The Glass Menagerie Project Reveals Tennessee Williams’ Layered Creative Process Surrounding His Masterpiece
Part of the expansive Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival, Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies Program production of this classic play — offered in conjunction with adaptations, site-specific work, and interactive multimedia installations — runs at Georgetown in spring, then Arena Stage at Mead Center for American Theater in June as part of Arena Stage-Georgetown partnership
Washington, D.C. — Georgetown Theater and Performance Studies Program, in partnership with Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, presents “The Glass Menagerie Project,” including a fresh re-envisioning of Williams’ most autobiographical work “The Glass Menagerie” and surrounding events that shed light on the play’s creation. Offered as part of the Arena Stage-Georgetown partnership, the production directed by Prof. Derek Goldman and surrounding events run February 24-March 27 at the Davis Performing Arts Center’s Gonda Theatre, located on Georgetown University’s main campus, and then June 9-July 3 at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, in the Kogod Cradle.
Director Prof. Derek Goldman, artistic director of the Davis Performing Arts Center, says “Using the play as a prism, the Project digs into Williams’ deeply layered creative process around “The Glass Menagerie” and how he ultimately arrived at the final masterpiece. Most people know that “The Glass Menagerie” is a highly autobiographical work, but it has been revelatory for our team of faculty, guest professionals, and students to explore not only Williams’ notebooks, memoirs, and essays, but also hundreds of pages of archived drafts and alternate versions that have rarely if ever been seen or heard. By experiencing these other pieces in addition to the production of “The Glass Menagerie,” people will gain a deeper and broader sense of both the man behind the play, and how deeply layered his creative process was.”
The production of “The Glass Menagerie,” Williams’ haunting memory play, filled with fragility and stifled yearning, features Professor Sarah Marshall as Amanda Wingfield and recent GU alumni Clark Young, Rachel Caywood, and Michael Mitchell. The design team includes Robbie Hayes (set), Colin K. Bills (lighting), Debra Kim Sivigny (costumes), Matt Nielson (sound), and Jared Mezzocchi (projections).
In addition to the fully staged production, a diverse range of additional short pieces, including installations, adaptations, readings, and more, will complement the show, exploring aspects of Williams’ life and family that inform the highly autobiographical play. Content will be drawn from his notebooks, memoirs, essays, and letters, as well as the numerous versions of the story that he grappled with in different forms (the screenplay of “The Gentleman Caller”; the play “The Pretty Trap,” with its happy ending; the short stories “Portrait of a Girl in Glass” and “If You Breathe It Breaks”). “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls,” Christopher Durang’s celebrated parody of “The Glass Menagerie,” will also be presented. The works feature an ensemble of nine — eight advanced GU students and one alum — and will be presented together in different combinations on different dates.
Beginning March 17, an interactive multimedia installation will also open in the Davis Performing Arts Center lobby, and a site-specific performance will be staged in the Davis Center orchestra pit. The installation will include “The Overstuffed Chair,” an interactive, audio-based experience centered around a chair that in Williams’ words “has absorbed in its fabric and stuffing all of the sorrows and anxieties of our family life.” Adapted from Williams’ essay about his parents and grandparents, “The Man in the Overstuffed Chair,” this and other intimate exhibits will shed light on Williams’ world, as interpreted by GU seniors Courtney Ulrich and Lucy Obus. The site-specific performance “Service of My Desire,” adapted and performed by GU senior Jimmy Dailey, invites audiences to descend into Williams’ loft, staged in the Davis Center orchestra pit, to share the struggle of a young artist spurned by love, re-imagining the summer of 1940 in a first person dialogue with the audience. This piece follows Tennessee’s transient love affair with Kip Kiernan in Provincetown, MA and the crippling emptiness which was to fuel the artist’s lifelong efforts to “find in motion what was lost on space.” These “Glass Menagerie Project” experiences are designed by HannaH J. Crowell (set), Matt Nielson (sound), and Jared Mezzocchi (projections).
“The Glass Menagerie Project” is part of the expansive Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival (Tenn Cent Fest), a multifaceted celebration of Williams’ indelible legacy on the occasion of his 100th birthday presented by Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies Program, in partnership with the American Studies Program and Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Special Centennial Weekend events at Georgetown University March 24-27, 2011 will feature fully staged productions, interactive multimedia experiences, workshops, concerts, panels, screenings, discussions, and readings. Participants include Edward Albee, John Waters, Michael Kahn, Theodore Bikel, Kathleen Chalfant, Sarah Marshall, Ted van Griethuysen, Rick Foucheux, Target Margin Theater, Christopher Durang, Joy Zinoman, and many more. More information at http://performingarts.georgetown.edu/tenncentfest
See full schedule of “The Glass Menagerie” production and Project times for Georgetown performances below.
Full schedule for Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater run TBA.
The Glass Menagerie
Thursday-Saturday, February 24-26 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, February 27 at 2 p.m.
Thursday-Saturday, March 17-19 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 20 at 2 p.m.
Wednesday and Thursday, March 23 and 24+ at 8 p.m.
Saturday, March 26+ at 2 p.m.
+part of Centennial Weekend festivities (March 24-27)
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
Friday/Saturday evenings only: $18 GENERAL / $15 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR / $10 STUDENT
All other performances: $15 GENERAL / $12 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR / $7 STUDENT
The Glass Menagerie Project
All Project performances are free, and ones noted with an * — are FREE, BUT TICKETED.
Project performances noted with + are also part of Centennial Weekend events (March 24-27)
Saturday, February 26 at 10:45 p.m.
Sunday, February 27 at 5 p.m.
Saturday, March 19 at 10:45 p.m.
also presented March 26 and 27 with “Elegy for Rose” and “The Menagerie Variations” (see below)
The Glass Menagerie Project: “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls”
This 30-minute parody of Tennessee Williams’ classic “The Glass Menagerie” is one of Durang’s most popular one acts, a crackpot comedy of parent-child tensions that appeals to audiences unfamiliar with the play as well as those who have deep knowledge of it. The New York Times has called the spoof “exuberantly disrespectful” and asserts that “Mr. Durang remains one of our funniest playwrights.”
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
_____________________
Thursday, March 17 at 10:45 p.m.*
Saturday, March 19 at 4 p.m.*
Saturday, March 26 at 12:30 p.m. *+
The Glass Menagerie Project: “Service of My Desire”
Adapted and performed by Georgetown University senior Jimmy Dailey, this is an intimate 15-minute solo performance. Descend into Williams’ loft to share the struggle of a young artist spurned by love, re-imagining the summer of 1940 in a first person dialogue with the audience. This piece follows Tennessee’s transient love affair with Kip Kiernan in Provincetown, MA and the crippling emptiness which was to fuel the artist’s lifelong efforts to “find in motion what was lost on space.”
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE ORCHESTRA PIT
LIMITED SEATING
_____________________
The Glass Menagerie Project: “Elegy for Rose” and “The Menagerie Variations”
Saturday, March 19 at 2 p.m.
Sunday, March 20 at 5 p.m.
also presented March 26 and 27 with “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls” (see below)
“Elegy for Rose” is an ensemble-created/devised piece about Williams’ relationship to his sister Rose, the great love of his life, who was institutionalized and lobotomized, as explored from Rose’s perspective. The piece explores how Rose influenced a range of characters (Laura, Blanche, etc.), and how she resurfaces in different forms in so much of his work throughout his life.
“The Menagerie Variations” is an ensemble piece developed from numerous versions of “The Glass Menagerie” that Williams grappled with in different forms (the screenplay of “The Gentleman Caller”; the play “The Pretty Trap,” with its happy ending; the short stories “Portrait of a Girl in Glass” and “If You Breathe It Breaks” – many of which have rarely been seen) and essays such as “The Catastrophe of Success.”
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
_____________________
The Glass Menagerie Project:
“Elegy for Rose,” “The Menagerie Variations” and “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls”
Saturday, March 26 at 4:45 p.m.* +
Sunday, March 27 at 1:30 p.m.* +
“Elegy for Rose” is an ensemble-created/devised piece about Williams’ relationship to his sister Rose, the great love of his life, who was institutionalized and lobotomized, as explored from Rose’s perspective. The piece explores how Rose influenced a range of characters (Laura, Blanche, etc.), and how she resurfaces in different forms in so much of his work throughout his life.
“The Menagerie Variations” is an ensemble piece developed from numerous versions of “The Glass Menagerie” that Williams grappled with in different forms (the screenplay of “The Gentleman Caller”; the play “The Pretty Trap,” with its happy ending; the short stories “Portrait of a Girl in Glass” and “If You Breathe It Breaks” – many of which have rarely been seen) and essays such as “The Catastrophe of Success.”
This parody of Tennessee Williams’ classic “The Glass Menagerie” is one of Durang’s most popular one acts, a crackpot comedy of parent-child tensions that appeals to audiences unfamiliar with the play as well as those who have deep knowledge of it. The New York Times has called the spoof “exuberantly disrespectful” and asserts that “Mr. Durang remains one of our funniest playwrights.”
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
* FREE, BUT TICKETED
+ part of Centennial Weekend events (March 24-27)
Now in its fifth year, the partnership between Arena Stage—now home in its expanded venue the Mead Center for American Theater in Southwest D.C.—and the Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies Program includes “The Glass Menagerie Project”; staged readings of new works; student participation in Arena Stage’s new Theater 101 program; multiple artists-in-residence and post-show discussions and panels, among other programs. This ongoing partnership involves Georgetown students in all stages of the theatrical process and provides hands-on opportunities to work with Arena Stage staff and visiting artists. Students also have the opportunity to engage with Arena Stage’s Resident Playwrights Karen Zacarías, Amy Freed, Lisa Kron, Katori Hall and Charles Randolph-Wright and Project Residents Lynn Nottage and David Henry Hwang as part of the American Voices New Play Institute.
The Arena Stage – Georgetown partnership is made possible thanks to the generosity of Andrew R. Ammerman and the family of H. Max and Josephine F. Ammerman.
Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies Program integrates creative and critical inquiry, emphasizing artistic excellence, interdisciplinary learning, socially engaged performance, and the spirit of collaboration. With a dynamic major in Theater and Performance Studies, the Program features a nationally recognized faculty, including leading scholar/artists, and many of the region’s leading professional theater practitioners. One of the country’s only undergraduate programs in Theater and Performance Studies, this fast-growing program has rapidly attracted significant national attention for its distinctive curriculum, which integrates the political and international character of Georgetown, a commitment to social justice, and high-quality, cutting-edge student production seasons.
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is a national center dedicated to the production, presentation, development and study of American theater. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Molly Smith and Managing Director Edgar Dobie, Arena Stage is the largest company in the country dedicated to American plays and playwrights. Arena Stage produces huge plays of all that is passionate, exuberant, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit, and presents diverse and ground-breaking work from some of the best artists around the country. Arena Stage is committed to commissioning and developing new plays through the American Voices New Play Institute. Now in its sixth decade, Arena Stage serves a diverse annual audience of about 300,000.
DAY-BY-DAY-SCHEDULE
Thursday, February 24
8 p.m. The Glass Menagerie
Friday, February 25
8 p.m. The Glass Menagerie
Saturday, February 26
8 p.m. The Glass Menagerie
10:45 p.m. The Glass Menagerie Project: “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls”
Sunday, February 27
2 p.m. The Glass Menagerie
5 p.m. The Glass Menagerie Project: “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls”
Thursday, March 17
8 p.m. The Glass Menagerie
10:45 p.m. The Glass Menagerie Project: “Service of My Desire”
Friday, March 18
8 p.m. The Glass Menagerie
Saturday, March 19
2 p.m. The Glass Menagerie Project: “Elegy for Rose” and “The Menagerie Variations”
4 p.m. The Glass Menagerie Project: “Service of My Desire”
8 p.m. The Glass Menagerie
10:45 p.m. The Glass Menagerie Project: “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls”
Sunday, March 20
2 p.m. The Glass Menagerie
5 p.m. The Glass Menagerie Project: “Elegy for Rose” and “The Menagerie Variations”
Wednesday, March 23
8 p.m. The Glass Menagerie
Thursday, March 24
8 p.m. The Glass Menagerie
Saturday, March 26
12:30 p.m. The Glass Menagerie Project: “Service of My Desire”
2 p.m. The Glass Menagerie
4:45 p.m. The Glass Menagerie Project: “Elegy for Rose,” “The Menagerie Variations,” and “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls”
Sunday, March 27
1:30 p.m. The Glass Menagerie Project: “Elegy for Rose,” “The Menagerie Variations,” and “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls”