Where & When
MON + TUE MAY 04-05
6-9PM | ROBLE GYM
CALLBACKS:
FRI MAY 08 3-7PM
Performance Info
THU-SAT NOV 12-14
8PM | ELAM THEATER
Important Resources
Must be logged in on an @stanford.edu account to view
Accessibility
If any accessibility accommodations with auditions or callbacks are needed please email tapsinformation [at] stanford.edu for assistance.
Sponsors
This production was made possible in part by the Pigott Fund for Drama and the May Ellen Ritter Production Fund.
About Our Town
By Thornton Wilder
A Stage Manager enters before us calling for time. But it’s not a rehearsal they are calling us in for, it’s real life. In Thornton Wilder’s masterwork Our Town we experience life in three acts: “Daily Life,” “Love and Marriage” and finally, “Death and Eternity.” In a world where the possibility of humanity losing its grasp on reality looms large, the resonance of this classic reverberates today as strongly as it did when first written and in one of those most stunning scenes in the American cannon, we come face to face with what it is we have already lost.
Hailed by Edward Albee as “the greatest American play ever written,” this enduring story continues to ask us—generations later—how to use our time, how to love our time and how to run out of time.
Stanford TAPS seeks to build a diverse cast for this production and encourages members of any race, gender identity, and ability to audition. If any accessibility accommodations are needed please email tapsinformation [at] stanford.edu for assistance.
About the Director
Jeffrey Lo (He/Him/His) is a Filipino-American playwright, director and the associate producer of Casting and New Works at the Tony Award Winning TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. He is the recipient of the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award, the Emerging Artist Laureate by Arts Council Silicon Valley and Theatre Bay Area Director’s TITAN Award. Selected directing credits include Primary Trust, The Language Archive, Little Shop of Horrors and The Santaland Diaries at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Chinglish, The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin and Hold These Truths at San Francisco Playhouse as well as Vietgone and The Great Leap at Capital Stage. As a playwright, the world premiere of his play Writing Fragments Home won the 2025 Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for best production in the South Bay Area. Jeffrey also works as an educator and advocate for issues of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and has served as a grant panelist for the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Silicon Valley Creates and Theatre Bay Area.
Headshot Photo Credit: Rogelio Barrera Jr.
About Rehearsals
Our rehearsal process will be an open and collaborative one. We will work to create an ensemble that hears one another and learn from one another how this text resonates with each of us on a personal level and discover what we as unique human beings and artists can bring to this piece.
There is a lot to be learned about life and the state of our world through revisiting modern classic plays such as Our Town and the skill of melding modern sensibilities with the needs of texts from different time periods is essential in the professional world. How can we take language, topics and problems from our past and find the parallels to our present? And once we find them, how can we then enliven our performance with these parallels and help our audiences feel them in our production?
The play is written minimalist and abstract and we will be choreographing movement of scenes and transitions as such.
A TAPS Main Stage production is a significant time commitment that comes with course credit (TAPS 122M) and requires rehearsals five to six times per week. Students will be encouraged to take the course for 2 or more units. Rehearsals begin in the Fall Quarter. Not all students will be called for every rehearsal, but participants will be expected to be available for each rehearsal unless they have listed it as a conflict on their audition form. You can view the Production Schedule in the right-hand column under “Important Resources.”
About Auditions
Auditions will be held as 10-min individual timeslots. If you are unable to attend auditions in person, a video submission can be sent in via Google Drive link to tapscasting [at] stanford.edu by MAY 05 at 12PM PT. email tapscasting or tapsinformation with any questions.
What To Prepare
If possible, please prepare one of the provided sides, linked under “Important Resources”. You may be asked to also read from other sides in the audition room.
Casting Breakdown
Students of all genders can be considered for any roles they are interested in and how some characters’ genders are presented in this play may be more fluid than others depending on how the show is built with the cast.
- Stage Manager: Must be a good story teller, able to command the stage and engage the audience. Loves people, easy going and grounded with a clear wisdom. This character is the all-knowing narrator who may be speaking for the author . The Stage Manager literally sets the stage, describes the action and introduces the actors. Steps in and out of the action as other characters: a minister, a drug store owner, a neighbor lady passing by.
- Emily Webb: female. Goes from age 16 to 20. In 1901 the age 16 was more sincere and innocent than today. The love story with her and George is the spine of the action of the play. She has the strongest love of life and enthusiasm.
- Mr. Charles Webb: male age between 30 and 55 or so. He is highly educated and is the editor and owner of the only local newspaper. Has a strong connection with his daughter .
- Mrs. Myrtle Webb: female age between 30 and 55 or so.
- Wally Webb: young boy age 11 to 13.
- George Gibbs: male. Goes from age 16 to 20, (and is 32 in the final act appearance). It is a 16 of 1901 which is a sincere and naïve age. He is an idealist and a romantic. The love story with him and Emily is the spine of the action of the play. He strongly and sincerely desires to be the best person he can be for the love of his life.
- Dr. Frank Gibbs: male age between 30 and 55 or so. He is a doctor and family man. Romantic and in love with his wife.
- Mrs. Julia Gibbs: female age between 30 and 55 or so. Mother of George & Rebecca. Strong love for her family. A romantic who dreams of visiting Paris. Strong connection with her son.
- Rebecca Gibbs: young girl age 11 to 13. Has a strong sense of energy and wonder about the world. Amazed at the stars and the earth’s place in the galaxy. Has a strong & important short speech about this at the end of Act 1.
- Joe Crowell: male, age 14 or so. Delivers the newspapers and sets up an important sense of friendliness among the neighbors of the small town. Actor will also play one or two ensemble roles.
- Howie Newsome: male, age 14 or so. Delivers the milk, leading the horse and wagon. Sets up an important sense of friendliness among the neighbors of the small town. Actor will also play one or two ensemble roles.
- Simon Stimson: adult male; unspecified age. Leader of the church choir, but has deep problems and a clear drinking problem. Attitude is acerbic, he/she is possibly depressed. Stimson’s drinking is the town’s scandalous gossip.
- Constable Warren: adult male, age unspecified. Actor will also play one or two ensemble roles.
- Mrs. Soames: adult female, age unspecified. Sings in the choir and loves to spread gossip. Actor will also play one or two ensemble roles.
- Other Ensemble Roles: Three Baseball Players, Woman on the Balcony, Man in the Auditorium, Lady in the Box, Si Crowell, Sam Craig
Design & Assistant Positions
TAPS is also seeking design and rehearsal assistants for this production. Applications are due via email to the TAPS Production Manager: tapsproductionmgmt [at] stanford.edu. General crew and behind-the-scenes inquiries are welcome as well.
Assistant Applications
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