THORNTON WILDER for Our Town 
Wilder won three Pulitzer Prizes, wrote bestselling novels, and traveled the world, yet his most enduring masterpiece celebrates the extraordinary beauty of ordinary small-town life. Born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1897, Wilder spent parts of his childhood in China, where his diplomat father was stationed, giving him a perspective that extended far beyond the American towns he would later immortalize. When he wrote Our Town in 1938, he boldly stripped away elaborate scenery and props, trusting audiences to imagine the world themselves, a revolutionary idea for Broadway at the time. Wilder believed theater could reveal truths about life that realism alone could never capture, especially how easily we overlook the preciousness of everyday moments. In a place like Key West, where community, colorful characters, and the rhythms of daily life create their own kind of theater, Wilder's vision feels remarkably close to home.