An Inclusive Production of Our Town

By: Benny Schorie

The easing of the pandemic has led to a gradual return to “normal” life. For Reid Arthur, that means a return to the theater. He is putting on a production in Newberg, Ore. It is not any ordinary production, as the Newberg of today has evolved since March 2020. It must reflect the need for change and radical inclusivity brought out of the town in the past two years’ events. 

Amidst the controversy surrounding the Newberg School Board, Arthur realized the “need to tell these high school [students] that they are loved and that they are perfect the way they are.” He has “a unique perspective as someone who grew up in the closet in the church” and sees “[his] story and [his] life experience [as] set up to help others in similar situations.” The goal of producing a play for the Newberg community was to bring this perspective into the theater..

Arthur quickly felt the struggle to select a play that would communicate this message, as he knew “most gay plays are so sad. There are very few plays out there that are just happy plays about queer teenagers.” He saw the need to offer an overt display of queer joy to the community to balance the current hardships. Using this chance to create “something that would be celebratory for the community,” Arthur “want[s] to do something like 'Schitt’s Creek'… where it’s this weird world where apparently homophobia just doesn’t exist.” He was also inspired after seeing “a lot [of] gender-swapping in a production of 'Oklahoma' at the Shakespeare festival” where “they didn’t change the script; they just changed the context.”

After much contemplation, the production team “landed on the play ‘Our Town,’ ... a very sweet play about a small town not too different from Newberg.” The story’s original telling “centers around the boy and the girl who are next-door neighbors who fall in love and get married. She dies young and gets the opportunity to come back and live a single day.”

“Our Town” provides “a vision of what Newberg could be: it’s a perfect way to respond to what’s happening with the school board, back all the way to the split of the yearly meeting.” There is an innate power in storytelling and art because “if you write about it, you make it important. If you put that on stage and in front of people, it makes it important,” Arthur said. 

The production is cast with no specifications of gender or race in all roles. The cast list will be released in the next few weeks after the audition process is finished. The show will be taking place outdoors at the Chehalem Cultural Center; there will be a suggested ticket price, but, to make it as accessible as possible, it will be “pay what you want.” The goal is to have assigned seating but maintain a festival-style setup where audience members can bring lawn chairs. They intend to have booths for local non-profits and vendors as well.

“Our Town” is being co-produced by JeanneAnn Comiskey, Reid Arthur, and Brendan Comiskey. Arthur will also be co-directing the production. The performance dates are set for July 29-31 and August 5-7.

Reid Arthur. Photo courtesy: Reid Arthur.