Thanks for this context and analysis. I first saw “The Skin of Our Teeth” about 30 years ago and was terribly confused, but also charmed by it. I recently read it, and the information that you share is really helpful in understanding what Wilder was trying to do.

@DennisGJerzSHU

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for your feedback. I just saw a live production for the first time a few days ago. There's always more to learn about a good play.

Thank you so much.

Wilder's first Pulitzer Prize was awarded in 1928 for his novel, THE BRIDGE AT SAN LUIS REY. It is not a play.

@DennisGJerzSHU

2 жыл бұрын

Oops, did I misspeak? Thanks for the correction.

Was thornton trans? The idea of them only have TWO KIDS and they use to have two sons…. Until Cain hurt the brother and he because a she…. And the kid at the end being a doll…. Like she did not know she was trans.

@DennisGJerzSHU

2 жыл бұрын

Babies are unpredictable and noisy, so any time a baby appears in a live play we can expect it to be represented by a doll. I don't think the presence of a doll on stage is enough to read Gladys the way you suggest, but perhaps an individual director might want to cast it that way.

@steppjr

2 жыл бұрын

@@DennisGJerzSHU well obviously they can’t have a real baby on stage. But from a play inside a play point of view it could have double meaning. What is the thought of all the double talk about I use to have two sons? And now we have 1. And that she only had 2 kids? Is it suppose to be assumed the girl is adopted?

@DennisGJerzSHU

2 жыл бұрын

I think the most likely interpretation is that Gladys happened to show up the usual way, right around the time when Cain killed Abel, so the number of kids the Antrobuses have was still two, just not the same two. If you think of this play as Wilder's hopeful prediction that the human race will survive thanks to the resilience of the traditional family unit, then it makes the most sense for Gladys and her baby to have arrived the traditional way. A director who does a gender-blind and race-blind casting can turn any traditional play into a commentary about present-day values and relationships. If the point you want to make is that human civilization is going to continue via found families, made up of individuals who create their own identities and find each other, I don't see lines in "The Skin of Our Teeth" that support that idea. Because my professional focus is on the words written in the scripts, rather than what it's possible to do with those words in a production, then to explore "found family" I would not look at Skin, I'd instead look to "Rent" or "Into the Woods" or "In the Heights."

@steppjr

2 жыл бұрын

Interesting….. I really don’t know much about theater and just saw this play last night and it hit really hard. After looking up the writer I found that he never married, was more than likely a member of the LGBQIA+ community and back in a time when it was not safe to be. The play made much more sense to me after I learned this. The crowd at the Theater was much older than the group I was with and it was an interesting perspective that most people there would not of understood.

This analysis is full of generalizations that are inaccurate or misleading. As a crude overview it might be slightly instructive to young people who know virtually nothing about the period That's covered. But certainly there are other sources of information that are far more accurate and informative

@DennisGJerzSHU

4 ай бұрын

Are you having a bad day? Of course I'm giving a general overview, for the benefit of my undergraduates, for whom everything that happened "back in the nineteen hundreds" is a history lesson. Of course there are other sources of information. What do you recommend? From one of your playlists it looks like you are a big fan of old movies. Would you rather share your thoughts and actually have a conversation with someone who might appreciate your insights, or are you just trolling for kicks?