List examples of Wilder's placing actors in the audience

In Act I, the Stage Manger tells the audience that the paper boy being spoken of later won a scholarship to MIT, and was going to be a great engineer, but he was killed in France during the war (as the play was written in 1938, the war in question was World War I). "All that education for nothing," the Stage Manager says.

The Stage Manager enters and cuts off the conversation, excusing Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb and sending them off stage. The Stage Manager introduces two experts to provide some facts about the town. Professor Willard from the State University discusses the geological composition of their area of New Hampshire, also noting the population as 2,640, which the Stage Manager ups to 2,642, including the twins born that morning. The other expert, Mr. Webb, provides a social and political report. The town is mostly Republican and mostly Protestant, with a smattering of Democrats and Catholics, and the rest "indifferent" on both counts. Mr. Webb's editorial assessment of Grover's Corners is that it is a "very ordinary town... little better behaved than most. Probably a lot duller." Ninety percent of the young people stay in town to raise their families, he adds. The Stage Manager invites questions from the audience, and Mr. Webb fields questions about the town's drinking habits (some, but not a big deal), its sense of social injustice (people know rich from poor, but let those who can care for themselves do so), and its culture (mostly interested in birds and sunrises).

These are only two examples from gradesaver's study guide for the unit. Numerous examples are cited in the summary, simply follow the direct link below.