Jim Parsons, Katie Holmes and Cast of Broadway's “Our Town” Visit N.H. Locale Where Thornton Wilder Penned Play

The revival, directed by Kenny Leon, begins previews Sept. 17

The cast of the upcoming Broadway revival of Our Town took a field trip on Monday, Aug. 12 to Peterborough, N.H. — the quaint New England locale where Thornton Wilder penned his timeless play.

It was a getaway to mark the first day of rehearsals for the production, which will be directed by  Tony Award-winner Kenny Leon.

Leon and members of the creative team and the whopping 28-actor company — including Jim Parsons, Katie Holmes, Zoey Deutch, Ephraim Sykes, Richard Thomas, Billy Eugene Jones, Michelle Wilson, Julie Halston and Donald Webber Jr. — boarded two busses to make the near five-hour drive up north from New York City.

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Photographer Jenny Anderson went along, too, documenting the day in a series of photos released to the press on Tuesday, Aug. 27.

Our Town — about life in the village of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire — is returning to Broadway for the first time in nearly 25 years. Previews begin Tuesday, Sept. 17 ahead of an opening on Thursday, Oct. 10 at the Barrymore Theatre in N.Y.C.

Follow the cast on their New Hampshire visit below:

A Marquee Meeting

Prior to their departure, the Our Town company gathered outside of the Barrymore Theatre for a group picture in under the marquee.

Parsons, an Emmy winner for his work on The Big Bang Theory, fittingly stood towards the center of the bunch. He's leading the play as the drama's "stage manager" narrator.

Related: Jessica Lange Calls Mother Play with Jim Parsons and Celia Keenan-Bolger 'One of the Great Joys of My Life'

On the Open Road

During the trip to New Hampshire, Sykes watched the changing landscape go by out the window.

The Tony and Grammy Award-nominee returns to the boards to play George Gibbs, the high school baseball star and the senior class president who plunges into adulthood thanks to his romance with neighbor Emily Webb (Deutch).

Our Town follows the intersecting paths of the Gibbs and Webb families over the course of 12 years. George is the eldest son of Dr. Gibbs (Jones) and Mrs. Gibbs (Wilson), as well as the other brother of Rebecca Gibbs (Safiya Kaijya Harris).

The Webb family will be led by Holmes as Mrs. Webb and Thomas as Mr. Webb. Newcomer Hagan Oliveras will play Wally Webb, Emily's brother.

Learning Those Lines

Also on the bus, Deutch posed with the script for Wilder's play.

This will be the Set It Up actress' Broadway debut, though she's got a good guide in Holmes. The Dawson's Creek star has been on the Great White Way twice before: first in the 2008 revival of All My Sons, and last in 2012's Dead Accounts. 

Related: Zoey Deutch Recalls 'Painful' Audition for Katniss in 'The Hunger Games' : It Was 'Tough'

Dining at the Diner

Once they arrived in town, the group grabbed a bite at the popular Peterborough Diner, later posing with the staff outside.

Celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, the historic business operates out of an original Worcester train-style lunch car, and has since 1949. It's known for serving breakfast and lunch, seven days a week.

The Peterborough Diner is beloved by locals and tourists alike. It's become a destination over the years as the Worcester Lunch Car Company only produced roughly 1,000 lunch cars until the mid-1950s. Each were given their own unique number and color combo, making it a journey for tourists to track down and photograph all the diners that still operate today.

As legend has it, the Peterborough Dinner is Worcester Lunch Car No. 827 and the first the company ever made with a green-and-cream color scheme.

Sharing a Table and a Smile

Inside the Peterborough Diner, Parsons sat with Halston (Tony winner and Thomas' costar in You Can't Take It with You). She and Parsons were also seatmates on the bus.

Halston rounds out the principal cast as gossipy townswoman Mrs. Soames, who sings in the choir led by church organist Simon Stimson (Webber Jr.) .

The company will also include Ephie Aardema, Heather Ayers, Willa Bost, Bobby Daye, Doron JéPaul, Shyla Lefner, Anthony Michael Lopez, John McGinty, Bryonha Marie, Kevyn Morrow, Noah Pyzik, Sky Smith, Bill Timoney, Matthew Elijah Webb and Nimene Sierra Wureh.

Grabbing a Bite

Also at the diner, Armstrong snapped a pic of Thomas seemingly enjoying a bowl of food.

The Emmy winner, perhaps best known for playing budding author John-Boy Walton in the CBS drama series The Waltons, has had a long career on Broadway. with Our Town marking his 15th credit.

He has also starred in acclaimed revivals of The Great Society (2019), The Little Foxes (2017) and You Can't Take It with You (2014).

Tour Time

After food, the Our Town bunch was then led on a short tour of the town of Peterborough by Gus Kaikkonen, the former artistic director of the Peterborough Players.

Kaikkonen took time to point out some of the sights that Wilder references in Our Town, as well buildings that became inspirations for elements of Grover’s Corners.

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A Corner at Grover's Corners

Though Grover's Corners is a fictional town at the center of Our Town, Peterborough has embraced the likeness, even putting it on street signs.

Here, Deutch and Sykes pose at the cross street of Main St. and Grove St.

A Stop at MacDowell

Wilder penned Our Town at MacDowell, a nonprofit artist's residency program in Peterborough that pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell established to honor her husband, composer Edward MacDowell, after his death.

The farmland location has remained a quiet retreat for creatives to work since, with an estimated 9,000 filmmakers, playwrights, poets, composers, writers and more coming through the program.

Here, David Macy — resident director of MacDowell — gives a tour of the property to the Our Town company.

Visiting Veltin

Later, Oliveras, Holmes, Thomas, Sykes, Wilson, Harris and Jones even posed together for a picture in front of Veltin, the studio where Wilder finished Our Town at MacDowell.

There have been 102 Pulitzer Prizes awarded to alumni of MacDowell, among many other accolades (21 Tonys, 9 Oscars, 18 Grammys, etc).

Notable works written in whole, or in part, at MacDowell include The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon.

Ready for a Read Through

Once sight-seeing ended, it was time to get down to business!

Gathering in MacDowell’s Bond Hall, the cast heard some opening remarks from Leon and a presentation from set designer Beowulf Boritt. They then settled into a read through of the play, together for the first time.

Related: Katie Holmes Explains Why She’s ‘Adamant’ About Not Letting Hollywood ‘Dictate’ What She Wears

Listen Carefully

Jones, Sykes, Parsons and Wilson were snapped as they heard remarks from Leon before the first read through.

Once completed, the whole Our Town family made their way back to the busses where they made the long journey back to Manhattan.

Ending on a Laugh

Though the play was serious, laughter was a key component of the day as evidenced by this photo Armstrong took of a giggling Holmes/

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Our Town first opened on Broadway in 1938 to great acclaim, winning the Pulitzer Prize. It's been revived on Broadway four times since, most recently in a 2002 production led by the late Paul Newman.

Tickets for Our Town are now on sale on Telecharge.com.

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