SMC Theatre will perform “The Skin of Our Teeth” April 5-7 at 7:30 PM and April 8 at 2:30 PM. The production will be held in Gibbs Auditorium in Ellis Hall on Spartanburg Methodist’s campus. It is free and open to the public.

“The Skin of Our Teeth” is a Pulitzer-Prize winning play by Thornton Wilder, the American playwright and author. Wilder also won Pulitzer Prizes for his play “Our Town” and novel “The Bridge of San Luis Rey.” The play is about the Antrobus family from the fictional town of Excelsior, New Jersey, and is presented as a three-part allegory about the life of mankind. It includes many biblical and classical references, and the title is based on the Bible verse Job 19:20, “My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.”

The play has been performed many times since its opening at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut in 1942, but is still considered timely today. Wilder himself claimed that the play “mostly comes alive in times of crisis,” and can be connected to current events such as the refugee crisis and global warming.
One notable member of SMC’s cast is John Starnes, who is making his stage debut at the age of 75. Starnes graduated from SMC in the spring of 2017 with an associate degree in arts, and is currently taking more classes in pursuit of an associate degree in religion. In “The Skin of Our Teeth,” he will play Judge Moses in Act I and Mr. Tremayne in Act III.