A Timeless American Classic by Tennessee Williams STUDY GUIDE

prepared by Taylor Gonda & Warren Sherrill

Tennessee Williams

Paragon Theatre Academic Access

v 10.23.08

THE DIRECTORS CONCEPT: By Warren Sherrill

What an insidious drug memory can be. Especially the memory of unhappiness.
HOLLEY, His Luck

HORACE

What is it about? The Glass Menagerie is a play about the difficulties of accepting reality and the unrelenting power of memory making it impossible to truly escape. All three members of the Wingfield family have tremendous difficulty accepting the reality of their current situation and therefore retreat into their own forms of illusion where he or she finds the comforts and happiness that the real world doesnt offer. They also withdraw into their own memories trying to recapture a world where life was much better, although, it never really was. Through denial of the truth and living in memory and illusion comes the distortion of reality. Tom shows his non-acceptance of reality by retreating into the adventurous world of the movies, literature, stage shows, magicians and seedy nightclubs to forget the pressures from his mother and the drabness of his current life. Eventually he abandons his mother and beloved sister by sneaking away to join the Merchant Seamen. We finally discover that it is impossible for Tom to truly escape the memory of his sister and the guilt that he has for leaving her. Amanda cannot escape the memories of her vibrant, carefree world of her youth. She lives so much in her memories that reality becomes extremely distorted for her. She lives only for her children and tries with complete desperation to the point of destruction, to recapture and recreate her carefree world for them to experience and enjoy. Laura has the weakest grasp on reality. Because of her physical disability and overcompensating mother as a youth, she developed a personality that is unable to deal on a social level with the outside world. She reverts into a world of dangerously fragile glass animals to escape the insecurities of dealing with people. She keeps her yearbook close by and plays old, worn out records on a dated victrola, holding on to memories of high school crushes and a slightly more outgoing, but troubled, life. What are we trying to say? God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. - Reinhold Niebuhr I want our audience to walk away with a little more understanding and love for that nagging mother-in-law, that bothersome neighbor, that demanding boss. I want people to understand that, although its healthy to have lofty dreams, a truly happy and fulfilling life with little regret or guilt comes by putting energy and love into the present. How should Paragon stage it? In memory, detail becomes blurry but recognizable. In painful memory, detail becomes invisible, lines become distorted and simplified, soft corners become sharp, pleasing colors become irritating, and human interaction becomes heightened.

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v 10.23.08

Design Elements Scenic Design With the elimination of detail the play becomes about relationships, but we still have to create the feeling of the depressed, claustrophobic and distorted atmosphere of Toms memory of the Wingfield home. I see an almost cold and monolithic feeling that has very slight nuances of an apartment home in St. Louis. I see using only the furniture pieces that absolutely have to be there. I see distorted angles and levels. I see hints of the textures and colors that are taken to that distorted level. I see a very simplistic, very uncluttered, very uncomfortable setting. We need to get the idea across that these people are floating helplessly but are locked down in a very small world and that there is a much bigger, better, happier yet unreachable world all around them. Lighting Design Along the same line as above: Distorted but simplified. Uncomfortable. Untraditional colorsremember this is painful, heightened memory. I even see the dance hall light from across the alley as being not what one would usually expect. Ugly-romanticism? Is this a new movement? ;) Costume Design Unfortunately this is an important piece because of the periodic statement we have to make. BUT, I still want to simplify completely on these. I see no need for multiple changes.again, not important in memory. I see no need for Tom to look different when he is talking to the audience as opposed to when he is in a scene. The silhouette is important, other than that, have at it. Also, the dress that Amanda dons for the gentlemen caller has to be such a shocker. Sound Music is imperative because Tom states it in the beginning. There is an actual soundtrack that goes with the stage play. Lets discuss. Can we distort it without it being annoying? Can we simplify it? There are a few atmospheric sounds as well. What can we do to create that non-realistic but recognizable feel? Props I literally see not using any props at alleven the glass menagerie, dads picture, the victrola, etc. These are all things that, in Toms memory, do not need definition, therefore we dont need it either. The only prop I want to use is the candlestick with candles, only because it is an important lighting element and is crucial to the end of the play.

Paragon Theatre Academic Access

v 10.23.08

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS BIOGRAPHY

Mr. Williams was born Thomas Williams in Columbus, Mississippi, in the home of his maternal grandfather, the local Episcopal rector. By the time Thomas was three, the family had moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi. At seven, he was diagnosed with diphtheria. It caused his legs to be paralyzed for nearly two years but his mother encouraged him to make up stories and read. She gave him a typewriter when he was 13 His father Cornelius Williams was a traveling salesman who became increasingly abusive as his children grew older. The father often favored Tennessee's brother Dakin, perhaps because of Tennessee's illness and extended weakness and convalescence as a child. Tennessee's mother Edwina Dakin Williams had aspirations as a genteel southern lady and was smothering. She may have had a mood disorder. In 1918, when Williams was seven, the family moved again, this time to St. Louis, Missouri. In 1927, at 16, Williams won third prize (five dollars) for an essay published in Smart Set entitled, "Can a Good Wife Be a Good Sport?" A year later, he published "The Vengeance of Nitocris" in Weird Tales. In the early 1930s Williams attended the University of Missouri, where he joined Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. His fraternity brothers dubbed him "Tennessee" for his rich southern drawl. In the late 1930s, Williams transferred to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri for a year, and finally earned a degree from the University of Iowa in 1938. By then, Williams had written Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay!. This work was first performed in 1935 at 1780 Glenview in Memphis. Tennessee Williams found inspiration in his problematic family for much of his writing. Williams lived for a time in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. He moved there in 1939 to write for the WPA. He first lived at 722 Toulouse Street, the setting of his 1977 play Vieux Carr. The building is part of The Historic New Orleans Collection. He began writing A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) while living at 632 St. Peter Street. He finished it later in Key West, Florida, where he moved in the 1940s. Tennessee was close to his sister Rose, a slim beauty who was diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age. As was common then, Rose was institutionalized and spent most of her adult life in mental hospitals. When therapies were unsuccessful, she showed more paranoid tendencies. In an effort to treat her, Rose's parents authorized a prefrontal lobotomy, a drastic treatment that was thought to help some mental patients who suffered extreme agitation. Performed in 1937 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the operation made Rose incapacitated for the rest of her life. Williams never forgave his parents. Her surgery may have contributed to his alcoholism and his dependence on various combinations of amphetamines and barbiturates often prescribed by Dr. Max (Feelgood) Jacobson. They may have shared a genetic vulnerability, as Williams also suffered from depression. Williams' relationship with Frank Merlo, a second generation Sicilian American who had served in the U.S. Navy in World War II, lasted from 1947 until Merlo's death from cancer in 1961. With that stability, Williams created his most enduring works. Merlo provided balance to many of Williams' frequent bouts with depression and the fear that, like his sister Rose, he would go insane. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennesee_Williams

St. Louis, 1929

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GLOSSARY OF TERMS:

Berchtesgaden: Hitlers favorite resort in the German Alps cat-houses: brothels Celotex: a type of insulation Century of Progress: an exhibition of technology at the 193334 Chicago Worlds Fair Chamberlains umbrella: Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister from 193740, was often caricatured holding an umbrella. He symbolized efforts to satisfy Hitlers ambitions by appeasement. cotillion: a formal ball given esp. for debutantes. cretonne: a strong, printed cotton cloth, stouter than chintz but used for very much the same purposes. dance card: used by a woman to record with whom she will dance each successive dance at a formal ball. D.A.R.: Daughters of the American Revolution, a patriotic society of ladies who trace their descent from ancestors who assisted in the Revolutionary War Dizzy Dean: a famous pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1930s El Diablo: Spanish for the Devil Etruscan: pre-Roman civilization in Italy Famous and Barr: a large department store in St. Louis Franco: military leader who overthrew the Spanish Republican government in 1939, and began a long dictatorship in Spain Guernica: a town in northern Spain, subjected to heavy bombing by German aircraft in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War (and the subject of a famous painting by Picasso) Hogan Gang: a crime ring operating in St. Louis in the 1920s, led by Jelly Roll Hogan, who was also an elected state representative jalopy: an old wreck of a car; a beater jonquils: daffodils (from the French) matriculate: to enroll in a college or university as a candidate for a degree. Mazda Lamp: General Electrics first light bulb, created in 1909, was called the Mazda Lamp Merchant Marine: the forces that ship a countrys goods by sea Mr. Lawrence: English novelist D.H. Lawrence, some of whose books were banned for obscenity in the 1930s pleurosis: an inflammation of the lungs punch in red: lose pay by being late punching the time clock quinine: a bitter drug used as a tonic and to reduce fever regatta: a rowing, speedboat, or sailing race or a series of such races right-hand bower: trump card stumble-john: cf. stumblebum, a clumsy or inept person

Paragon Theatre Academic Access

v 10.23.08