Experience commonplace, cosmic dimensions of human experience with ‘A Wilder Night’ 

The School of Performing Arts opens its spring theatrical schedule at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 with an evening of one-act plays by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) on the main stage in Hauck Auditorium. 

There will be seven performances of “A Wilder Night,” directed by assistant professor of theatre Ljubisa Matic and starring a cast of 17 University of Maine undergraduates. Additional performances are at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 29; 2 p.m. March 1; 10 a.m. March 5; 7:30 p.m. March 6–7; and 2 p.m. March 8.  

The three plays that make up “A Wilder Night” — “The Long Christmas Dinner,” “Pullman Car Hiawatha,” and “The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden” — were originally published together in 1931. 

It is in these mini-masterpieces that audiences first encountered some of Wilder’s signature techniques: his use of the stage manager as character, his use of pantomime, minimal scenery and farce, as well as his signature connection between the commonplace and cosmic dimensions of the human experience. Wilder later developed these innovative dramatic techniques in his much-beloved full-length plays “Our Town,” “The Matchmaker,” and “The Skin of Our Teeth.”

“One-act plays rarely get accolades or attention, but in the hands of a master such as Wilder, squeezing the universe into 30 minutes can be revolutionary,” says Matic, who is directing his first play at UMaine after a career in which he’s directed more than two dozen plays, most recently at Stanford University and the University of North Dakota.

Tickets are $12 or free with a student MaineCard, and are available online. To request a reasonable accommodation, contact Birdie Sawyer at 207.581.2584, fredrick.sawyer@maine.edu.