Murphy published in Thornton Wilder Journal

Cason Murphy, associate professor of theatre in the Department of Music and Theatre at Iowa State University, was recently published in the Thornton Wilder Journal (June 2025 issue) with a performance review of “Our Town” — as staged by the Austin-based theatrical collective Rude Mechs in November 2024.

Murphy’s review situates this production within the Rudes’ broader postmodern canon and Wilder’s own metatheatrical legacy, arguing that the production revealed surprising resonances between the two. In the review, Murphy reflects on the layered intimacy of the production — from audience members conscripted into minor roles (yes, including him) to a fractured, four-part Stage Manager that embodied time, place, sense, and spirit. Performed in the Rudes’ CRASHBOX venue, the show transformed Wilder’s well-worn play into something startlingly present and participatory, which highlights tensions between nostalgia and modernity, community and individualism, the local and the universal, particularly in the Rudes’ hometown of Austin, Texas. The piece also previews the company’s next devised work, “Your Town,” which will riff off this staging through a collaborative, site-specific creation process rooted in the complexities of contemporary Austin.

The Thornton Wilder Journal, a peer-reviewed publication of the Thornton Wilder Society, is dedicated to the continued study and exploration of Wilder’s life, work, and artistic impact.

Murphy teaches courses in acting, musical theatre, script analysis, and introduction to the performing arts. He is the author of “The World at Play: Performance from the Audience’s Perspective,” a textbook that offers an audience-centered exploration of theatre, dance, music, film, television, podcasting, video games, and other emergent performance forms. For ISU Theatre’s 2025 – 2026 season, he will direct the wickedly satirical “Urinetown: The Musical” in Fisher Theater this November.