Trumpet: Revisiting and Reimagining Thornton Wilder’s The Trumpet Shall Sound

Abstract

Abstract The Trumpet Shall Sound (1919–20) is Thornton Wilder’s first known full-length, published, and produced play. The action is straightforward: While their master is away on a prolonged journey, three servants open the house to roomers for profit, but then they live in guilt and fear of discovery. The play was awarded a college literary prize and it attracted the attention of talented director Richard Boleslavsky, but his production received mixed reviews. Wilder considered rewriting the problematic final act, but instead he moved on to Pulitzer Prize–winning literary and theatrical projects. This article revisits The Trumpet Shall Sound and shows its value as a harbinger of its author’s later genius. In structure and themes, this early allegorical work foreshadows Wilder’s mature exploration of the microcosm of the everyday connected through religious and mythic sources to the universal. The article also describes how its author followed the characters, dialogue, and symbolism and drew on input from scholars as she reimagined Wilder’s play as Trumpet, her 2020 and 2022 adaptations.