Non-realistic Stagecraft in Thornton Wilder's Play Our Town

Abstract

Thorntorn Wilder inOur Townemploys the dramatic techniques other than the realistic to provide a new experience to the theatre goers and to free the theatre art from the narrow conventionof realism. He developsnon-realistic stagecraft through experimental theatrical techniqueslike minimalist stage sets, an Omniscient Stage Manager who narrates and controls the action, unreal time sketch, and the characters who speak from grave. Bychallenging andrupturing the hierarchy between actors and audience, stage and auditorium, illusion and reality, Wilder has been able to establish a new and fresh relationship between art and life. The major agenda is to disestablish the Eurocentric normsand theatrical values and to expand the literary 'canon' by including so many aspects and influences from the world wide theatrical habits from the Oriental Chinese theatre to the native American of the West.After all, theattempt is to widen the scope oftheatre artin generalby opening an artistic domain of dynamism and expansive reveries of world wide theatre experience.