The glass menagerie tennessee williams artist note: Nancy Palk My mother never talked about herself very much. She was devoted to her husband and children, and made them the stars of her own movie. We don’t know enough of what was buried deep in her heart, because as children; we never really kept digging, we were too self-absorbed. Amanda shares more of her heart with Tom and Laura, remembering a glorious, genteel girlhood in the South. Having being abandoned by her husband sixteen years prior to the events in the play, and having to make ends meet, alone, in the 1920’s and 30’s, is it so surprising that she escapes back to her glory days? Is that so laughable? One of the many joys of working on this perfect piece of writing, is that it is. It is so laughable, and yet tragic, in the same moment. We can see all our families’ foibles, their moments of joy and exasperation; recognize all our mothers, and “the odd one out” in every family, and the one who has to escape the claustrophobic obligation of it all. Even the gentleman caller in the play is written with such understanding of the slight disappointments and pending responsibilities of adulthood, alongside the memories of the glory days of high school. The play is not a vast epic piece, but a fragile, interior exploration of family. I hope you see not just what makes this family unique and eccentric, but also what makes it exactly like yours. Amanda says, “I’ll tell you what I wished for on the moon. Success and happiness for my precious children. I wish for that whenever there’s a moon, and when there isn’t a moon, I wish for it too.” Is that so strange? Enjoy it with an open heart.
Nancy Palk, Amanda in The Glass Menagerie
illustration: chris silas neal
The glass menagerie tennessee williams
usa 1944
production
cast
Ted Dykstra director & composer
Stuart Hughes Tom
Patrick Clark Set & costume designer
Jeff Lillico Gentleman caller
Lorenzo Savoini lighting designer
Nancy Palk Amanda
Creighton Doane sound designer
Gemma James-Smith Laura
Arwen MacDonell production stage manager Sarah Miller assistant stage manager Nicole Myers apprentice stage manager Rebecca Northan assistant director Kelly McEvenue alexander coach Diane Pitblado dialect coach
production sponsor
The Glass Menagerie is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French Inc., on behalf of The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee. The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever is strictly prohibited. Nicole Myers appears with special permission of Canada's Actors’ Equity Association and her services were made possible through Theatre Ontario’s Professional Training Program, funded by the Ontario Arts Council There will be one 20-minute intermission. Approximate running time 2 hours and 25 minutes.
background notes “A kiss brings pain” – Approvingly I quote These words that sage Rodrigo wrote – And yet I’ll kiss again.” Tom Williams wrote these words when he was at university. He, like Tom Wingfield in this play, was still trying to define his identity. He hadn’t yet rechristened himself “Tennessee”. But even then the great constant of his life was present: he was writing. Every day. All he needed, he said, was a typewriter, coffee, cigarettes and persistence. The Glass Menagerie was his breakthrough play but he was hardly an overnight sensation. Success came after poverty and odd jobs, a nervous breakdown, three attempts to get his undergraduate degree and a first play that flopped. He was thirty-four years old. In this play he found the mixture of poetry and brutality, fragility and naked emotion that made him the one of the great poets of the American theatre. Don’t let that word “poet” fool you. Williams’ writing is poetic but not airy-fairy. His is a muscular, flesh-and blood kind of poetry. His characters are fragile but in their hopes and dreams, in their emotional bravery, they’re heroic. Watch Amanda fight for her children. Watch Laura take care of her menagerie. Watch Tom confront the complicated legacy of his past. The language in his plays is completely Williams’ own, unmistakeable, and full of gifts and challenges for actors. Learning the lines can be tricky because of the way he uses repetition, the way he allows his characters wild changes of direction and intention. Then, once you have the lines, you have to say them. If you focus too much on the poetry, if you try to speak it like verse, it will evaporate around you, nothing will hold. If you try to make it sound like everyday speech, you rob it of its force and power. The demands of his plays are very personal for each actor but at the same time there’s so much room for interpretation, if you can remain open, if you can meet the play’s heart with your own heart. If actors feel a strong connection to Williams, audiences do too. They connect to his characters who, in all their flawed particularity, transcend categories and resist easy judgments. When Williams first came on the scene, not everybody was comfortable with his style. Writer Thornton Wilder saw A Streetcar Named Desire and he admired it but told Williams he thought Blanche was too complex a character for the stage. “But Thornton,” Tennessee replied gently, “people are complex.” The playwright himself said his over-arching theme was, “a plea for the understanding of delicate people.” Williams knew whereof he wrote: he was one of the delicate. He bore the scars of delicacy, he lived with its demons and out of this raw material he created the unforgettable human beings in his plays. Elia Kazan, who directed many Williams premieres said, “Everything in his life is in his plays and everything in his plays is in his life.” Sixty-six years after it was first written, Williams’ tender, fearless look at his own past still resonates. We, like Tom, are caught by our memories and we cannot look away from Williams’ “truth in the pleasant guise of illusion.” Playwright Biography Thomas Lanier Williams was born March 26, 1911. Williams attended the University of Missouri for Journalism, but spent most of his time writing stories, poetry, and plays in the hopes of earning extra income from writing contests. In the late 1930s, Williams adopted the professional name of “Tennessee,” which may have come from his father’s pioneer heritage or a fraternity nick name. It wasn’t until The Glass Menagerie that Williams saw wide and immediate success, allowing him to create the plays that would become classics of the American stage; A Streetcar Named Desire (1948), The Rose Tattoo (1951) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955). One of the most accomplished playwrights in English theatre, Williams’ work continues to be widely produced around the world. Background Notes by Associate Artist Paula Wing.
soulpepper production Jacqueline Robertson-Cull head of hair & makeup
Katarzyna Chopcian millinery
Phil Atfield Geoff Hughes Joanne Lamberton
Barbara Cassidy Lindsay Forde Kiyomi Hidaka
cutters
sewers
Greg Chambers Jane Kline
Tracy Taylor props buyer
props builders
Paul Boddum Stephanie Milic
Natalie Swiercz dresser
Duncan Johnstone Daniela Mazic scenic artists
Mike Keays carpenter
painters soulpepper thanks: Mar-Lyn Lumber Sales Ltd., PRG Toronto, JD International, Tarragon Theatre, Michael Freeman, Dual Audio Services, Technically Yours Inc., Gerrard Glass. Soulpepper Theatre Company is an active member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (pact), the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (tapa) and Theatre Ontario, and engages, under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association. Scenic Artists and Set Decorators employed by Soulpepper Theatre Company are represented by Local 828 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.
Enriching minds, encouraging potential At Ernst & Young, we applaud those who are dedicated to achieving excellence — especially when their efforts enrich the lives of others and strengthen our communities. That’s why we’re proud to sponsor Soulpepper Theatre Company’s production of The Glass Menagerie.
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