Frome Drama Club’s next production, Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Our Town, features a lot of firsts for the group.

Set in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, USA, in the early 1900s, it is the tale of two families – the Webbs and the Gibbs.

Charles Webb, played by Dave Dunn, is the editor of the local newspaper – his wife is Myrtle (Sue Ross) and his daughter, Emily (Georgina Littlewood).

Town doctor Frank Gibbs (Neil Godwin) is married to Julia (Suzy Howlett) and they have a son, George (Django Lewis-Clark).

The play covers a period of 12 years in the lives of these families and the town, as the love story of George and Emily unfolds.

There are a number of newcomers to Frome Drama Club in this show: among them lead actors Django Lewis-Clark, Georgina Littlewood, Neil Godwin and Dave Dunn.

There are also some familiar FDC faces in the 24-strong cast.

Our Town is directed by Cheryl St George whose previous credits include Mrs Shakespeare for last summer’s Frome Festival.

Cheryl has lived in the UK for many years, but was born in Philadelphia. She has also recruited another American, Lisa Gauntlett of Beckington, to help with voice coaching.

Thornton Wilder broke new theatrical ground with this play.

It is performed without scenery or set and very few props, with the emphasis very much on the actors and the storytelling.

The main character is the Stage Manager, a philosophical narrator who directly addresses the audience throughout.

He is played by well-known FDC member Laurie Parnell (Under Milk Wood, Witness for the Prosecution, Ring Around the Moon).

There is also live music. The choir master from Grover’s Corners, Simon Stimpson, is played by Alan Burgess – who is also the musical director of this FDCproduction.

Alan leads a choir of 13 voices in the rarely-heard-in-the-UK Sacred Harp style of singing.

Sacred Harp is a uniquely American tradition that brings communities together to sing four-part hymns and anthems.

The term refers to the human voice – that is, the musical instrument we were all given at birth.

This sort of singing is also known as “shape note”, because the score utilises simple shapes for those who cannot read regular musical notation.

Cheryl says: “It may sound a bit strange to folks on this side of the Pond, but it sure can blow the roof off when they start to feel the spirit within them.”

This is a rare opportunity to see this Pulitzer Prize-winning play live on stage in Frome.

When Our Town debuted in 1938, the New York Post proclaimed it to be “one of the sagest, warmest and most deeply human scripts to have come out of our theatre … A spiritual experience”.

With powerful simplicity, Wilder depicts New Hampshire life through the lives of these two families at the turn of the 20th century.

But the drama reaches beyond time and place as it explores universal themes of family, love, loss and community spirit.

It is a tale that has surprising relevance for today.

Our Town is at the Merlin Theatre between April 28 and April 30. Tickets cost £10 and £8.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvGayt7DNyU