By Nancy Salz
I was more than wary about loaning my Lenox Library copy of “Our Town.” But these were special circumstances: The “Our Town” I had taken out was a 1938 first edition – and the person pleading to borrow it was the gifted actor John Rubinstein rehearsing for the Williamstown Theatre Festival production of the play. Thinking he’d get a kick out of seeing the first edition, I shared it with him during an interview I was writing for the Advocate. On the spot he found a scene with his character, Doc Gibbs, that had been cut from the script WTF was using. He was so passionate that I took the risk and let him borrow the book.
He emailed a few days later …
“I will absolutely bring back the book you loaned me. I printed out the 8-page scene that was clearly cut from the published version, and read it with the actress (Becky Ann Baker) who plays my wife, Mrs. Gibbs. Such a revelatory and delightful thing, to discover a large selection, written by the author himself, containing an intimate conversation between the character one is playing and that person’s wife … and to read it aloud with the other actor and the director.” In another email Rubinstein added “One of the nicest little moments for me was each night when I used a line from an excised section, talking about my son George, ‘that great, gangling, selfish nincompoop!’”
Backstage after a performance, Rubinstein introduced me to Campbell Scott who played the role of the Stage Manager. He, too, had read the first edition and added back lines from the original script.
The book is now safely back in the Lenox Library, no longer allowed to circulate, but with a beguiling provenance of having contributed to the WTF 2010 production of “Our Town.”