‘Our Town: Simsbury’ is a modern nod to a Pulitzer Prize-winning play

“Our Town: Simsbury” may seem familiar, but it’s from a different time, place and playwright.

A new play premiering Thursday at Eno Memorial Hall on Hopmeadow Street in Simsbury, “Our Town: Simsbury” shares part of its title, and some thematic and structural elements, with Thornton Wilder’s classic drama “Our Town.” But Simsbury is not Grover’s Corner, the fictitious town where Wilder’s play is set. Nor is it Hamden, Connecticut, where Wilder lived and wrote for much of his life, and it is also set in 2018, 80 years after Wilder’s work.

“It’s really nothing to do with Thornton Wilder except for structure and style,” explains playwright Betsy Maguire. Both plays are done on a bare stage with few sets or props. Both have onstage “Stage Managers” who serve as narrators for the drama and break the fourth wall by talking directly to the audience. Wilder’s “Our Town” has one Stage Manager. Maguire’s has three.

“This is a modern nod to Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town,’” Maguire says. She set “Our Town: Simsbury” in 2018 and was ready to produce it in 2020, but that production, planned with the Theatre Guild of Simsbury, couldn’t happen due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, Maguire has started her own small theater company, Playland Productions, and is now producing “Our Town: Simsbury” in partnership with the Simsbury Historical Society.

The show’s director, Chris Bushey, and many of the two dozen cast members who were on board for the 2020 production are doing it now. That huge cast includes three children, as well as understudies in any case anyone has to bow out. “We’re ready for anything,” Maguire says. “I can’t tell you the number of people who have volunteered for this.

“I wrote it four years ago, and it was supposed to be done in 2020 for Simsbury’s 360th anniversary,” says Maguire, who has lived in the town for 30 years.

She hasn’t updated the setting despite the delay. “It’s very intentionally placed in October 2018. It references places in town, some that don’t exist anymore, and there are mentions of the local news and weather from then. The characters are all fictional. There is a shout-out to a politician in town, and I interviewed dozens of residents for this, but there are no real people in it.

Many of the cast members hail from Simsbury, but there are also some from Hartford, Farmington and elsewhere.

In an echo of Wilder’s play, a narrator sets the scene by describing his longtime hometown, script in hand:

“The name of the town is Simsbury, Connecticut. It’s in Hartford County, on the northern edge of the Farmington Valley. It’s a quiet rural community with rich history, natural beauty and a top-ranking school system. Notably, it sits just inside the border separating Red Sox Nation from Yankees Country.” Oh. It says here, I’m supposed to introduce myself. I’m Charley. Pleased to make your acquaintance. I was born and raised in Simsbury. I’ve spent my whole life here. Well, except for my college years. I went to Siena College in New York — played baseball. ‘Go Saints!’ But I ended up back here. I love this town. There’s nothing like it.”

Maguire says “Our Town: Simsbury” differs from a lot of her other work.

“My background is historical pieces,” she says. “I like to find a historical event and a time period and write a play around that. This one is not a historical play, though. It’s a modern contemporary drama. I hate to say it’s ‘a love letter’ because they’re not all good stories in it. I didn’t want it to be overly sweet.”

She also likes to work with non-traditional theater styles.

“The goal of Playland is to do theater on non-stages,” Maguire says. She has prior experience with that, having created the Living History tours at the Mark Twain House and Museum.

Eno Memorial Hall has a stage, but she and Bushey aren’t using it. The play’s action will take place on the floor of the auditorium, just a few feet from the audience. Bushey, Maguire says, “wants everything to look and feel as natural as possible.”

Playland Production has done four shows this year, including the historical drama “The Mystery of Clara Cloud” at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks in February.

“It’s been a big year for me, but I was eager. I had these plays written already,” Maguire says.

Maguire isn’t planning further productions of “Our Town: Simsbury” but likes the idea of someone finding it and doing a revival maybe 50 years from now. For now, it’s a snapshot of a certain moment in a certain town in Connecticut, presented by the community for the community.

“Our Town: Simsbury” will be performed Thursday at 7 p.m. and Sept. 24 and Oct. 1 at both 2 and 7 p.m. at Eno Memorial Hall, 754 Hopmeadow St. (at the Simsbury Senior Center), Simsbury. $15, $10 students and seniors. onthestage.tickets/show/playland-productions/our-town-simsbury-75715/.

Christopher Arnott can be reached at carnott@courant.com.