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"The Skin of Our Teeth" by Thorton Wilder
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Sounds great, but what does it mean?
It means that we favor stories that share important, universal themes with touches of the extraordinary. Realism is good, but adding hyper-realistic elements showcases what theatre does best - linking the imagination of the playwright to the imagination of the audience.
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How does that influence the work you do?
We look for work that goes beyond the obvious, beyond the surface. Dragon was about a woman choosing between family and passion - a pretty common situation, but the playwright added the element of dragons, which heightened the story into the realm of the mythic and introduced us to a glorious world of possibilities.
Articulating the Arts is our signature series. In it, we challenge our playwrights to mine other artistic disciplines for inspiration. The results include plays about the "value" of a classic painting in monetary and artistic terms, a window into a homeless woman's life via her connection to Vermeer's painting, a conversation between two gay men about ageism, and many more. All of these plays share a mythical connection to seemingly mundane topic.
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The Skin of Our Teeth is about a family facing crisis together - they just happen to be the "first" family ever, and their crises happen to affect all of mankind. This time-jumping story about battling nature, war, and internal strife also asks big questions about morality, loyalty, optimism and faith.
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