The Skin of Our Teeth is a play by Thornton Wilder that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It opened on October 15, 1942, at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, before moving to the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway on November 18, 1942. It was produced by Michael Myerberg and directed by Elia Kazan with costumes by Mary Percy Schenck. The play is a three-part allegory about the life of mankind, centering on the Antrobus family of the fictional town of Excelsior, New Jersey. The epic comedy-drama is noted as among the most heterodox of classic American comedies — it broke nearly every established theatrical convention.
Handbill for the 1942 Broadway production. Artwork by Don Freeman.
Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and for the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a U.S. National Book Award for the novel The Eighth Day.
Wilder in 1948
Wilder in his 1920 Yale College graduation photo
Frank Craven, Martha Scott, and John Craven in the original Broadway production of Our Town, published in 1938, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Wilder as Mr. Antrobus in The Skin of Our Teeth in 1948
