In my opinion, there is no better feeling than the last few moments before the beginning of a show. The lights dim, a hush falls over the crowd, and the air is thick with anticipation of the magic that is about to begin on stage right before your very eyes. I felt this thrill on Nov. 16, as I sat in a crowded theater awaiting a very unique performance. The Playbill in my hand featured Broadway stars like Norbert Leo Butz, Michelle Federer Butz and Emily Harvey-Lee. However, this production was not a Broadway show but rather a local staging of “Our Town” in Maplewood, New Jersey.
Thornton Wilder’s American classic tells the story of the Webb and Gibbs families against the fictional backdrop of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. The play follows the two families over the course of 12 years, concluding with an emotional monologue about the value of the little things and the importance of appreciating everyday life.
At the helm of this production was actress Michelle Federer Butz, known for her role as the original Nessarose in “Wicked” on Broadway. Federer Butz, who has been a resident of the Maplewood area for over 20 years, shared in an interview with The Miscellany News that she originally got the idea for the show in her hometown of Shaker Heights, Ohio.
“I had a friend who was turning 50, and he called me and said, ‘You know what I want to do for my 50th? I want to do a reading of ‘Our Town,’ and I want you to play Emily,’” Federer Butz said. “I threw myself into it as if I was going to be on Broadway.”
Although she had always considered “Our Town” her favorite play, this experience affected Federer Butz in a way that it never had before.
“I’d always loved Our Town, but it hits you differently at different ages,” Federer Butz said. “All of a sudden, I was walloped by it, and I could not stop thinking about it.”
Luckily, Maplewood is filled with former Broadway actors like Federer Butz herself. She started brainstorming ways that she could give “Our Town” a life there.
“We do a lot of fundraisers in Maplewood because we have so many musical theater performers out here,” Federer Butz said. “I just thought about how powerful ‘Our Town’ is to me and what a universal play it is, and I thought, ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be nice to just share this play with our community?’”
Maplewood’s production of “Our Town” was not just for entertainment purposes. The show served as a fundraiser for the Achieve Foundation, which is a local education foundation that raises funds from private sources to improve educational programs and facilities in the Maplewood and South Orange area. Amy Straub, a Maplewood small-business owner and member of the Achieve Foundation Board of Trustees, shared what the Foundation means to her.
“The Achieve Foundation is essential because it steps in to partner and support our school district community where resources are limited and helps address needs that directly affect a child’s educational experience,” Straub said. “Whether it’s free tutoring, supporting the arts, providing STEAM programming like our annual Maker Madness event or funding classroom innovations through teacher grants, Achieve ensures that every student has access to opportunities that spark curiosity, confidence and a sense of belonging.”
Alongside being an actor, Federer Butz is a substitute teacher in the Maplewood area and is currently going back to school to pursue her postbaccalaureate teaching certification. Her connection to teaching inspired her to reach out to Achieve.
“I’ve never directed before and I’ve never produced anything before so I knew I needed someone to handle marketing and tickets and all of that,” Federer Butz said. “Achieve agreed to produce it, so that combination just worked.”
After securing the producer for the show, Federer Butz moved to casting. However, she did not want to bring this vision to life in the typical way. She aimed to draw a wider audience than just the theater community in Maplewood.
“I started thinking about casting people who weren’t the usual suspects of fundraisers around town,” Federer Butz said. “What became very clear to me is that in doing this, the audience would be made up of not the usual suspects. I knew that if I cast a wide net in the casting, I would cast a wide net in the audience.”
Inspired by the themes of the play, she wanted to cast pillars of Maplewood who did not have acting experience.
“[Maplewood] is where I live,” Federer Butz said. “This is my daily life. My deepest connections are here and my loosest ties that still affect me are here. I go into The Able Baker, and I get my favorite cookie. And who knows, on my death bed, will I think of that cookie because I love it that much? So then I needed Julie Paulie, the owner of the Able Baker in my play.”
As a small-business owner and 10-year Maplewood resident herself, Straub shared similar sentiments about the culture of the town.
“[Maplewood] has truly become home in every sense,” Straub said. “We’ve raised our children here, built friendships, I’ve grown a small business and seen firsthand how special this community is.”
Once she had solidified a cast of local small-business owners, Columbia High School and Maplewood Middle School teachers and faculty, the town’s former mayor and more, Federer Butz decided to enlist some Maplewood residents with theater experience.
“I knew I needed anchors in that process, so I knew I needed actors in that process,” Federer Butz said. “I knew that those actors would act as mentors to the people who’ve never been on stage before.”
Putting inexperienced actors on a stage was a gamble, but Federer Butz had little doubt about the capabilities of the people she had chosen.
“I had a hunch that that would work, and I was right because I watched the non-actors get lost in the play,” Federer Butz said. “It’s really about the play. The words are so powerful and so excellent, and I watched them get lost in it the way an actor gets lost in it.”
Achieve’s production of “Our Town” was a smashing success. The auditorium was filled, the event raised over $26,000, and by the end of the show, there was not a dry eye in the house—myself included. Straub shared that she felt immensely proud of the show and hopes to do more fundraisers like it in the future.
“The success of this event shows how powerful it is when our community comes together around art, storytelling and a shared purpose,” Straub said. “It is definitely one of my favorite [Maplewood] memories thus far.”