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Maithili Joshi is a student at the School of Visual Arts pursuing a BFA (Illustration). She works with a combination of mix media and digital mediums, drawing a lot from the everyday. You'll often find her drawing away at the park or at a cafe. She also works in children's books, publishing two books, 'What Makes Me, Me' and 'Anya and Her Baby Brother' in 2020.
Medium: Ink, Watercolour, Digital
O U R T O W N
O U R T O W N
An adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning 1938 play, 'Our Town' reset in contemporary India, lovingly using the original text. This project was created with the guidance of Thomas Woodruff at the School of Visual Arts.
Cover for the Pulitzer Prize winning 1938 play ‘Our Town’ by Thornton Wilder. The play set in suburban America has been reimagined in a contemporary Indian setting.
A title page for the story, opening in on a typical Indian town setting.
It’s early morning. The town’s folk are coming out onto their balconies.
The town’s folk get ready to start their day, reading or sipping hot chai.
Meanwhile, Emily leisurely rises from her sleep. Behind her, the gleaming morning sun and the town.
A gradual shift to an afternoon setting. The town’s folk sip on hot chai to wipe away the sluggish afternoon haze.
Night time in the town. In the Webb’s home, the family is getting ready to unwind and settle in for the night.
Emily is working herself into a frenzy of pubescent self-doubt. She asks her mother if she’d ever be ‘pretty enough’ for somebody to want her.
Years have gone by and Emily has grown into a confident, wise and beautiful young woman. She adjusts her lipstick, wears ‘jhumka’ earrings and swoops her hair back.
Emily and George are falling in love. A proposal for marriage is made on this day.
On marriage and companionship of their children, the Webb and Gibb’s families have their own sentiment. A marriage, after all, is a union of two families.
Emily is adorned in traditional Indian bridal wear. She is both nervous and elated, but feels pride in the man she’s marrying.
The Indian wedding rituals not only tie Emily and George closer as lovers, but also as companions.
Emily throws back flowers and raw rice as a part of an Indian ritual. Emily is ready to blossom into womanhood as she thanks her family and friends. She bids a grateful farewell to her girlhood and childhood days. The wedding is now complete.
Several years since the wedding, day-to day town’s activities go on. Folks unload the local bus at the end of a long day to get back to their homes.
Back in Emily and George’s home, the couple doze off for the night after reading ‘Our Town’ by Thornton Wilder.
Many years have passed. Emily has passed too. George lays in the same bed, the same sheets and same home, engulfed in Emily’s aura.
Email: maithilijoshiart@gmail.com
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