.
To find a part of you...you didn't know you have.
Choose a part...
That speaks to you in some way.
I think I'm gonna try out for the stage manager.
Are you crazy? That's the biggest part on the play!
Yeah! I noticed!
That was Paul for ya.
Part ham...mostly boloney.
Me, I was looking for something with less visibility.
Preferably with no lines to learn. Something simple, like...
Bingo!
Spotlight operator.
Eat your heart out, seventh-period!
Paul Pfeiffer.
Ahem!
The name of our town is Grover's Corners, New Hampshire,
just across the Massachussett's line.
Yep. Not for me, the pressures of auditioning.
Heck, this thing wouldn't even be turned on till the night before the play.
The date is May seventh, 1901.
The time...is just before dawn.
Thank you, Mr. Pfeiffer. That was...
Unique!
Thanks!
Ah! Gwendolyn Cooper? Reading for the part of Emily.
But wait a minute!
Winnie - what are you doing?!
As for me, I'd rather have my children healthy...Than bright.
I'm both, Mama, you know I am.
I'm the smartest girl in school for my age.
I have a wonderful memory.
Well, she couldn't say I didn't warn her!
Emily-Walk simply. Who do you think you are, today?
Papa - you're terrible!
One minute first you want me to straight, and the next minute you call me names!
Still, she wasn't all that bad.
I just can't sleep yet, Papa. The moonlight's so wonderful.
And the smell of Mrs. Soames...
Heliotrope.
Heliotrope. Can you smell it?
You had to admire her guts.
Thank you, Gwendolyn.
I just hoped she wouldn't take it too hard when she didn't get the part.
I got the part!
Ya, well, uh...I figured you would...
Isn't it amazing?!
Yeah...Uh, I mean uh - no!
I have to go.
I have to call my mom at home, and my dad in Chicago!
What time is it in Chigaco?
Well, it was good to see her smiling.
But there's a broken heart... For every light on Broadway.
Struck out.
You didn't get a part?
Not even the belligerent man.
"Is there no one in town aware of social injustice, and industrial inequality?"
Huh?
That's the belligerent man's line - I couldn't get it.
Now we'll never know if there is a part of me I didn't know I had.
I'll tell ya what. Why don't you work the spotlight with me.
Spotlight?
Yeah. Why not?
You know, Mr. Weber said that lighting's like another character.
He said that?
- And besides, we get out of seventh-period. - A major character?
Uh-oh. I knew that look.
The look of a man possessed.
I think it sounds like fun!
I used to love school plays.
What are you playing? A buttercup? Ehh....
"Our Town."
That's the one about the girl that falls in love, and then she dies...
but she comes back for one last visit to see her family?
Mom.
"Our Town"...is an indictment,
of the meaninglessness of bourgeois middle-class existence.
Oh.
How much is it gonna cost me?
Dad, as always, had his own perspective on the arts.
Jack.
Just askin'.
Who else is in it?
Uh, no one. Except...Winnie.
Well, then - we have to go!
Hah?
Oh, nice goin', butthead!
- Look, Mom, it's really not... - Kevin, get tickets for all of us!
I always expect a man to be perfect.
And I think he should be.
Oh, uh, I don't think it's possible to be perfect, Emily.
My own opinion was, my dad had the right idea.
What was the big deal about all this?
Candlepower!
Huh?
Ya know this baby pumps out 750,000 candles o' light?!
Paul, it's not even turned it on yet.
Yeah, but when she does...powee!
I should have seen it coming.
Paul had found his calling.
Ya know, Kev...
It only takes one guy to run this thing and I was just wondering if -
Paul! You want to run the spotlight...fine with me.
Really?! You don't mind?
Thanks, Kev! I won't let you down!
I'm gonna run the best spotlight the school ever saw.
And you can still be my assistant!
Assistant?
Darn it!
I forgot my line again!
I guess Winnie was having problems of her own.
I just can't seem to remember anything.
Just relax, Gwendolyn.
Let's take it from, uh..."giving away my daughter".
I'm giving away my daughter, George.
Do you think you can take care of her?
Mr. Webb, I want to - I want to try.
Emily, I'm gonna do my best. I love you, Emily. I need you.
Well, if you love me, then help me. All I want is someone to love me.
I will, Emily. Emily, I'll try.
And I mean...
Forever.
Don't you hear, forever and ever?
Let's take five, people.
OK, Kev, make a note. We're gonna need another chamois.
What?!
Since you're my assistant, I thought you might keep a list.
Paul, I'm not gonna keep a list!
OK - fine! I'll do it myself.
But we're gonna have to talk about your attitude!
Paul was taking this whole thing a little too seriously.
Kevin? Did you see what happened today?
Come to think of it, everyone was taking this play too seriously.
I forgot all my lines...
Yeah, well...
I never forget things - I'm a good memorizer!
Winnie, I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure you'll be fine.
But what if I'm not?
What if it gets worse?
What if I wreck the whole play?!
Well, Winnie, you don't have to do it if you don't want to.
I mean it's just a play!
And it's all just to get out of seventh period anyway.
That's the most insensitive thing I've ever heard in my life!
You don't understand anything, Kevin!
You don't understand anything at all!
Actors!
Over the next two weeks, I learned a valuable lesson about show-folk.
I can't talk now, Kevin.
They make lousy lunch companions.
Meanwhile...I had problems of my own.
My relationship with Paul had deteriorated into a classic...
Labor-management confrontation.
Kevin - I need you to do something for me.
Nah, I'm on my break.
Look...I know you're having troubles taking orders from me...because I'm your friend.
Paul! I'm having troubles taking orders from you...
Because you've completely lost your mind!
I mean, you can't even turn that thing on till next Monday...
So why don't you just sit back, relax, and enjoy it?!
I'm relaxed! I-it's just that...
What if the bulb burns out during the show?
Paul. It's a brand-new bulb - it's never been used once.
You can't guarantee that! Can you?!
I think we should time...
how long it takes to get to the utility room and back...with a new bulb.
Good idea. You do it.
Fine!
You think you can time me, or is that too much to ask?
Go!
At last - a little peace and quiet!
The thing was, with just a few days left,Winnie seemed more lost than ever.
Why can't I stay for awhile? Just as I am? Let's go away.
No, no, Emily. Now stop and think a minute.
Don't you remember what you used to say?
Heck - even I knew the lines by now.
All the time you used to say...
I can't do this! I'll never be able to do it!
This wasn't just stage-fright.
This girl was in trouble.
- Kevin, what was my time? - I can't talk. I gotta go!
One thing, I ask of you! One thing!
Winnie!
Wait up!
What's your advice, now?! Quit school?! Lock myself in my room?!
Change my name?!
OK - forget it!
I'm...just tryin' to help.
Mr. Weber says it's quite natural.
All actors go though this.
Even Laurence Olivier.
Oh, well...that's good, I guess.
You were right - I shouldn't have done this.
I should just quit. I have an understudy.
I'm sure she'd be better than me.
Let's face it - she couldn't be any worse.
What do you think I should do?
I think you should...
Do whatever you want to do.
I want to quit!
Then I think you should quit!
I can't quit!
Why not?!
My father's coming out to see me.
He's flying in from Chicago just to see the play.
Mom and Dad haven't seen each other for two months.
Oh...
Is there anything I can do?
You can tell me to break a leg.
But the play's not for a week.
No - mean really break a leg. That way I won't have to do it.
Then...break a leg.
But just Winnie's luck,
the night of the big play, she was still in perfect health.
I guess everyone was feeling a little tense.
Especially Winnie's parents.
But...at least I could relax.
I had complete confidence in Paul.
Paul?
Ah. Kevin...
Paul is ill.
Ill?!
Just a little case of nerves... But uh, you'll have to operate the spotlight.
But Paul knows the cues - I can't -
There's no time. You'll just have do... The best you can.
Wait! Mr. Weber!
Great. Paul had been stricken with the world's first documented case of back-stage fright.
And I had to pick up the pieces...
In the dark.
This play is called..."Our Town."
Well...I better show you how "Our Town" lies.
I didn't even know how this thing worked!
Up there...is Main Street.
Uh...that-that is ...up there.
It was horrible. I could feel my ears starting to sweat.
Way up there... Is the railway station.
Tracks go that way...
It was humiliating. I wanted to just walk away.
There, are the children...
Coming home from school already.
But then...
I can't Lois. I've got to go home and help my mother.
I promised.
Then I realized I couldn't walk away.
Emily! Walk simply. Who do you think you are, today?
Papa, you're terrible! One minute you tell me to stand up straight,
then the next minute you call me names.
I just don't listen to you.
Golly - I never got a kiss from such a great lady before.
She looked beautiful.
And terrified.
And I knew she needed me.
Those next few minutes seemed to last a thousand years.
Every moment was potential disaster.
Why can't I stay for awhile - just as I am?
We were both struggling.
Don't you remember what you used to say?
All the time you used to say...
And then, a weird thing happened.
I was holding the light on Winnie, when everything got very quiet.
And I felt something. I don't know what it was. I felt like...
I was holding her up with that light.
That we were connected by the light.
And I wouldn't let her fall.
Come on. Just keep goin'.
That I was your girl.
There must be a lot of places we can go.
I'll work for you - I can keep a house!
No matter what - I wouldn' let her fall.
Oh, mama - just look at me for a moment,as if you really saw me.
That night I learned something. About courage...
And maybe about love.
Mama, fourteen years have gone by. I'm dead!
You're a grandmother, Mama.
But just for a moment now, when we're all together...
Mama, just for a moment, let's be happy!
Let's look at one another!
I can't! I can't go on!
It goes so fast!
We don't have time to look at one another!
Take me back. Up the hill to my grave.
But first...wait.
Let me have one more look.
Goodbye...
Goodbye, world!
Goodbye, Grover's Corners.
Mama and Papa...
Goodbye, to clocks ticking...
and mama's sunflowers...
and food and coffee...
and new-ironed dresses...
and hot baths...
and sleeping and waking up!
Oh, Earth, you're too wonderful for anyone to realize you!
Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?
Every, every minute?
No. The saints and poets, maybe.
They do, some.
I'm ready to go back.
Hmmm.
Eleven o'clock in Grover's Corners. You get a good rest, too.
Goodnight.
I couldn't exactly say we made theater history that autumn evening...
maybe we weren't even very good.
The thing is, it didn't matter.
We made it through.
And the critics were kind.
And a week later...
Mr. Cooper moved back in with his family.
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