Our Town: Act 1 Summary & Analysis

As the audience enters the theater, the stage manager places some tables and chairs on an otherwise empty stage, as well as a bench. He addresses the audience, telling them that they are about to see a play called “Our Town” and names the director and actors of the particular production. He identifies the setting of the play as Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire on May 7, 1901.

The stage manager shows the audience the layout of the city on the stage—almost none of which is actually marked by props of any kind—including its several churches, town hall and post office (combined in one building), schools, grocery store, and drugstore. He points out Dr. Gibbs’ house and Mrs. Gibbs’ garden, as well as the house of Mr. Webb, the editor of Grover’s Corners’ local newspaper. He says that the town is nice, but unremarkable.

The morning is just beginning, and Dr. Gibbs is returning to his house after helping a mother in the Polish neighborhood of town give birth to twins. Mrs. Gibbs walks into her kitchen and begins preparing breakfast. The stage manager tells the audience that Dr. Gibbs died in 1930, long after Mrs. Gibbs had died while visiting her daughter in Ohio. Her body was brought back to Grover’s Corners, where it is buried in a cemetery alongside many of her family members.

Mrs. Webb also begins to make breakfast in her own home. Outside, Joe Crowell walks down Main Street, delivering newspapers. Joe speaks with Dr. Gibbs, who asks if there is anything important in the newspaper. Joe replies that his schoolteacher is getting married. They talk about the weather before Joe leave to continue his newspaper route.

The stage manager tells the audience that Joe graduated high school at the top of his class and got a scholarship to MIT. He had plans to be a great engineer, but he died while fighting in the army during World War I.

The milkman Howie Newsome enters (with an invisible horse and cart), delivering milk to various houses. He talks to Dr. Gibbs and then delivers some milk to Mrs. Gibbs. Mrs. Gibbs calls for her kids to get up and come to breakfast, as does Mrs. Webb in her own house. Mrs. Gibbs gives Dr. Gibbs some coffee and food and encourages him to try to get some sleep, after being up all night with the birth of the twins.

In their separate houses, Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb continue to call for their children to come to breakfast. Mrs. Gibbs tells Dr. Gibbs that their son George has not been helping with chores around the house lately. Mrs. Gibbs calls after her children again, who still have not come downstairs for breakfast. They finally enter: George (sixteen) and Rebecca (eleven). In the Webb household, Emily (sixteen) and Wally (eleven) come down to breakfast.

At breakfast in the two households, Mrs. Webb tells her children not to eat too quickly, while Mrs. Gibbs tells George she’ll speak to Dr. Gibbs about possibly raising his allowance. The kids finish breakfast and rush off to school. Mrs. Gibbs goes outside to feed her chickens and sees Mrs. Webb.

Mrs. Gibbs tells Mrs. Webb that a secondhand furniture dealer from Boston came to her house and offered her $350 for her mother’s old dresser. She says that she would think about selling it if she knew that Dr. Gibbs would spend the money on a real vacation. She tells Mrs. Webb that she’s always wanted to see Paris.

Dr. Gibbs, however, has said that he doesn’t want to travel in Europe, because “it might make him discontented with Grover’s Corners.” Every two years he travels to Civil War battlefields and thinks “that’s enough treat for anybody.” Mrs. Webb encourages Mrs. Gibbs to keep dropping hints about Paris. Mrs. Gibbs comments that she thinks, “once in your life before you die you ought to see a country where they don’t talk in English.”

The stage manager interrupts the women’s conversation and announces that he wants to give more information about Grover’s Corners. He invites Professor Willard, from the state university, to address the audience. Professor Willard gives some geological information about the land where the town is located, as well as the town’s population: 2642.

The stage manager then invites Mr. Webb onto the stage to give the “political and social report” on the town (since he is editor of the local newspaper). Mrs. Webb tells him that Mr. Webb will be there in a minute, as he just cut his hand in the kitchen. Mr. Webb does soon enter, and tells the audience about the demographics of the town, saying that it is a “very ordinary town.”

The stage manager asks if anyone in the audience has any questions. A woman in the balcony of the theater, a man in the back of the auditorium, and a lady in a box in the theater ask questions. The woman asks if there is much drinking in the town (there is not), while the man asks whether people in the town are aware of “social injustice and industrial inequality.” Mr. Webb tells him that they are, but aren’t sure what to do about it. The lady asks if there is any culture in the town, and Mr. Webb replies that there is not much.

The stage manager says that they will now return to the play. It is early afternoon, kids have just gotten out of school, and Mr. Webb is mowing his lawn. George and Emily come back to their homes from school. George compliments Emily on an impressive speech she made in class. He tells her that his room’s window has a view directly onto her room and suggests they can “work out a kinda telegraph from [Emily’s] window to [his].” He asks if Emily could help him with his homework some time and she agrees to give him hints, but not the answers.

George goes off to the baseball field, leaving Emily to speak with Mrs. Webb. Emily asks Mrs. Webb if she is good-looking and Mrs. Webb says she is “pretty enough for all normal purposes,” but dismisses the question as silly. The stage manager interrupts their conversation, telling them that he wants to offer the audience some more information about the town.

The stage manager explains some recent developments in Grover’s Corners. A new bank is being built and they’ve decided to bury some objects in a time capsule in the building’s cornerstone to preserve for posterity. They are including a copy of the New York Times, the local newspaper, Shakespeare’s plays, the Bible, and the U.S. Constitution. The stage manager reflects that we know practically nothing about the ordinary lives of ancient civilizations and decides to include a copy of Our Town with the other items, so that “people a thousand years from now’ll know a few simple facts about us.”

As the stage manager finishes his speech, a choir partially off-stage has begun to sing a song called “Blessed Be the Tie That Binds.” This is the local church choir, directed by Simon Stimson. Meanwhile, Emily and George are “upstairs” in their respective rooms (symbolized on-stage by their being up in two ladders). From window to window, George asks Emily for some help on his homework.

Simon Stimson tells the choir that they will be singing at an upcoming wedding and will use the same music they did for the last wedding they sang at. Dr. Gibbs calls George downstairs and asks him what he wants to do once he graduates from high school. George tells him he plans to work on his uncle’s farm.

Dr. Gibbs asks if George will be willing to do all the chores and work around the farm, since he has not been doing chores at home. He tells him that Mrs. Gibbs had to chop wood because he hadn’t done it, even though she already spends so much of her time cleaning, cooking, and doing laundry. He scolds George for treating Mrs. Gibbs “like she’s some hired girl we keep around the house.” Nonetheless, he tells George he has agreed to raise his allowance by twenty-five cents per week. George apologizes and thanks him.

George goes back upstairs as Mrs. Gibbs, Mrs. Webb, and Mrs. Soames come on-stage, returning from choir practice. Mrs. Soames gossips with them about Simon Stimson, who is an alcoholic (and was drunk at their practice this evening). Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb encourage her to mind her own business and not notice Stimson’s drunkenness. They go their separate ways and Mrs. Gibbs arrives outside her house.

Dr. Gibbs is upset that Mrs. Gibbs is arriving home so late (though she tells him it isn’t any later than usual) and comments on her stopping “to gossip with a lot of hens.” She tells him not to be grouchy and explains that she and the other wives were talking about Simon Stimson, who has not been doing well recently. Dr. Gibbs laments Stimson’s alcoholism but says “there’s nothing we can do but just leave it alone.”

Mrs. Gibbs says that she is worried about her husband and wants him to make plans to take a break from work. Dr. Gibbs refuses to talk about this and goes inside.

Once they are inside, Mrs. Gibbs mentions that people in Grover’s Corners have begun to lock their doors at night. Dr. Gibbs says that those people are, unfortunately, “getting citified.” Upstairs, George and Rebecca are talking in his room. The stage manager tells the audience that it is 9:30 PM and most of the lights in town are out. Constable Warren, a policeman, and Mr. Webb meet as they walk along Main Street. Simon Stimson walks by, drunk. Constable Warren worries about Stimson, before walking off.

Mr. Webb notices that someone is up on the second floor of his house and asks who’s there. It is Emily, who says she can’t sleep, because the moonlight is so bright. Mr. Webb asks if anything is troubling her and she says no. He walks into his house, whistling “Blessed Be the Tie That Binds.”

Upstairs in the Gibbs home, Rebecca tells George about a letter her friend received with the address, “Jane Crofut; The Crofut Farm; Grover’s Corners; Sutton County; New Hampshire; United States of America; Continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar System; the Universe; the Mind of God.” The stage manager announces that the first act of the play is now over.