1939

The lead roles were played by Jane Wyatt and Donald Woods….

Denver audiences were treated to a variety of plays that made for a successful season. The plays ranged from comedy to romance to melodrama to a murder thriller. And then there was Thorton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize winner, Our Town, which the drama critic said is not a comedy, nor a drama, and “is not strictly a play.”

For as the audience enters the theater it is confronted by an empty stage, with the curtain up. Actor Donald Woods enters the stage, tells briefly what the proceedings are about, and as he gives his talk, various members of the cast pantomime the atmosphere of the setting without benefit of the usual stage props. Then, as the explanations proceed, the players portray the action depicting the quiet, unobtrusive life in the small town of Grover’s Corners, N.H., from 1901 to 1915, with its marriages and births and deaths and the other small events which distinguish the little community from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Director George Somnes successfully enjoyed the unique task of transforming the historic Gardens playhouse into the atmosphere of Grover’s Corners.

Payment Deferred is the thriller that introduced Charles Laughton to the American stage in 1931. At Elitch, his role as the bank clerk was flawlessly played by Donald Woods.

[Borrillo, T. A. (2012). Denver’s Historic Elitch Theatre: A nostalgic journey (a history of its times). Colorado. p. 192]