Abstract
Our Town (1938), the most performed American play, first appeared in print in March 1938, published by Coward McCann one month after the play's Broadway debut. This book, set in type before rehearsals began, represents Thornton Wilder's original version of the play. Wilder extensively revised the play during production while working with producer-director Jed Harris. The production's prompt script became the basis for the Samuel French acting edition, first available in April 1939. In 1957, Wilder again revised his text for his collection Three Plays (Harper & Row). This version restores many of the cuts made from his original version, makes hundreds of minor and several major alterations, and adds some new material, marking it as the author's third published version. A collation of these three versions of Our Town documents Wilder's creative process, the many changes necessary in transferring a script to a performance, and the play's evolving themes.
