The famed Thornton Wilder (Our Town, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Skin of Our Teeth) wrestled with but never quite finished his play The Emporium before he died.

Yet this week, Alley Theatre will mount a world premiere of this work — completed by playwright Kirk Lynn — almost 50 years after the three-time Pulitzer Prize winner's death.

Developed during the Alley's All New Festival in 2022, the play tells the story of a young man, adopted by a farmer,  who runs away to the big city seeking employment at a mythical department store there that is supposed to contain everything that anyone could desire.

Alley Company actor David Rainey plays several roles in the two-act play which he says embraces the sort of '40s and '50s idea of the grandeur of shopping. The main character, John, wants to find a way to work for this one department store called The Emporium. He's run away from the farmers that he feels very mistreated by, Rainey says.

"He finds The Emporium but he can't figure out a way in. There's a competing store called Craigie’s. They're offering a more systematic way of operating. So he ends up going to work for them. There's a sort of a competition between those two.

"In the process he's also searching for himself. The wonderful thing about Thornton Wilder is that Thornton Wilder is never just about the story itself. He's always concerned with much, much bigger issues. In most of his plays he kind of pits humanity against the background of the universe and really shows us how small we are."

Rainey says several moments in the play will remind audiences of Our Town and Skin of Our Teeth. "You'll definitely see the blueprint of those other plays in this story.

"I play several people. There are two actors in this play who play a whole bunch of characters. There's a trio of other actors who are the Watchers, who are always watching what's going on," Rainey says. Christopher Salazar plays John and Raven Justine Troup plays Laurencia. Others in the cast include Elizabeth Bunch, Shawn Hamilton, Shawn Sides and Sally Wingert. Alley Artistic Rob Melrose directs.

"I'm the head of the orphanage, then I'm the farmer and then I become a department store manager at Craigie's," . Later on I become Mr. Craigie, a very ancient old man." I play a security guy too, Every one is a different outfit, a different look."

Lynn had started a personal project to read everything that Thornton Wilder wrote, Rainey says. "As he was doing all that he went over to the Yale library where they have a collection of Thornton Wilder.  And found this box that had more than 300 pages of notes about this particular play along with many, many versions. As many as 20 different versions that he wrote. And so Kirk's been on a mission to piece it all together.
"He went to the estate and they allowed him to finish the play based on all the notes that he got." 

Lynn has created a story "where John is of our time, who showed up at the library to find this play and then dove into the story," Rainey says. "It's two worlds because it's sort of now and then."

New plays are always out there, Rainey says. "The one advantage the Alley has it can get access to some of best scripts out there. And it has the facilities and resources to assist playwrights in producing plays."

This is a rare chance to see a Thornton Wilder play (he also wrote The Matchmaker, later developed into Hello Dolly)  only wrote three full length plays. He certainly did a lot of other kinds of writing.

"It’s really a treasure to have found all these notes. Pieces of these plays that published before, but there's  still a lot of stuff that no one has ever seen before."

"The characters pop and they're dynamic and there's a lot of absurdity going on," Rainey says. "It moves very, very quickly."

Performances are scheduled for May 10 through June 2 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays,  and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays and 7 p.m. Sundays at Alley Theatre, 615 Texas. For more information, call 713-220-5700 or visit alleytheatre.org. $51-$74.