THORNTON WILDER’S
THE EMPORIUM
Completed by KIRK LYNN
Directed by ROB MELROSE
More than 75 years in the making, an unfinished work by one of America’s greatest dramatists takes the New York stage at last. Thornton Wilder’s The Emporium unveils the artist’s final play, brought to life through playwright Kirk Lynn’s masterful completion. As a young man journeys through the city and beyond, he encounters a world of wonder, meaning, and the elusive truths of life itself. Wilder’s long-unseen masterpiece is finally ready to be discovered, offering a rare chance to experience a new work from a legendary voice.
RUN TIME: 2 hours and 15 minutes, including intermission
Learn more about Thornton Wilder’s The Emporium with our Digital Program and Show Guide.
GROUP SALES
Perfect for educational organizations, senior groups, and theater lovers. Group rates are available for groups of 10 or more (pending availability) and rates are as follows:
Tuesday-Friday Performances:General Audiences: $45 (plus a $7 service fee) per ticketStudent Groups: $30 (fees waived) per ticket
Saturday & Sunday Performances:General Audiences: $60 (plus a $7 service fee) per ticketStudent Groups: $45 (fees waived) per ticket
Group sales must be booked with the CSC Box Office,
by phone at 212.677.4210 x10 or by email at [email protected].
PERFORMANCE CALENDAR
SPECIAL EVENTS
Classic Perspectives Talkbacks:
Join What Will the Neighbors Say? Co-Artistic Directors and Classic Perspectives Season Curators James Clements and Sam Hood Adrain for a dynamic and provocative series of post-show events deepening engagement with the latest Classic Stage Company piece, Thornton Wilder’s The Emporium.
May 12th @ 7:00pm
IN CONVERSATION: THORNTON WILDER SCHOLARS
A conversation with experts on Wilder, including Jim Knable, Author & Documentary Filmmaker of Thornton Wilder: It’s Time, discussing Wilder’s work, his lasting impact on the American stage, and how examining a previously unknown work can illuminate hidden themes about our modern times. More panelists to be announced soon!
May 26th @ 7:00pm
A CONVERSATION WITH THE CAST OF THORNTON WILDER’S THE EMPORIUM
A post-show conversation with the cast and creative team who bring Thornton Wilder’s The Emporium to life
May 31st @ 2:00pm
THE SEARCH FOR MEANING ON THE AMERICAN STAGE
An in-depth conversation with leadership from theatres of all sizes in New York, discussing how to stage an “American classic” in this moment – and what an “American Classic” even means. Panelists include Kate Eminger (Director and Associate Artistic Director of Rattlestick), Danilo Gambini (Director, Beauty Freak), and Kate Whoriskey (Director, Clyde’s).
June 2nd @ 7:00pm
IN HIS OWN WORDS: FINISHING WHAT THORNTON WILDER STARTED
A conversation with makers and doers about the potentials and pitfalls of finishing work that someone else has begun, especially when that writer has an iconic and beloved canon. Panelists to be announced!
Other Events:
May 23rd @ 2:00pm
SENSORY-ADAPTED PERFORMANCE
CSC is proud to partner with TDF to offer a sensory-adapted performance of Thornton Wilder’s The Emporium for neurodiverse audiences. Slight modifications to sound, lighting, and staging to reduce extreme sensory stimulation will be made. Contact the Box Office for more information.
May 30th @ 2:00pm
TEEN TAKEOVER
Any middle and high school students may use code TEEN10 for $10 tickets at the Standard (blue) level when booking tickets to Teen Takeover performances. More information about Teen Takeover performances is available here.
May 31st @ 2:00pm
FREE CHILDCARE OFFERED
CSC is proud to partner with Broadway Babysitters to provide drop-off childcare services for this matinee performance of The Emporium. To request drop-off childcare services, please fill out this request form. (Limited spots available.)
June 2nd @ 7:00pm
ASL INTERPRETATION
CSC is proud to partner with Hands On to provide ASL interpretation during this performance of Thornton Wilder’s The Emporium. For tickets in the interpretation zone, please visit HandsOn.org
THE ARTISTS
THORNTON WILDER (Playwright) Born in Madison, Wisconsin, and educated at Oberlin, Yale (B.A. 1920) and Princeton (M.A. 1925), Thornton Wilder was an accomplished novelist and playwright whose works, exploring the connection between the commonplace and the cosmic dimensions of human experience, continue to be read and produced around the world. Wilder is the only writer to win Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and drama—for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) and two plays, Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942). His other novels include The Cabala, The Woman of Andros, Heaven’s My Destination, The Ides of March, The Eighth Day and Theophilus North. His other major dramas include The Matchmaker (adapted as the musical Hello, Dolly!) and The Alcestiad. The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden, The Long Christmas Dinner and Pullman Car Hiawatha are among his celebrated shorter plays. Wilder also enjoyed success as an essayist, translator, research scholar, teacher, lecturer, actor, librettist and screenwriter. His screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943) remains a classic psycho-thriller to this day. Wilder’s many honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Book Committee’s Medal for Literature, The Order of Merit (Peru), and the Goethe-Plakette (Germany). In 1930, with royalties received from The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Wilder built a home for himself and his family in Hamden, CT. Although often away from it for as many as 250 days a year, restlessly seeking quiet places in which to write, Thornton Wilder always returned to “The House The Bridge Built.” He died here on December 7th, 1975.
More information on Thornton Wilder and his family is available in Penelope Niven’s definitive biography, Thornton Wilder: A Life (2013) as well as on the Wilder Family website, www.thorntonwilder.com
Photo courtesy of Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
KIRK LYNN (Completed by) is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and one of the founders of the Rude Mechs theatre collective, making new performance in Austin, TX for 30 years, including Lipstick Traces, Method Gun, and The Cold Record, a solo-show Kirk performs about setting the record for missing the most days of school with a fever and falling in love with the school nurse.
In 2015, Kirk’s debut novel, Rules for Werewolves was published by Melville House. Kirk has adapted it as a feature film and made a short with 10 Acre Films starring Finn Wolfhard. In 2023, Kirk co-wrote What Happens Later, directed by and starring Meg Ryan.
Kirk is the Head of Playwriting and Directing at the University of Texas at Austin where he specializes in teaching creativity through the anthropology of play, resisting bureaucracy, and fostering positive mischief in students and colleagues.
Kirk is married to the poet and novelist Carrie Fountain and they have two kids, Nosleeper and Muchloud.
ROB MELROSE (Director) is the Artistic Director of the Alley Theatre where he has directed productions of The Glass Menagerie, The Janeiad (world premiere), Pictures from Home, Thornton Wilder’s The Emporium (world premiere), The Servant of Two Masters, Born with Teeth (world premiere), Sweat, The Winter’s Tale, 1984, and Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and adapted and directed a new production of A Christmas Carol. He was formerly the Artistic Director and co-founder of the Cutting Ball Theater. He has directed at The Public Theater, The Guthrie Theater, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Asolo Rep, Magic Theatre, The Old Globe, and PlayMakers Rep among others. He has taught at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, USF, the University of Rhode Island, and Marin Academy. He has a BA in English and Theater from Princeton University and an MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama. Rob directed Strindberg’s Svarta Handsken (The Black Glove) in Stockholm, Sweden at Strindberg’s Intimate Theater. His translations of Woyzeck, Ubu Roi, and Pelleas & Melisande have been published by EXIT Press and his adaptations of The Servant of Two Masters and A Christmas Carol have been published by Theatrical Rights Worldwide. He has written a number of plays including: Helen of Troy, The Flat Earth, Divorsosaurus, When Human Voices Wake Us, Asylum, and Serpentyne and has written a rock musical adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s Ozma of Oz.