"The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams
Poignant and lyrical, Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie is a
semi-autobiographical recollection of the playwright's early years.
The story unfolds in 1930's St. Louis, inside a cramped tenement apartment,
where a mother, Amanda Wingfield, lives with her two grown children, Tom and
Laura. Abandoned by her husband many years before, Amanda, a faded Southern
belle, takes odd jobs to make ends meet, while Tom, a poet and dreamer, works
discontentedly in a warehouse. Laura, painfully shy and slightly crippled,
shrinks from the outside world. Each character copes through a different form
of fantasy: Amanda repeatedly recounts her gentile Southern past; Tom escapes
through the movies and his poetry; and Laura lives in a world of tiny glass
animals and Victorola records. When Tom, at Amanda’s urging, invites a "gentleman
caller" to dinner for Laura to meet, the family's delicate web of hope and
illusion is stretched to the breaking point. New York-based director, Nancy
Robillard, directs the Bay Theatre production, with Lucinda Merry-Browne as
Amanda, Ben Russo as Tom, Kristen Calgaro as Laura, and Judson Davis as The
Gentleman Caller.
 |
 |
Opens Friday, February 22 and runs through Saturday, March 29. Weekly
performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 3:00 p.m.
The Director: Nancy Robillard is a New York-based director with a number
of world premieres to her credit including: HONOR AND THE RIVER at Luna Stage
which was hailed by the New York Times as a "stunner", ROSEMARY & I by
Leslie Avayzian (co-directed with Olympia Dukakis), at MetroStage, FAST BREAK
at Culture Project, and UNSINKABLE WOMEN at The Walnut Street Theatre. Her work
has been seen on New York stages at Directors Company, Vital Theatre, Theatre
for the New City, Culture Project, HERE, Phoenix Theatre, Queens Theatre in the
Park, and First Look Theatre Company. Regional: MetroStage, Northern Stage,
Kennedy Center Prelude Festival, Luna Stage, Open Stage of Harrisburg, Walnut
Street Theatre, Gateway Playhouse, Yale University, Cumberland County Playhouse,
A.R.T., Keystone Rep, Leatherstocking Theatre and Tri-Arts. Her projects include
are SIDNEY BECHET KILLED A MAN by Stuart Flack (East Coast Premiere), DEATH OF A
SALESMAN, ROUGH CROSSING, SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, MASTER CLASS and THE WIDOW
SMILES, featuring British film star Sarah Miles. Robillard received her MFA in
directing from Illinois State University and has taught acting and directing at
several universities. She is a director for the web series, The In-Betweens of
Holly Malone.
Performance Calendar:
| Thurs |
Fri |
Sat |
Sun |
| 2008 |
2/22 |
2/23 |
2/24m |
| ~ |
2/29 |
3/1 |
3/2m |
| 3/6 |
3/7 |
3/8 |
3/9m |
| 3/13 |
3/14 |
3/15 |
3/16m |
| 3/20 |
3/21 |
3/22 |
3/23m |
| 3/27 |
3/28 |
3/29m
3/29e |
~ |
Read the Press Release Here
Read the Bay Weekly Review Here
View Production Photos Here
|
