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Our Town Comes to Mississippi College Stage


Clinton mom Lori McGaugh is thrilled because her three sons are all cast in the play “Our Town” coming soon to a Mississippi College stage.

“We are excited and jubilant,” McGaugh says of her children playing “news boys” in the show. The winter production portrays the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire from 1901 through 1913.

Performances will run from February 26 through March 1 at MC’s Swor Auditorium. Communication professor Phyllis W. Seawright directs the drama at her alma mater. Tickets are now on sale.

“Our Town” is the classic three-act play by Thornton Wilder that was good enough to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1938. It tells stories of ordinary citizens in this American small town – from the milkman to the paper boy to the local doctor who delivers twins. The author’s bittersweet, timeless drama weaves in perennial themes: loving, living and dying.

All homeschooled students, McGaugh’s sons, Brayden, 13, Conner, 15, and Ashton, 11, have been busy with rehearsals in recent days on the Clinton campus.

A 1998 Mississippi College graduate, Lori McGaugh hasn’t missed one rehearsal. Nervously watching as her three boys perform, the stage mom says, can make her feel “very emotional.” But Lori won’t exit the auditorium for a minute. “They are the only children in the show.”

Lori and her husband, Ben McGaugh, an MC grad seeking his MBA here, are no strangers to theater productions on campus. Their boys were cast in the “Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever” at Mississippi College the past four years. Presented by the MC Communication Department, the hilarious show depicts the rotten Herdman kids who eventually discover the true meaning of Christmas.

Elizabeth Evans, 20, an elementary education major from Jackson, was part of MC audiences seeing shows like “South Pacific” and “The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever.” It prompted her to make her acting debut in “Our Town.”

She’s not been disappointed. “I love getting to know the cast members,” Elizabeth says. “Everybody is sweet.”

Working with Seawright, she says, has been a terrific experience as well.

In an interview with reporter Megan Cole of the “Mississippi Collegian,” Seawright says she’s a huge fan of “A Prairie Home Companion,” by Garrison Keillor. The radio drama on Public Broadcasting System stations nationwide spins humorous tales about Lake Wobegone.

Similarly, the Thornton Wilder play “Our Town” creates interesting stories about characters like Howie Newsome the milkman and Joe Crowell, Jr. the local paper boy. Actor William Holden starred in the first “Our Town” movie released in 1940.

“Our Town” is a key component of the year-long celebration of the longstanding partnership between Mississippi College and its hometown of Clinton.

MC’s production features several Clintonians as well as students from as far away as Charlotte, North Carolina, Huntsville, Alabama and Boca Raton, Florida.

Rhoda Royce, the wife of President Lee Royce, is cast as the “lady in the box” during a February 28th performance. MC English professor David Miller has the perfect role: he plays a college professor. MC students Jamie Ferguson and Jay Kucia, both Clinton residents, have parts, too.

Performances in the MC Department of Communication production are set for February 26-27 at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. The third show is Saturday February 28 at 7 p.m. The final performance is booked for Sunday March 1 at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets are priced at $5 for students and $10 for adults. Groups of 20 or more pay $4 each.

For more information, contact Phyllis Seawright at 601-925-3453. The ticket phone line is 601-925-3935.