ST. PETERSBURG, FL —It’s hard to imagine a more appropriate venue for A Simple Theatre’s staged reading of The Glass Menagerie than the gallery of St. Petersburg glass artist Duncan McClellan.
The audience will be surrounded by glass works in the covered outdoor space of the gallery. McClellan also plans to create special glass unicorns (an important metaphorical object in the play) as premiums to the first 10 people who purchase season subscriptions that night.
The Glass Menagerie is the play that made Tennessee Williams famous. Set in a dingy St. Louis apartment, it is a four-character drama about the shattering of dreams and illusions when a gentleman caller is invited to dinner.
Gavin Hawk directs and Creative Loafing Editor David Warner narrates, with a cast comprised of Bonnie Agan (Amanda), Christopher Jackson (Tom), Julia Barton (Laura) and Jordan Foote (The Gentleman Caller).
THE GLASS MENAGERIE
by Tennessee Williams
November 17, 2015
The fragile illusions of the Wingfield family are threatened when a gentleman caller comes to visit in this classic piece of American theatre.
Amanda Wingfield is a faded, tragic remnant of Southern gentility who lives in poverty in a dingy St. Louis apartment with her son, Tom, and her daughter, Laura. Amanda strives to give meaning and direction to her life and the lives of her children, though her methods are ineffective and irritating. Tom is driven nearly to distraction by his mother’s nagging and seeks escape in alcohol and the world of the movies. Laura also lives in her illusions. She is crippled, and this defect, intensified by her mother’s anxiety to see her married, has driven her more and more into herself. The crux of the action comes when Tom invites a young man of his acquaintance to take dinner with the family. Jim, the caller, is a nice ordinary fellow who is at once pounced upon by Amanda as a possible husband for Laura. In spite of her crude and obvious efforts to entrap the young man, he and Laura manage to get along very nicely, and momentarily Laura is lifted out of herself into a new world. But this crashes when, toward the end, Jim explains that he is already engaged. The world of illusion that Amanda and Laura have striven to create in order to make life bearable collapses about them. Tom, too, at the end of his tether, at last leaves home.
Produced with and performed at Duncan McClellan Gallery
The reading will be at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 17. General admission tickets are $20. Seating is limited. For more information go to Asimpletheatre.org or call 727-864-7811. The Duncan McClellan Gallery is in the Warehouse Arts District, 2342 Emerson Ave. South St. Petersburg, FL 33712
Created by Tampa Bay actors, A Simple Theatre in Residence at Eckerd College was founded on the belief that great theatre is rooted in the simplicity of compelling stories told by talented storytellers to challenge, provoke and emotionally engage our audience.
http://www.asimpletheatre.org/
direct link to the ticket sales site:
