When Autobiography Isn't
by Lenora Inez Brown, Production Dramaturg

Tennesee Williams, the Man and the Artist
by Jack Taburri, Reasearch Assistant

Returning to Williams' Original
by Marin Kirby Executive Assistant

Returning to Williams' Original
by Marin Kirby, Executive Assistant

When Tennessee Williams wrote The Glass Menagerie, he was overwhelmingly frustrated by what he called “the exhausted theatre of realistic conventions” and was determined to introduce a new theatrical form. Although most productions of The Glass Menagerie employ a naturalistic tone and setting, Williams was interested in exploring expressionistic elements with this play. In his production notes, which preface the script, Williams writes, “Expressionism and all other unconventional techniques in drama have only one aim, and that is a closer approach to truth.” The Court Theatre production of The Glass Menagerie is propelled by a desire to return to this truth. Williams’ original script called for the use of a screen on which magic-lantern slides were projected, bearing images or titles. A controversial idea in theatre at the time, this screen device was omitted from the original Broadway production and therefore overlooked in subsequent productions. This use of projections was intended to remove the audience from the level of reality most theatre had at that time; it was a new way to present theatre. Achieving this same impact on Court’s stage today is more difficult, as the use of projections and multi-media have become familiar to modern audiences. John Culbert, scenic designer, commented, “Projected images would not have the same impact on our current sensibilities. As a theatre device they do not carry the same meaning as they would have when The Glass Menagerie was first produced.” However, Court’s design team was keenly interested in expressing this removal from reality that Williams originally intended.

Culbert and the design team began by examining the images Williams used for the projections. Williams wrote, “Each scene contains a particular point (or several) which is structurally the most important.” The images he chose highlighted these points metaphorically and the projections created an expressionistic tone that is essential to the story. In designing this production, Court’s artistic team focused on the fact that nothing in this play is real; everything is a product of Tom’s memory. This is ultimately symbolized by very deliberate choices regarding the objects that are used as part of the world of the play. Only objects that have emotional value to the characters and relationships are used in the scenic and prop design. “This related to the idea that the entire play is a memory, a dream, and that what we remember is not every detail of the clutter that inhabits our lives, but the things that have specific meaning,” Culbert explained.

Williams said that The Glass Menagerie is “the saddest play I have ever written. It is full of pain.” Through a long process beginning with research on Williams’ own home in St. Louis, Culbert tried to understand and capture the desperate quality of Williams’ life at that time. Additionally, the design team noted how haunted Tom is by his memory and how he has to tell this story over and over again. Eventually Culbert focused on the fire escape, which was the entrance to the Williams’ family apartment in St. Louis. Metaphorically, the entire play takes place on this cage-like fire escape, creating a forced intimacy between the characters in the claustrophobic one-room space. To achieve the desired emotional tone, a color was chosen that conveys Tom’s feeligns of anxiety and discomfort. The searing yellow also was suggestive of the jonquils to which Amanda refers in the play.

As Culbert comments, “there are probably a lot of people who have an image of this play from the original production—a poetic presentation of a tenement apartment in St. Louis with all the stuff—a fire escape and an alley—all poetically rendered. In our exploration of the material, that was a great way to present it in its own time, but we’re not living then. Today’s sensibility is different and our challenge becomes to find the image that captures the essence of this play in our world.” In accepting this challenge, Court Theatre strives to bring the audience closer to the original emotional content of this timeless classic.

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