The play 'Our Town' by Thornton Wilder has interesting connections with Hong Kong over time. Wilder received the Pulitzer Prize (drama) for this work in 1938.
The 3-act play, translated and published in Chinese (小城風光) by World Today (related to USIS), may be available to general public in Hong Kong, by 1961 or earlier.
Early staging of the play locally in Hong Kong include :
date venue production unit
1965 May 6-8* City Hall Concert Hall Hong Kong Baptist College Dramatics Club
1970 Sep 21-23 City Hall Concert Hall HK Amateur Drama Society
1975 Apr 21-22 City Hall Concert Hall Hong Kong Baptist College Dramatics Club
1982 Aug 11-19 City Hall Theatre Hong Kong Repertory Theatre
These were all directed by the late Dr Chung King-fai, aka King Sir. He had been lecturer in the Baptist College for over two decades, after graduating from the Yale University of US.
He was the founding Dean of the School of Drama in the Academy of Performing Arts (1983-2001). He had also been directors in local TV stations and actors in drama and movies,
nurtured many students of performing arts over the years.
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Thornton Wilder lived in Hong Kong shortly for 6 months in 1906 when he was nine, attending a German school here while his family resided on the Peak.
His father Amos Parker Wilder was appointed the U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong then (same in Shanghai, 1909-1914). A photo of the Wilder family in Hong Kong shows Thornton Wilder, small boy on the left (link). The family matches the arrival passengers list.
It is said that the 'Stage Manager' character in Our Town may be influenced by the narrator figure in Chinese opera, what Wilde observed during his youth in China,
possibly Shanghai.
The play made its premiere in British theatres on 30 April, 1946(^), at the New Theatre in London's West End. The play's focus on the preciousness of ordinary, everyday life
carried a particular emotional weight for a British audience that had just survived the war, as some said.
sources
Kung Sheung Daily News
Wah Kiu Yat Po
Hongkong Daily Press, 1906-5-8
Our Town Dramaturgy (link)
The Wilder Family (https://thorntonwilder.com/the-wilder-family)
(^) New York Times, 1946-5-1
* The very first performance in 1965 was to raise fund for scholarships to assist needy students of the college. The play as recommended by USIS was patronised by Dr Lam Chi Fung, founding president of the college.
Both the 1965 and 1975 programme published have been kept by the HKBU library and can be viewed online.
6 more programmes of 'Our Town' were archived by HK Public Library, including the 1970 and 1982 ones and are online too.