Another Day's Begun by Howard Sherman

Author:Howard Sherman [Sherman, Howard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781350123465
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2021-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

10

Intermission: The Church of Grover’s Corners

The liturgy of The Church of Grover’s Corners, isn’t the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Koran, or the Book of Mormon. The Church of Grover’s Corners isn’t Protestant, Presbyterian, Methodist, Unitarian, Baptist, or Catholic. Nor is it Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or the Latter-Day Saints. It’s not any denomination you might know of or be part of. It doesn’t have its own building, be it church, synagogue, temple, mosque, or ashram. People don’t feel compelled to dress up in their Sunday best, their churchgoing clothes, in order to attend, and don’t even want to, because weekend casual is the prevailing style.

But for all the things that have been ruled out, seemingly leaving very little, have no doubt that there is a Church of Grover’s Corners. By the end of 2019, the Church had offered up its voice twelve times since its inception.

The Church of Grover’s Corners isn’t any kind of theological institution. Taking part in its rituals in no way contravenes any religious traditions you may or may not follow. Atheists are welcome, too, after all. You see, the Church of Grover’s Corners is really an informal gathering of members of the Louisville creative community, who began coming together in 2018, roughly every other month, to read Our Town aloud. That is its only text and its sole reason for existing.

The meetings echo some time-honored American traditions. They take place in various homes, where friends, neighbors, and even strangers are welcomed. As it is a potluck, with all in attendance bringing some manner of entrée, side dish or dessert, it could be a summer picnic, or for that matter a barn raising. As a reading of a play in a home by a largely amateur company, it is a reminder of the days before regional theatres, when small communities, in particular, might have groups that met, not unlike a book club, to read a play aloud. Though there isn’t much drinking in Grover’s Corners, there is an open bar at The Church.

Unlike genuine religious orders, whose origins may be rooted in the distant past, with relics and apocrypha, the Church of Grover’s Corners is sufficiently new that its origins aren’t shrouded. It’s a fairly egalitarian group, so there isn’t any hierarchy, though the founders are Gregory Maupin, an actor and musician, and Tara Anderson, a producer of live events and public radio programming. They’re right there at meetings, appreciated, but not necessarily revered. You can receive The Word right from those who initiated the Louisville community, although the words of communion were written by Thornton Wilder more than three-quarters of a century ago.

The very first Church meeting took place on February 11, birthdate of the play’s Emily Webb—an accident, so Maupin claims. In written remarks that day, Maupin talked about his experience of playing the alcoholic choirmaster Simon Stimson in a production of Our Town at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville (ATL), the city’s largest professional producing theatre, in 2014. He described how the company remained on stage even when they weren’t in particular scenes.

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