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Darlington Players face reality in The Glass Menagerie
Sep 27, 2002 8:00 AM
By Stefan Eady - Faculty
The Darlington Players take Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie to the stage this fall, Oct. 4, 5, and 6, in the Zelle Drama Room during Fall Parents Weekend and Homecoming Weekend.
The cast will include Brandon Goodman as Tom, Brittany Pittman as Amanda, Abby Polk as Laura, and Garrett Manis as Jim. Production staff for the play includes Marisa Ortega, director; Kathy O’Mara and Brian Inman, set design and construction; David Powell, lighting and sound adviser; and Larry Liebler, Katie Tumlin, Elise Moody, Katie Taylor, Jay McDavid, and Kendall McKemie as student crew members.
The Glass Menagerie is a memory play, and its action is drawn from the memories of the narrator, Tom Wingfield. Tom is also a character in the play, which is set in St. Louis in 1937. He is an aspiring poet who toils in a shoe warehouse to support his mother, Amanda, and sister, Laura. Mr. Wingfield, Tom and Laura’s father, ran off years ago and, except for one postcard, has not been heard from since.
Amanda, originally from a genteel Southern family, regales her children frequently with tales of her idyllic youth and the scores of suitors who once pursued her. She is disappointed that Laura, who wears a brace on her leg and is painfully shy, does not attract any gentleman callers.
Amanda eventually decides that Laura’s last hope must lie in marriage and begins selling newspaper subscriptions to earn the extra money she believes will help to attract suitors for Laura. Meanwhile, Tom, who loathes his warehouse job, finds escape in liquor, movies, and literature, much to his mother’s chagrin. During one of the frequent arguments between mother and son, Tom accidentally breaks several of the glass animal figurines that are Laura’s most prized possessions.
Amanda and Tom discuss Laura’s prospects, and Amanda asks Tom to keep an eye out for potential suitors at the warehouse. Tom selects Jim O’Connor, a casual friend, and invites him to dinner. The attempt at matchmaking proves ill-fated.
Among the most prominent and urgent themes of the play is the difficulty the characters have in accepting and relating to reality. Each member of the Wingfield family is unable to overcome this difficulty, and each, as a result, withdraws into a private world of illusion where he or she finds the comfort and meaning that the real world does not seem to offer. The Glass Menagerie identifies the conquest of reality by illusion as a huge and growing aspect of the human condition in its time.
The cast will include Brandon Goodman as Tom, Brittany Pittman as Amanda, Abby Polk as Laura, and Garrett Manis as Jim. Production staff for the play includes Marisa Ortega, director; Kathy O’Mara and Brian Inman, set design and construction; David Powell, lighting and sound adviser; and Larry Liebler, Katie Tumlin, Elise Moody, Katie Taylor, Jay McDavid, and Kendall McKemie as student crew members.
The Glass Menagerie is a memory play, and its action is drawn from the memories of the narrator, Tom Wingfield. Tom is also a character in the play, which is set in St. Louis in 1937. He is an aspiring poet who toils in a shoe warehouse to support his mother, Amanda, and sister, Laura. Mr. Wingfield, Tom and Laura’s father, ran off years ago and, except for one postcard, has not been heard from since.
Amanda, originally from a genteel Southern family, regales her children frequently with tales of her idyllic youth and the scores of suitors who once pursued her. She is disappointed that Laura, who wears a brace on her leg and is painfully shy, does not attract any gentleman callers.
Amanda eventually decides that Laura’s last hope must lie in marriage and begins selling newspaper subscriptions to earn the extra money she believes will help to attract suitors for Laura. Meanwhile, Tom, who loathes his warehouse job, finds escape in liquor, movies, and literature, much to his mother’s chagrin. During one of the frequent arguments between mother and son, Tom accidentally breaks several of the glass animal figurines that are Laura’s most prized possessions.
Amanda and Tom discuss Laura’s prospects, and Amanda asks Tom to keep an eye out for potential suitors at the warehouse. Tom selects Jim O’Connor, a casual friend, and invites him to dinner. The attempt at matchmaking proves ill-fated.
Among the most prominent and urgent themes of the play is the difficulty the characters have in accepting and relating to reality. Each member of the Wingfield family is unable to overcome this difficulty, and each, as a result, withdraws into a private world of illusion where he or she finds the comfort and meaning that the real world does not seem to offer. The Glass Menagerie identifies the conquest of reality by illusion as a huge and growing aspect of the human condition in its time.
