Jackson junior gets in touch with sad side for 'Our Town' role

The 22-member cast of Jackson High School's production of "Our Town" is ready to bring the people of Grover's Corner, N.H., to life. The play takes the stage Friday and Saturday evening at the Jackson High School Auditorium.

In this neXt web extra, Caleb Newcomer, a 17-year-old junior who plays the part of small-town boy George Gibbs, talked about how he prepares for the loss of his stage wife, Emily Webb Gibbs, in "Our Town's" powerful third act. Newcomer's name fits him for this phase of his theatrical career. The production of "Our Town" is his first play.

neXt: How do you as a high school junior approach such an emotional scene, an experience so foreign to you -- the death of a spouse.

CN: I use something called memory recall. This is awful to say but I think about the people that are really close to me passing away and how I would experience that.

neXt: What's the coolest thing, what's the hardest thing, about being in this play?

CN: The coolest thing is being around all of these people, to see them portray the different characters. Some are just like I imagined they would be, others are not anything like I imagined. The hardest part has been interpreting my character. (Playwright) Thornton Wilder uses lots of stage directions but you have to take those stage directions and figure out what Wilder is trying to tell the audience about the character.

mkittle@semissourian.com

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