Monday, July 26, 2010

Producing the Play

Basic Facts
  • Produced by Eddie Dowling and Louis J. Singer
  • Playhouse Theatre and Royale Theatre
  • New York City, NY
  • 3/31/45-6/29/46, 7/1/46-8/3/46
  • Directed by Eddie Dowling and Margo Jones
  • Scenic and lighting design by Jo Mielziner. Sound design by Paul Bowle.














Review Capsule

The theatre opened its Easter basket the night before and found it a particularly rich one. Preceded by warm and tender reports from Chicago, The Glass Menagerie opened at the Playhouse on Saturday, and immediately it was clear that for once the advance notes were not in error. Tennessee Williams' simple play forms the framework for some of the finest acting to be seen in many a day. "Memorable" is an overworked word, but that is the only one to describe Laurette Taylor's performance. March left the theatre like a lioness." -- Lewis Nichols, NY Times. April 2, 1945.


Basic Facts
  • Produced by Elizabeth McCann, Nelle Nugent, Maurice Rosenfield, Lois Rosenfield, and Ray Larsen
  • Eugene O'Neill Theatre
  • New York City, NY
  • 12/1/83-2/19/84
  • Directed by John Dexter
  • Scenic design by Ming Cho Lee; Costume design by Patricia Zipprodt; Lighting design by Andy Phillips; Sound design by Otts Munderloh.















Review Capsule

The simple truth of Amanda is plain enough. A woman who has long since been deserted by both her husband and her genteel Southern youth, she lives in shabby circumstances in Depression-era St. Louis; she fights incessantly for her children's happiness even as she nearly smothers them to death. But if that were the sum of Amanda, Mr. Williams wouldn't have written about her. Within the exasperating nag, there is still the coquettish plantation belle. Within the woman battered on all sides by the painfulness of existence, there is still the indomitable fighter who clings to her faith in ''the superior things of the mind and the spirit.'' -- Frank Rich, NY Times. December 2, 1983.


Basic Facts
  • Produced by The Roundabout Theatre Company
  • Criterion Center Stage Right
  • New York City, NY
  • 11/15/94-1/1/95
  • Directed by Frank Galati
  • Scenic design by Loy Arcenas; Costume design by Noel Taylor; Lighting design by Mimi Jordan Sherin; Sound design by Richard Dunning; Projection design by John Boesche.

Review Capsule

Other Williams dramas are more exotic. None are quite this heartbreaking, although you'll have to bide your time for a while at the Criterion Center before the play, staged by the Roundabout Theater Company, exerts its considerable pull. This worthy but imperfect production stars the ever-welcome Julie Harris as Amanda Wingfield, that most infuriating of gracious Southern mothers. In the role of her son, Tom (read Williams himself), an aspiring writer trapped in a dead-end warehouse job, Zeljko Ivanek takes some getting used to, however. -- David Richards, NY Times. November 16, 1994.

Basic Facts
  • Produced by Bill Kenwright
  • Ethel Barrymore Theatre
  • New York City, NY
  • 3/22/05-7/3/05
  • Directed by David Leveaux
  • Scenic and costume design by Tom Pye; Lighting design by Natasha Katz; Sound design by Jon Weston









Review Capsules
Memory, which is notorious for playing tricks on people, pulls off some doozies in the narcoticized production of Tennessee Williams's "Glass Menagerie," which opened last night at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. As staged by David Leveaux, this revival suggests that to recollect the past is to see life as if it had occurred underwater, in some viscous sea through which people swim slowly and blindly. -- Ben Brantley, NY Times. March 23, 2005.

The leading ladies fare better. Sarah Paulson is a revelation as Laura, as heartbreaking in her shyness and lack of self-regard as she is radiant in her generosity. In her key scene with the Gentleman Caller whom Amanda hopes will spirit Laura away to a normal — i.e., married — life, Paulson manages to seem at once angelic and painfully human. As her reluctant suitor, Josh Lucas is a fitting foil, his glibness gradually melting under her guileless warmth. -- Elyssa Gardner, USA Today. March 22, 2005


Basic Facts
  • Produced by The Roundabout Theater Company
  • Laura Pels Theatre
  • New York City, NY
  • 3/10/10-6/13/10
  • Directed by Gordon Edelstein
  • Set design by Michael Yeargan; Costume design by Martin Pakledinez; Lighting design by Jennifer Tipton; Sound design by David Budries.









Review Capsules

Instead you’ll find something unexpected, namely the fiercely moving and seriously funny play Williams actually wrote, in a production directed by Gordon Edelstein that’s lightning-lit from within by the tough, compelling and first-rate Amanda Wingfield of Judith Ivey, giving what is surely the performance of her career. Ms. Ivey’s achingly real and often hilarious turn shares much in common with the shattering Blanche DuBois of Cate Blanchett seen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last fall. -- Charles Isherwood, NY Times. March 25, 2010.


Edelstein’s The Glass Menagerie is instead a memory play of the most obvious kind, set in the single dingy hotel room which doubles as the Wingfield’s residence. Missing the terrace and fire escape which are integral to the play, this staging plays out in a musty room that has a bed, a writing desk, a victrola and a small table with chairs, all of which unsatisfactorily stand in for their dilapidated but genteel home. And Laura’s menagerie, which is thoughtlessly confined to that desk next to Tom’s typewriter, never has the chance to become anything more than a mere afterthought. -- Kevin Filipski, Times Square. (Doesn't specify date written.)



Basic Facts
  • Produced by Steppenwolf Theatre Company
  • Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre
  • Chicago, IL
  • 10/25/08, 11/1 & 11/2/08, 11/8 & 11/9/08
  • Directed by Yasen Peyankov
  • Set design by Martin Andrew; Costume design by Natasha Vuchurovich Djukich; Lighting design by Keith Parham; Sound design by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen.








Review Capsules

But the most compelling aspect of Yasen Peyankov’s unpretentious new staging of this classic for the Steppenwolf Young Adults program is the talent and sheer vivacity of this cast. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more accessible “Glass Menagerie,” nor one that lands so easily in the lap of its intended audience. There’s just an uncommon spark, freshness and vitality to this production. The show feels young again. The mostly teenage audience understood it, reacted to it, talked back to it and loved it. -- Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune. 10/27/08


In its best moments, the production’s jollity amplifies Williams’s script, acutely highlighting truly poignant moments that might otherwise drown in a sea of solemnity. Davis, as ultra-matron Amanda, hits the humorous notes with particular grace: Her side-splittingly frantic efforts to please a visiting suitor reveal the desperation underlying Amanda’s stern behavior elsewhere in the play. -- Christopher Shea, Time Out Chicago. 11/5/08



Producing the Play

I have noticed that a majority of problems posed by the text deal with characterization of the Laura and Amanda Wingfield, and the use of projections. It seems that for Amanda, most productions make her out to be an overbearing, overprotective mother without any redeeming qualities. It is as if she is so miserable from her experiences that she merely tries to control her children's lives. The script does point to her having these characteristics, but she is much deeper than that and actually has a very loving nature toward Laura and Tom. Laura has a slight limp that she feels is noticed by everyone around her, so much that she is withdrawn to her own world. The problem that this poses is that a lot of productions victimize her and in this way, she appears weak and as if she does not have any of her own convictions or desires. The projections pose a problem to the play because they tend to distract rather than help the play move on. A lot of the times, they just mirror what Tom says, and so it is redundant and the audience ends up watching the projections instead of the actors.

The first problem I feel that we would have if The Glass Menagerie were produced at the UTC would be casting Amanda, since she is a character in her forties. The only reason this would be any kind of problem is because, being a college, most theatre students here are not older than their late twenties. The second problem would, maybe, trying to create projections that are relevant to the script and that do not take away from any of the actors speaking. Other than that, I do not think that there are any technical hurdles in the script that members of the UTC could not resolve.

To resolve the problem of the projections, there were many productions that just left them out altogether. Out of the reviews I read of productions that included the projections, it seems like only one or two were successful in their uses. The projections used were subtle and not large. Also, another thing that made some of the projections successful was that the pictures were not cliche and did not mirror exactly what the characters were saying but complemented them.

One production really delved into Amanda's character, and the actress not only played her motherly persona, but also found the humor in the character and the context. Another actress who broke free from playing Amanda on one level was not afraid to make the audience despise her. This choice made it easier to believe that she drove Tom out of her life forever, just like her husband.

The productions that were successful with their actresses as Laura were the ones that did not make her seem weak. The actresses showed through their eyes and expressions Laura's inner radiance and childlike humor. They did not cower in every scene. One other choice that affected the audience's perspective on Laura was how big or little the limp was played. One production exaggerated her limp so much that it negated Amanda's and Jim's lines, telling her that her limp was hardly noticeable and that it was just her in her mind making it out to be bigger than it actually was.

The Glass Menagerie is considered Williams' breakthrough script. The critics loved the script and thought that it was a very heartbreaking autobiography. In a couple of reviews I read, the critics did not like the way directors tried to make the set dreamy and surreal because of the fact that it was a memory play, such as the Bill Kenwright production. Another production that went over fairly well with critics was the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. This was an all black production, and the performances were moving. It was geared toward teenagers and young adults and it achieved its goal.
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Sunday, July 25, 2010

The World of the Play

Macro View

1) Fair Labor Standards Act
Established on June 25, 1938, the FLSA banned oppressive child labor, set minimum wage to 25 cents an hour, and set a maximum forty four hour workweek.
http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/flsa1938.htm

Jim, who made eight five dollars a month, would be making $1315.26 a month today, and Tom, who made sixty five dollars a month, would be making $1005.79 today.


2) Chamberlain meets Hitler at Berchtesgaden, September 1938
Hitler threatened to invade Czechoslovakia unless Great Britain supported Germany's plan to take over the Sudetenland. Chamberlain deems Hitler's plans unacceptable.

Tom mentions, as a part of changes that were imminent, the mist over Berchtesgaden and Chamberlain's umbrella.


3) Germany invades Poland
The German-Soviet Pact of August 1939 partitioned Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union. This pact enable Germany to attack Poland without fear of intervention from the Soviet Union. This is a significant event because it sets off World War II.


4) The bombing of Guernica
On April 26, 1937, Guernica was heavily bombed by Germain air raiders. Grenades, incendiary bombs, and machine guns wiped out the town, except for most of a church, a six hundred year old tree stump and new shoots, and the Casa de Jontas. Hundreds of civilians were killed.

Tom mentions that change is right around the corner for all the kids at the dance hall, and mentions Guernica.


5) The Spanish Civil War ends
The Spanish Civil War began in 1936 and ended in April 1939. After the Nationalist capture of Catalonia, the republics were defeated. Great Britain and France recognized Franco's regime, and on April 1, the Nationalists entered Madrid and received the unconditional surrender of the Republican army.


6) World War II begins and the Great Depression ends
America had established the Neutrality Act of 1937, however, after Germany's invasion of Poland and the beginning of the war, President Roosevelt increased the size of the Army and National Guard and permitted munition sales to France and Great Britain, bringing the U.S. out of the Depression.


7) Popular music
Swing and big band music were popular in 1939. Young adults would go to dance halls and dance to songs such as Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't Got That Swing)." Other popular artists included Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller.

There is a dance hall across the street from the Wingfield apartment that is always lively with people.


8) 1939 -- Hollywood's Golden Year
A dozen or so movies were released this year that are deemed classics. Movies include "The Wizard of Oz," "Gone with the Wind," "Stagecoach," and "Wuthering Heights."

Tom is always at the movies because they provide a sense of escape for him from the life he is unhappy with.


9) The Dust Bowl ends
After eight years of families moving west to escape massive dust storms, rain finally falls in1939. The Southern Plains once again saw fresh crops with the rain and end of the Depression.


10) Chicago's Cook County Hospital opens nation's first blood bank
Though accidents and illnesses were still common, there were a few medical advances, which included safer blood transfusions, new medicines, and improved anesthesia.



Micro View

1) The population in St. Louis, per the 1940 census, was a total of 274,230 people; 133,667 men and 140,563 women. A significantly larger amount of men worked in industries such as agriculture, construction, and manufacturing. The only industry where more women worked than men is simply "services."
http://mcdc.missouri.edu/trends/tables/historical_indicators/moco_agecohorts_1940_1990.pdf

http://mcdc.missouri.edu/trends/tables/historical_indicators/moco_empbyind_1930_1990.pdf


2) "Black Tuesday"
On November 28, 1939, smog was so bad in St. Louis that people needed to use their headlights on their cars and street lights were kept on for even just a little bit of visibility.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/article_00c3b6cd-ba69-5a19-b498-fbc29f9630c4.html?print=1


3) The St. Louis Cardinals played 153 games in 1939. They won 92 games and lost 61.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teamstats/roster.php?y=1939&t=SLN


4) The Jewel Box Laura refers to was opened on November 14, 1936. It is a building of 50 foot high glass walls that allows a lot of sun and prevents damage from hail. Though one hailstorm broke many panes of glass in other greenhouses, the Jewel Box was left undamaged.
http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/parks/jewelbox/history.html

5) The St. Louis Housing Authority is established. It helped facilitate Housing Act programs that allowed local government to use government funds for housing with rents scaled according to income.

6) "The Meeting of the Waters" fountain is completed at Aloe Plaza. It depicts the union of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

Images


St. Louis Cardinals












Police Station with typewriters













People at a wedding anniversary








Blewett High School graduation class of January 1939











Downtown St. Louis














Downtown St. Louis

"Black Tuesday"



Recent picture of the Jewel Box


Recent picture of Aloe Plaza


"The Meeting of the Waters"



"The World of the Play"

There was a good amount of events occurring in the world that played a part in the lives of many Americans in 1939, and throughout the 1930s in general. The Great Depression, lasting for just about the entire decade, affected people's lives and outlooks. Money was worked very hard for, but barely earned. It was not until Germany's invasion of Poland in September of 1939 did the Depression truly end. The United States providing munitions for the Allies increased job opportunities and a more consistent flow of currency throughout the nation.

President Roosevelt passed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, making minimum wage twenty five cents an hour and the work week forty four hours. Tom was averaging sixty five dollars a month, while Jim was averaging eighty five dollars a month, and so Tom was making around thirty six cents an hour, and Jim almost double, at forty eight cents. Today, those numbers would mean around one thousand dollars a month for Tom and around thirteen hundred for Jim.

During the 1930s, much of the popular music was swing and jazz. The dance hall across from the Wingfield apartment was a popular one, and it is most likely that songs from Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller were played there. One of the top songs of 1939 was “Moonlight Serenade,” so I imagine Laura and Jim dancing to this song by candlelight, after the lights in the apartment have gone out.

1939 was known as Hollywood’s Golden Year, and so it is interesting that Tom was always at the movies. Movies of not only that year, but also of the decade, included plenty of adventure and fantasy, providing an escape for those who were hit hard by the Depression. Tom most likely found the movies so appealing because he was exhausted from his life at home, working to please and provide for others, while he had his own dreams and aspirations that he had to put to the side.

The Jewel Box was one of Laura's favorite places to go whenever she skipped her classes at Rubicam's Business College. It was a large, glass greenhouse that contained many tropical flowers. The greenhouse received its name because the arrangement of the flowers resembled jewelry laid out in a jewel box.

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Friday, July 16, 2010

Basic Facts:

The Glass Menagerie

  • Tennessee Williams, English

  • Two acts, eight scenes

  • 2 men, 2 women

  • 2 hours, 30 minutes

  • Drama, according to Dramatists Play Service

  • Born Thomas Lanier Williams in Columbus, Mississippi in 1914, Tennessee was the son of a shoe company executive and a Southern belle. Williams described his childhood in Mississippi as happy and carefree. This sense of belonging and comfort were lost, however, when his family moved to the urban environment of St. Louis, Missouri. It was there he began to look inward, and to write— “because I found life unsatisfactory.” Williams’ early adult years were occupied with attending college at three different universities, a brief stint working at his father’s shoe company, and a move to New Orleans, which began a lifelong love of the city and set the locale for A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. Williams spent a number of years traveling throughout the country and trying to write. His first critical acclaim came in 1944 when THE GLASS MENAGERIE opened in Chicago and went to Broadway. The height of his career was during the late 1940s and 50s. The 1960s were the most difficult years for Williams because he began to write openly about taboo topics. He depended more and more on alcohol and drugs and was hospitalized in 1969 by his brother. After his release from the hospital in the 1970s, Williams wrote plays, a memoir, poems, short stories and a novel. Williams passed away in 1983.

  • Dramatists Play Service

  • Licensed by Dramatists Play Service

  • $100 per performance, $7.50 per script


Exegesis


1) Popular music between 1915 and 1920 (p. 9)

Ragtime, blues, and jazz growing. Songs made popular because of WWI include "Alexander's Ragtime Band." "Danny Boy," "You Made Me Love You," and "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life."

http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/decade10.html

2) D.A.R. (p. 16)

Daughters of the American Revolution. Any woman 18 years or older who can prove direct lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution is eligible for membership.

http://www.dar.org/natsociety/whoweare.cfm

3) Etruscan sculpture (p.20)

Etruscan civilization was around from 800 B.C. to 100 B.C. Because of abundant ore deposits, bronze statuary was common. Therefore, Tom is referencing the sturdiness of the bronze to the ideal women of the 1930s.

http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/ancient/etruscan.htm

4) Milton (p.21)

Born December 9, 1608. English writer (author of Paradise Lost) who lost his eyesight in 1652

http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/milton/miltonbio.htm

5) D.H. Lawrence (p.22)

Another English novelist. Born on September 11, 1885. Some of his work was deemed pornographic.

http://www.online-literature.com/dh_lawrence

6) Garbo (p. 25)

Greta Garbo, a very popular film actress who introduced method acting to the screen. Her movie, Camille, opened in 1936, and she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

http://www.gretagarbo.com/gretagarbo.com/BIOGRAPHY.html

7) “gay deceivers” (p. 42)

a pair of pads worn inside a woman’s bra to give off the impression of larger breasts

http://www.definition-of.com/gay+deceivers

8) Gable (p. 48)

One of Hollywood’s most popular leading men in the 1930s and 1940s

http://www.reelclassics.com/Actors/Gable/gable.htm

9) Mazda lamp (p. 53)

Edison’s breakthrough of using tungsten filaments in light bulbs to give a consistent and whiter, brighter light

10) jalopy (p. 66)

an old, decrepit, or unpretentious automobile

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/jalopy


Fable

This is a memory play. Tom is the narrator. The scene opens with Tom on the fire escape giving a monologue briefly describing life in the little Wingfield apartment. Amanda is calling Tom in to have breakfast with her and Laura, but Tom is trying to be on time for work, so he merely has a cup of coffee. Amanda is a bit of an overbearing mother but is very well meaning, suggesting that Tom actually eat something or insisting that he put sugar or cream in his coffee. In the next scene, Laura hears her mother coming back into the apartment from her D.A.R. meeting and so sits at the typewriter pretending to practice her type charts. Amanda walks in and confronts Laura about her dropping out of Rubicam's Business College. Amanda knows that Laura is very shy and extremely self conscious because of her minor physical setback and wanted her to try and have a better future by attending the college. Amanda is disappointed knowing that Laura spent her days going to see a movie or walking around parks or museums, but tries to be sympathetic and rethink another plan to make Laura suitable. Laura brings down her wall a bit to introduce her mother to a boy she liked all throughout high school, Jim O'Connor, by showing her pictures from the yearbook.

Tom and Amanda get into an argument. Tom loves his family but sometimes wonders why he isn't more like his dad so he could just leave and start the life for himself that he's always wanted. Amanda proceeds to call him selfish and asks why he always has to go to the movies and suspiciously asks him if he even goes to the movies. Tom sarcastically tells her that he's really doing all these awful things and then storms out. He comes home late and Laura helps him into bed. The next morning, Amanda sends Laura to pick up a few groceries and Tom apologizes to Amanda. They begin talking civilized to each other, when they get off track mirroring the first argument they had, when Tom says he has to leave and Amanda tries to say what she'd been meaning to all along. She asks Tom if there is any gentleman at his workplace that he could bring home for Laura and Tom replies that he'll see. Amanda starts on another side job, selling "Homemaker's Companion" magazines to women to try and make a little extra money for Laura.

Tom comes home and tells Amanda that he is invited someone for dinner and Amanda asks all these questions about him trying to see if he will be good for Laura. She reflects on her life and how the father would go to the pastor to check on a caller's character, and how she had many suitors who are well to do now and how when they passed on they left an ample amount of money for their widows, and Tom asks what happened with his dad, to which Amanda responded it was his grin. Tom tells Amanda that his friend's name is Jim O'Connor, and it doesn’t register with Amanda that this is the same boy that Laura had told her about.

Amanda starts to make preparations, cleaning the apartment up and buying little things to make it look prettier, and dressing Laura up. Amanda pulls out a dress that she used to wear when she was younger and looks almost as radiant as she used to. Once dinner is almost ready and Amanda knows the men should be home soon, she tells Laura that she will answer the door. Laura asks who it is and when Amanda tells her it's Jim O'Connor, Laura immediately freezes and gets sick to her stomach and says she can't open the door or have dinner tonight, and reminds her mother that was her high school crush.

Tom and Jim make it home and Jim is introduced to Amanda and Laura, who barely speaks and retreats to her bedroom. Amanda returns to the kitchen to finish up dinner while Tom and Jim discuss Tom's longing to join the Merchant Marine and tour the world and write poetry. He confides in Jim that he didn't pay the month's electricity bill. Amanda comes into the living room and tells them that dinner is ready, and all four of them eat at the table. After dinner, the lights go out and Jim and Laura go to the living room while Tom and Amanda clean up. Laura tells Jim that she is "Blue Roses" and he remembers her. She tells him that she liked him for a long time and that she wanted to get his autograph from "The Pirates of Penzance" and he signs the program for her right then and there. Laura shows him her glass menagerie and her favorite glass ornament, and they discuss Laura's needing to be more confident in herself because she has a lot to offer and just over exaggerated her handicap. Laura asks about Emily Meisenbach, the girl Jim dated in high school, and whether or not they were engaged and he said no. Music flows in from the dance hall and Jim encourages Laura to dance with him. Afterward, he tells her she is pretty and kisses her, which he immediately regrets.

He is in the middle of telling her that he has been seeing someone when Tom and Amanda walk in. Amanda asks what's wrong and Jim tells them that he is engaged to be married to the girl. He thanks them for their hospitality and leaves. Amanda is upset at Tom for making them look foolish but reassures Laura that she will find someone. Laura seemed to be a bit more confident, or maybe she escaped to her menagerie even more, and Tom finally realizes his dream of leaving them, or at least visualizes what that would be like because he doesn't have the heart to leave his sister on her own.


Plot Summary

Tom Wingfield, the narrator as well as a main character, appears at the beginning to explain that this play is made up of memories, and as such, it will seem unrealistic in some respects. He introduces himself, his mother Amanda, his sister Laura, and the photograph of his long-absent father. He also tells that audience about the most realistic character, Jim, who will be Laura's gentleman caller.

Laura has dropped out of the typing class that Amanda insisted she take to prepare for supporting herself if necessary. Amanda decides that marriage is the only other option, and she must seek a man to marry. Amanda convinces Tom to bring home someone from the warehouse to meet his sister.

Tom brings home Jim O'Connor, a guy he knew vaguely in high school as the golden boy of high school. Tom knows that Laura knew Jim slightly, but he doesn't realize that Jim is the only man Laura's ever had feelings for. When Jim arrives, Laura is too overcome with anxiety to eat dinner with them, but circumstances find Laura and Jim alone in the living room. When he finally remembers who she is, Laura begins to come out of her shell. The conversation wanders through high school to the present, and Jim, convinced that Laura needs someone to boost her confidence and a little overcome by the moment, kisses her. Only then does he realize his drastic mistake. He explains that he's engaged and can't be involved with her, and he leaves, breaking her fragile heart in the process.

Amanda, completely enraged and hopeless, believes that Tom set them up to look like fools. She and Tom have a huge fight that sends him out to the movies again. Shortly after that night, Tom is fired from the warehouse for writing a poem on a shoebox lid, and he goes off with the Merchant Marines to find the adventure he craves just as his father did. The only problem is that Tom can't forget about Laura no matter where he goes, and he hasn't completely escaped the life he led in St. Louis.


Characters


Amanda Wingfield (the mother) -- A little woman of great but confused vitality clinging to another time and place. She is not paranoiac, but her life is paranoia. She has endurance and a kind of heroism, and though her foolishness makes her unwittingly cruel at times, there is tenderness in her slight person.

Laura Wingfield (her daughter) -- Crippled from a childhood illness, one leg slightly shorter than the other. Laura's separation from reality increases until she is like a piece of her own glass collection, too exquisitely fragile to move from the shelf.

Tom Wingfield (her son) -- Narrator of the play. A poet with a job in a warehouse. His nature is not remorseless, but to escape from a trap he has to act without pity.

Jim O'Connor (the gentleman caller) -- A nice, ordinary, young man.


"Characters and Casting"

The Glass Menagerie seems to me a straightforward play to cast. I believe that the mother should be somewhere around her late thirties to early forties. Most people were married at a younger age then than they are now, and it has been sixteen years since the father left his family. Amanda strikes me as a mother who comes off as overbearing but who only wants what is best for her children. She wants to see them happy and successful but doesn’t realize that she is sometimes smothering and unsupportive. The actress should be stern and a bit of a perfectionist, but should show her vulnerability and her genuine caring nature.

Tom is about twenty three years old, as Williams has made this a somewhat autobiographical play and is depicted by Tom at the time it was written. He dreams of becoming a writer but feels an obligation to his mother and sister. Especially with his dad leaving, he feels that he is their only chance of making it. The actor playing Tom needs to be full of passion that keeps getting bottled up because of his need to take care of Amanda and Laura, on top of his mother not being understanding about his aspirations. But he also does truly care about their well being, and that is what had kept him there when he has dreamed so many times of leaving like his father. Once he is fired from his job and leaves for the Merchant Marines, he realizes that he can't forget about Laura, and so he hasn't completely escaped that life.

Laura is twenty five and very shy. She has over exaggerated her limp in her mind and so has escaped into her own world, her glass menagerie. There is a small light inside of her, though, that just needed a bit more encouragement that she seems to have gotten from Jim near the end, if only for that small amount of time. Her mother may have always been telling her that her limp was merely a ‘slight defect’ but Jim reassured Laura that it was hardly noticeable and that she was a great girl and needed to be more confident in herself. The actress playing Laura should be sweetly played, but should also demonstrate strength because although she dropped out of high school and Rubicam’s, she still ventured outside and walked around finding little things to make her happy, as opposed to always staying indoors completely.

Jim is also about twenty five. He had everything in high school, and somehow ended up working at the factory with Tom. He is in school to try and better himself so that he can get away from the factory. He is a nice guy but got carried away trying to make Laura feel better about herself. The actor playing Jim needs to be optimistic and friendly. He knows his position in life right now but is not held to it and knows that he can change it.

For this play, I don’t believe nontraditional casting would work because it is autobiographical, like most of Williams’ pieces. I think that casting it nontraditionally would take away from the meaning behind The Glass Menagerie.

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Friday, July 9, 2010

Defnitions of Dramaturgy

Dramaturgy:

1) A theoretical position, often allied to symbolic interactionism, role theory, and the work of Erving Goffman, which uses the stage and the theatre as its key organizing metaphor. The idea that ‘all the world is a stage and all the people players'...
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O88-dramaturgy.html

2) Dramaturgs can write plays, but they can also edit and restore plays, assist with adaptations of stage works, and work on musical productions such as operas....[D]ramaturgy also involves staging itself, including blocking of actors, set design, and the aesthetic composition of theatrical productions.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-dramaturgy.htm

3) The art or technique of dramatic composition or theatrical representation.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dramaturgy


Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
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