Tennessee Williams play set for Oct. 8 debut
Veteran director enthusiastic about inclusion of Glass Menagerie in fall theatre program
Kristin Frosch
Issue date: 10/8/09 Section: Currents
The famous American melodrama, "The Glass Menagerie," will finally make its debut at the Kjer Theatre on Oct. 8. The play, set in 1930s St. Louis, is structured around the intensely poignant memories of the duel narrator and character, Tom. Centered on disrupted family dynamics as a result of his father's abandonment, the story follows the interactions between mother Amanda and her two adult children, Tom and Laura.
Amanda, coming from a conventional southern family, attempts to bestow upon her children traditional virtues of marriage and career motivation in hope of inspiring successful futures. The devastatingly shy Laura reverts deeper into introversion, desperately clinging to her father's glass menageries; emblems of past disappointments and future desires. Tom, an aspiring writer, attempts to quench his thirst for adventure by escaping his warehouse job at the movies, to the great disappointment of Amanda. Throughout the play, that characters struggle with the plights of reality and the complexities of human relationships.
Twenty-five-year director Richard Nimke expressed enthusiasm about including Tennessee Williams' pivotal work in the fall theatre program. The play will be one of five diverse main stage productions.
"I have always loved Tennessee Williams, but never had a chance to direct one of his plays. It is clearly one of the greatest American classics," Nimke said. "It's a memory play with the glass menagerie symbolic of all three characters' feelings of being different. Amanda is a southern gentile. Laura is shy and fragile. Tom lives in a dream world wanting adventure."
Along with motifs surrounding memory and escapism, Nimke went on to suggest that regret is also a resonating theme. Tom grows to regret his ultimate decisions which strongly affect delicate relations with his mother and sister. This is largely a play of relationship tension and strained family dynamics, where love not only binds the family together, but tears them apart. During the 1930s, Amanda knew plans needed to be made to ensure the success and stability of her children. Unfortunately, emotion and generational differences divide the family, leading to insurmountable internal and external conflicts driving the plot.
Amanda, coming from a conventional southern family, attempts to bestow upon her children traditional virtues of marriage and career motivation in hope of inspiring successful futures. The devastatingly shy Laura reverts deeper into introversion, desperately clinging to her father's glass menageries; emblems of past disappointments and future desires. Tom, an aspiring writer, attempts to quench his thirst for adventure by escaping his warehouse job at the movies, to the great disappointment of Amanda. Throughout the play, that characters struggle with the plights of reality and the complexities of human relationships.
Twenty-five-year director Richard Nimke expressed enthusiasm about including Tennessee Williams' pivotal work in the fall theatre program. The play will be one of five diverse main stage productions.
"I have always loved Tennessee Williams, but never had a chance to direct one of his plays. It is clearly one of the greatest American classics," Nimke said. "It's a memory play with the glass menagerie symbolic of all three characters' feelings of being different. Amanda is a southern gentile. Laura is shy and fragile. Tom lives in a dream world wanting adventure."
Along with motifs surrounding memory and escapism, Nimke went on to suggest that regret is also a resonating theme. Tom grows to regret his ultimate decisions which strongly affect delicate relations with his mother and sister. This is largely a play of relationship tension and strained family dynamics, where love not only binds the family together, but tears them apart. During the 1930s, Amanda knew plans needed to be made to ensure the success and stability of her children. Unfortunately, emotion and generational differences divide the family, leading to insurmountable internal and external conflicts driving the plot.
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