Yale alumnus Thornton Wilder once said: "I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being."
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the playwright's birth, the School of Drama and the Yale Repertory Theatre are presenting one of Wilder's two Pulitzer Prize-winning plays, "The Skin of Our Teeth." The comedic romp through the ages will open on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Previews will begin Thursday, Feb. 20, and the play will continue through Saturday, March 15.
The play will be directed by Liz Diamond, resident director at the Yale Rep, and feature students in the third-year acting class at the School of Drama.
"The Skin of Our Teeth" follows the adventures of Mr. and Mrs. George Antrobus, who are living both in prehistoric times and in a New Jersey suburb with their maid Sabina and their two children. As Mr. and Mrs. Everyman, they shuttle from the Ice Age to Atlantic City, inventing the wheel and talking over the radio. The Antrobuses are also Adam and Eve; their maid is Lilith, and their son is Cain, who bears his mark. Through the ages, they manage to survive fire, flood, war, pestilence, and hundreds of calamities, barely hanging on by the proverbial skin of their teeth.
The play premiered in New Haven in the fall of 1942, then opened in New York one month later to great acclaim. It was pronounced "one of the wisest and friskiest comedies written in a long time" by Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times and "a rare and electrifying experience" by Howard Barnes of the New York Herald Tribune. The work eventually garnered a Pulitzer Prize. Wilder also won Pulitzers for his play "Our Town" and his novel "The Bridge of San Luis Rey."
The cast for "The Skin of Our Teeth" includes (in alphabetical order) Amy Cronise, Jackeline Duprey, Svetlana Efremova, Annette Granucci, Elizabeth Greer, John Hines, Clark Jackson, Tod Kent, Jill Marie Lawrence, Christopher Mattox, Obi Ndefo, Paul Niebanck, Evan Dexter Parke, Scott C. Reeves, Joe Reynolds, James Shanklin, and Brandy Zarle.
Also collaborating on the play are set designer Walt Spangler, costume designer Michael Oberle, lighting designer Jennifer Tipton, sound designer Douglas E. Graves, stage manager J.P. Byrd and production dramaturgs Martha Hostetter and Chris Swanson.
Ticket prices for "The Skin of Our Teeth" range from $25-$30. Call 432-1234 for tickets and information.