Putting People Centre Stage in Our Town

In final rehearsals: Our Town by Thornton Wilder, Queensland Theatre (QT) at the Bille Brown Theatre, Brisbane, 30 January to 20 February 2021

In the lead-up to opening night for QT’s production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, Beth Keehn from Stage Whispers sat in on rehearsals and met some of the Our Town creative community.

Putting people centre stage: Lee Lewis and Nathalie Ryner set the scene for Our Town

The costumes in Our Town have to work harder than most to help set the scene, as this is a play with no stage sets or props. QT’s Creative Director and the play’s Director, Lee Lewis, and Costume Designer, Nathalie Ryner reveal their process for putting people centre stage.

Lee Lewis: In the last days of rehearsals, we are at the point where an audience will soon come in – you hope that they recognise and fall in love with all of the characters – because, if they see people from their own towns and their own lives, they’ll love the play. And because Our Town is about love, during rehearsals we are all delving into really sensitive places in our lives. So, at this stage of the production, I start to get very protective of the actors. During the rehearsal process, you get to see something of their own lives and how they pour their hearts into the characters.

Nathalie Ryner: Absolutely, I think the audience will love this group of actors playing these characters. Our Town was new to me – I read it and reread it, and started to find lots of things I could relate to – the more you delve into it, there’s so much that is close to your own life – it’s not distant. It’s universal.

Lee: The magic of this play is that it is about community – any community. Yes, it’s an American play, but it’s not about America. When Thornton Wilder was writing, he was reminding people of the things that matter to us – our families, our communities – and I think that’s the same the world over – so I don’t hear America in this – I hear Ipswich and I hear Tewantin, and Mt Isa. And also, in the central Stage Manager role, I’ve got one of the great voices on the planet in Jimi Bani – Jimi is one of our greatest storytellers in the greatest storytelling role, and I don’t want to mess with that voice – not for this play anyway.  

Nathalie: The play is about small towns. I grew up in Sydney – but, for me, it still relates to the communities within the larger picture of the city. To get that across in the costuming, my process was to fill my head with images – to go out and look at people on the streets, take note of people from all walks of life in their day-to-day activities. I also watched our group of actors to see what they wear. Then Lee and I had conversations and the costumes started to develop. But the costumes should not be front and centre – they should just sit as part of the whole.

Lee: The characters should look like people we live with… and by stripping the play of sets and props, in a funny way Thornton Wilder was saying ‘clear away all that stuff and let’s just get to the people’. I’m hoping that the emotion of this play allows the audience to process some of their own emotions from last year – sometimes that’s what plays do for us – they let us feel emotions in a safe place.

Nathalie: After last year, I have really missed working hands on. It’s been wonderful working on costumes for 16 characters. And I can see the delight in the costume department – there’s so much joy just to be back in the room making – and I think that, when people are enjoying crafting something and there’s joy and care and love, you see it – the actors see it …  

Lee: … and I think the audience sees it too.

Biographical notes:

Lee Lewis has been artistic director of Queensland Theatre (QT) since 2019. For QT, in 2020, she directed Mouthpiece by Kieran Hurley, and instigated ‘Quality Time with QT’ online readings. In 2021, Lee will direct Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie and Steve Pirie’s Return to the Dirt. Lee has performed and directed on and off Broadway and in Sydney, where she was also artistic director of Griffin Theatre Company from 2012 to 2019. Her production of Angus Cerini’s The Bleeding Tree won three Helpmann Awards in 2016, including for best direction of a play. Lee grew up in country New South Wales and worked in regional theatre before moving to New York to study acting at Columbia University. She returned to Australia to study at NIDA, and earned her Masters of Fine Arts in Directing in 2011.

Nathalie Ryner made her debut as costume designer for QT in 2019 with Meyne Wyatt’s City of Gold after working with the company as costume supervisor since 2014. She has also worked for Dance North, Expressions Dance Company, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Polytoxic, QPAC, Opera Australia, La Boite, Little Red Company and Danger Ensemble, where her costumes for Caligula were nominated for a Matilda Award. On film, her work can be seen in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Matrix Reloaded, and Matrix Revolutions. Nathalie trained as a fashion designer at TAFE Sydney and Ecole Jeoffrin Byrs International à Paris.

Our Town runs at QT from 30 January to 20 February at the Bille Brown Theatre. Find out more: https://queenslandtheatre.com.au/plays/our-town

Read the first and second featuress in this series.

Images (from top): Lee Lewis, Nathalie Ryner and the cast of Our Town with Lee Lewis. Photo credit: Dylan Evans