Terraka Garner
Life Editor
Emotions will stir, hearts will palpitate and tears will roll as students from the ISU School of Performing Arts portray the not-so-perfect lives of the characters in the famous Tennessee Williams production, “The Glass Menagerie.”
Showcasing actors and actresses Talia Lenker, D.J. Klick, Sarah Greenhalgh and Tanner Morton, performances are set for Sept. 25, 26 and Oct. 2, 3 starting at 7:30 p.m. with a 2 p.m. matinee on Oct. 3 in the Rogers Black Box Theatre located in the Stephens Performing Arts Center.
“I feel it is one of the greatest American dramas ever written by one of the most poetic American playwrights,” said “Glass Menagerie” director, Vanessa Ballam. She added, “It’s not entirely favorable. It not only shows the wonderful parts of human nature that we want to admit to, but it shows fighting and it shows tension.”
The entire basis of the play, “The Glass Menagerie” revolves around uncovering the truth in the life of Tennessee Williams, to be illustrated by pseudonyms of himself, his mother and his sister after his father abandoned the family, leaving them to live in poverty during the end of the Great Depression.
The father is characterized by a hanging portrait, looming over the family during the entirety of the production.
“[Amanda], the mother of Tom and Laura, a fading southern bell, grew up on a big southern plantation and kind of had the expectation that she was going to have this wonderful life living on a huge piece of land, married to a planter and have plenty of money and servants,” said Amanda’s portrayer, Lenker. “That didn’t quite happen.”
The performance begins and ends with the narrating voice of Tom, a metaphoric pseudonym for Tennessee Williams, portrayed by Klick. This leads in to Tom’s memory, bringing the audience back in time to 1937 from Williams’ point of view. Tom’s sister, Laura, portrayed by Greenhalgh, had Plerosis as a child, giving her a physical impediment, leaving her to wear a brace on her leg. Laura sees her impediment as a roadblock in life, which makes it difficult for her character to progress in her life as she should.
All characters find some form of emotional escape, Laura’s being her glass menagerie, and the sound metaphor for the show.
“It is this world of little delicate glass animals which if [Laura] was left her own devices, would just spend all day playing with them and polishing them, and her old records, she loves her old records,” said Ballam.
Amanda is seen as outrageously volatile throughout the production. She reportedly wants the best for her children but is unaware of how to provide them a sense of accomplishment. She, at one point in the show, decides to try to find someone for Laura to marry, believing that this will solve Laura’s problems. After Laura acts out in embarrassment, she and the gentleman caller, Jim, portrayed by Morton, are brought to like one another.
“They actually have a moment of connection and they come together and he sees something in her that no one else has ever really talked to her about; about how beautiful and unique she is and he tells her all of these glorious things,” said Ballam. “There’s a kiss that is very magical and that’s sort of the changing point or the turning point for the rest of the play is that kiss.”
The Glass Menagerie’s conclusion holds an abundance of unexpected twists, taking the audience on a roller coaster of intensity. The play ends with Laura blowing out the light of her candle.
“It’s beautiful and if you don’t know the play, you should know the play,” said Ballam. “I feel like as an American and as a human being, we should all know this play because it’s a part of our heritage. This play changed the path of American dramatic literature.”
Tickets are available for purchase at the Campus Connection desk, in the ISU box office, by calling 282-3595 or online at isu.edu/tickets. Tickets cost $15 for adults, $14 for faculty and staff, $10 for children and $7 for ISU students with a valid Bengal ID.
