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Play Guide America Plays! Special Edition, Volume III of V

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Page 1: Glass menagerie

The Glass Menagerie

Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 1

Play GuideAmerica Plays! Special Edition, Volume III of V

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The Glass Menagerie

Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 2

3 WHO WE ARE4 INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAY4 THE CHARACTERS5 SYNOPSIS6 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS9 MEMORY PLAY9 TIME FRAME11 THE DEPRESSION12 WOMEN IN 1930s IN ST. LOUIS14 LAURA IN REAL LIFE

It is Arizona Theatre Company’s goal to share the enriching experience of live theatre. This play guide is intended to help you prepare for your visit to Arizona Theatre Company. Should you have comments or suggestions regarding the play guide, or if you need more information about scheduling trips to see an ATC production, please feel free to contact us:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CO

NTEN

TSSPO

NSO

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The Glass Menagerie Play Guide compiled and written by Jennifer Bazzell, Literary Manager. Discussion questions, and activities prepared by Sara Bernstein, Phoenix Education Manager; Alison C. Terry, Tucson Education Manager; Cale Epps, Phoenix Education Associate and Megan Dallas, Education Intern. Layout by Gabriel Armijo.

Tucson: Alison C. TerryEducation Manager(520)884-8210 ext 8506(520)628-9129 fax

Phoenix: Cale EppsEducation Associate(602)256-6899 ext 6115(602)256-7399 fax

Support for ATC’s Education and Community Programming has been provided by:

OrganizationsAPSArizona Commission on the ArtsBlue Cross Blue Shield of ArizonaCity Of GlendaleCity Of PeoriaCommunity Foundation for Southern ArizonaFreeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold FoundationNational Endowment for the ArtsPhoenix Offi ce of Arts and CulturePICOR Charitable FoundationScottsdale League for the ArtsTargetThe Boeing CompanyThe Marshall FoundationThe David C. and Lura M. Lovell FoundationThe Hearst Foundation, Inc.The Maurice and Meta Gross FoundationThe Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation

The Stocker FoundationThe Stonewall FoundationTucson Electric Power CompanyTucson Iron & MetalTucson Pima Arts CouncilIndividualsMr. Craig AltschulMr. and Mrs. Rob AronoffMr. Randy BrookshierMs. Penny BuckleyMr. and Mrs. Larry A. CesareMr. and Mrs. Robert ClarkMr. and Mrs. Tyrone ClarkMr. and Mrs. Leonard CorisMr. and Mrs. Darryl B. DobrasMr. and Mrs. Bruce L. DusenberryMr. and Mrs. Robert GlaserMs. Roseanne GonzalezMr. and Mrs. Richard F. Imwalle

Mr. Bill KelleyDrs. Steven and Marta KetchelMr. and Mrs. David KrogenMr. and Mrs. John LamseMr. Raul LeonMrs. Ann C. LynnMr. and Mrs. Doug McClureMr. and Mrs. Fred A. Nachman IIIMs. Dana Pitt, Donald Pitt Family FoundationMs. Sandra D. RutherfordMr. Marc SandroffDrs. John and Helen SchaeferMs. Gretchen H. ShineMs. Peggi SimmonsMr. Jeffrey SorrentinoMr. Joe Tarver and Ms. Peggy JohnsonMs. Teresa WelbornDr. Raymond L. and Mrs. Julianne Woosley

15 IN DEFENSE OF THE MATRIARCH16 WHAT IS LAURA STUDYING?17 HISTORICAL REFERENCES FROM THE PLAY19 TERMS FROM THE PLAY22 MONEY IN 1937 AND 201023 1937 AT THE MOVIES24 SYMBOLISM IN THE GLASS MENAGERIE25 MONOLOGUES AND THEIR HISTORY AND FORM26 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES

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The Glass Menagerie

Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 3

Arizona Theatre Company is a professional, not-for-profi t theatre company. This means all of our artists, administrators and production staff are paid professionals, and the income we receive from ticket sales and contributions goes right back into our budget to create our work, rather than to any particular person as a profi t.

Each season, ATC employs hundreds of actors, directors and designers from all over the country to create the work you see on stage. In addition, ATC currently employs about 100 staff members in our production shops and administrative offi ces in Tucson and Phoenix during our season. Among these people are carpenters, painters, marketing professionals, fundraisers, stage directors, computer specialists, sound and light board operators, tailors, costume designers, box offi ce agents, stage crew-the list is endless- representing an amazing range of talents and skills.

We are also supported by a Board of Trustees, a group of business and community leaders who volunteer their time and expertise to assist the theatre in fi nancial and legal matters, advise in marketing and fundraising, and help represent

the theatre in our community.

Roughly 150,000 people attend our shows every year, and several thousands of those people support us with charitable contributions in addition to purchasing their tickets. Businesses large and small, private foundations and the city and state governments also support our work fi nancially.

All of this is in support of our mission: to create professional theatre that continually strives to reach new levels of artistic excellence and that resonates locally, in the state of Arizona and throughout the nation. In order to fulfi ll its mission, the theatre produces a broad repertoire ranging from classics to new works, engages artists of the highest caliber, and is committed to assuring access to the broadest spectrum of citizens.

ARIZONA THEATRE COMPANY: WHO WE AREThousands of people make our work at ATC possible!W

HO

WE A

RE

Temple of Music and Art in Tucson, Arizona

Herberger Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona

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The Glass Menagerie

Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 4

INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYINTR

O

The Glass Menagerieby Tennessee Williams

Costume Design for Tom by designer Emily Pepper

Costume Design for Amanda by designer Emily Pepper

THE CHARACTERSTom: An artistic and poetic young man confi ned to a day job he hates, Tom struggles to deal with his overbearing mother and his painfully shy sister. Tom feels torn between his obligations to himself and the life that he wants to lead and his obligations to his family.

Amanda: A faded Southern Belle who regrets her past decisions. Amanda believes that her son Tom must be dutiful to her wishes and that her daughter Laura must marry in order to provide for their future.

In the 1930s in a small tenement apartment in St. Louis, the Wingfi eld family awaits your visit. The mother, Amanda, lives in an illusion of recapturing her faded Southern Belle glory. Her daughter Laura lives in a fantasy world of delicate glass fi gurines and her son Tom dreams poetically of a world beyond the back stoop. When Tom brings home a Gentleman Caller to meet his sister, The Glass Menagerie weaves these lives into a heart-stopping dance of hopes pursued and dreams betrayed. Considered by many to be Tennessee Williams’ greatest play, The Glass Menagerie is an achingly beautiful story of longing and love that has touched generations of theatergoers with its sparkling, delicate radiance.

CA

ST

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Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 5

Laura A socially awkward and exceptionally shy young woman who is emotionally and physically fragile.

The Gentleman Caller: Also known as Jim, the gentleman caller loves to relive his past glories and look toward a future in which he plans for his life to improve signifi cantly.

“If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.” – Tennessee Williams

SYNOPSISSYN

OPSIS

Tom, a writer who has left his mother and sister in order to pursue freedom and adventure, narrates a memory of his abandoned family. The memory is of St. Louis in 1937. Tom, his mother Amanda and his sister Laura, are trying to make ends meet in a small tenement apartment. Tom’s father, a telephone repairman who “fell in love with long distance,” has long since abandoned them leaving nothing behind but his picture. Tom supports the family by working in a shoe warehouse. Since his responsibilities curtail his desire to be a writer, Tom

Scenic design model by designer Darcy Scanlin

escapes the mundane reality of life at the warehouse through literature, movies and dreams of joining the Merchant Marine. His sister Laura lives in a world of her own and spends all her time polishing her little glass animals and listening to old records. Amanda can’t understand Tom’s resentment or Laura’s lack of interest in her own future. After Amanda discovers that Laura has dropped out of Business College without telling her, she decides that she must fi nd a husband for her daughter. When asked if she ever liked a boy Laura tells her mother she only ever liked one boy in high school, the popular boy who sang the lead in the school operetta and called her by the nickname “Blue Roses.” Amanda badgers Tom to bring home a nice man from the warehouse for Laura, bribing him by telling him he can be free of his responsibility to them as soon as there’s someone else to take care of his sister. Tom invites Jim O’Connor, his only friend at the warehouse, home for dinner. Amanda goes all out with preparations, buying a new lamp and a new dress for Laura. Laura has an acute attack of shyness and becomes ill when she discovers that the man coming for dinner is the same boy she liked in high school. In the middle of dinner the lights go out because Tom used the money meant for the electricity bill to join the Union of Merchant Seamen. Not to be deterred, Amanda lights candles and pulls Tom into the kitchen leaving Jim and Laura alone. Jim and Laura reminisce about his heroic high school days and Laura shows him her

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WILLIA

MS

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

Playwright Tennessee Williams

Young Tom with his sister Rose and mother Edwina

favorite glass animal—a little unicorn that is both unique and lonely among the other glass horses. Jim’s kindness helps Laura overcome some of her shyness. As Jim is trying to teach her to dance they accidentally knock over the glass unicorn breaking off its horn so that it becomes just like all the other horses. Will Laura, too, lose her uniqueness and become just like all the other girls? Is Jim the gentleman caller Amanda has been hoping for? Will Tom ever get over his guilt at taking after his father and abandoning his family? Will he ever escape the pull of his sister’s memory? -written by Andrea Moon, reprinted with permission from Cleveland Play House’s Study Guide for The Glass Menagerie

Everything in his life is in his plays, and everything in his plays is in his life. – Elia Kazan, director of many of Williams’ plays

Thomas Lanier Williams was born on March 26, 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi to parents Cornelius and Edwina Dakin Williams. From an early age, Thomas, often called Tom, felt he did not belong anywhere. His father was often abusive, repeatedly taunting his son as a “sissy boy.” Edwina was a woman desperately holding onto a southern gentility that was out of place in her current

environment, similar to Amanda from The Glass Menagerie. Of his two siblings, Rose and Dakin, Tom formed a very close attachment to his sister Rose, a woman with deep emotional problems who would eventually be diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Though he had been writing stories for years, it wasn’t until 1929, when Williams attended a university production of Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, that he decided to become a playwright. He took a slight detour in his career when his father forced him to drop out of school due to a poor grade. Cornelius Williams arranged for Tom to work in a shoe factory, a job he considered stifl ing. In 1935, not long after taking the warehouse job, Tom suffered a nervous breakdown. Shortly thereafter, Williams’ parents made a decision to have his sister Rose lobotomized, a decision that haunted Tom for the rest of his life.

Williams returned to school and graduated from the University of Iowa in 1938, moving to New Orleans shortly afterwards. There, Williams found a culture more open-minded than any he had ever experienced. While there

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Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 7

WILLIA

MS Actor Noel Joseph Allain who

plays Tom in ATC’s production of The Glass Menagerie

A fi rst edition copy of The Glass Menagerie

"Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory." – Tennessee Williams

Death is one moment, and life is so many of them. –Tennessee Williams

were still people in New Orleans who were judgmental about people of different sexual orientations than themselves, Tom found himself, for the fi rst time in his life, fully embracing a gay lifestyle, an option that had been all but impossible in his previous living situations. In New Orleans, Tom became routinely known as “Tennessee,” named for the state of his father’s birth.

In 1940, Tennessee’s fi rst full-length play to be produced, Battle of Angels, failed miserably. It was not until 1944 when The Glass Menagerie opened in Chicago and went on to have a very successful run on Broadway that Williams had his fi rst taste of success. With The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee revisited his complex relationship with his mother and sister and his feelings about his family life. The journey of Tom, the character from The Glass Menagerie, mirrors much of Tennessee’s own life, although he took certain theatrical liberties. Following the attention he received from The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee now had to create a new play to compete with his new commercial and critical success. He found this work in a play originally entitled The Poker Night, which would eventually become A Streetcar Named Desire. When A Streetcar Named Desire opened in 1947, it became an instant success; Williams won a Pulitzer Prize for it in 1948.

At the same time as Williams was experiencing professional success, he also met and fell in love with a man named Frank Merlo. During the years he spent with Merlo, Williams was very productive professionally, creating three of his most famous plays: The Rose Tattoo, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and The Night of the Iguana. Williams was awarded his second Pulitzer Prize in 1955 for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. However, when Merlo died in 1961 of lung cancer, Williams entered a ten year period of self-destruction and depression. He became addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs and suffered from an overwhelming fear that he would go insane. His work suffered greatly and most people agree that his later work lacks the spirit and quality of his earlier plays.

Williams choked to death on a bottle top from one of his prescription bottles on February 24, 1983 in New York City. Despite the fact that he considered New Orleans his spiritual home, his family insisted on burying him in St. Louis, Missouri, the city in which The Glass Menagerie takes place (and a city he despised). The body of work Williams left behind is impressive; it includes twenty-fi ve full length plays, two novels, a novella,

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MS

PLAYS

The Glass Menagerie (1944) A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) Summer and Smoke (1948) The Rose Tattoo (1951) Camino Real (1953) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) Baby Doll (1956) Orpheus Descending (1957) Suddenly, Last Summer (1958) Sweet Bird of Youth (1959) Period of Adjustment (1960) The Night of the Iguana (1961) The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (1962, rewriting of Summer and Smoke) The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1963) The Mutilated (1965) The Seven Descents of Myrtle (1968, aka Kingdom of Earth) In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1969) Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis? (1969) Small Craft Warnings (1972) The Two-Character Play (1973) Out Cry (1973, rewriting of The Two-Character Play) The Red Devil Battery Sign (1975) This Is (An Entertainment) (1976) Vieux Carré (1977) A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (1979) Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980) The Notebook of Trigorin (1980) Something Cloudy, Something Clear (1981) A House Not Meant to Stand (1982) In Masks Outrageous and Austere (1983)

Plays by Tennessee Williams:

sixty short stories, over a hundred poems, dozens of short plays and screenplays, and an autobiography. The awards he received are too numerous to mention, but the most impressive include two Pulitzer Prizes, four New York Drama Critics Awards, a Tony Award, and an honorary doctorate from Harvard University. He was honored by President Carter at the Kennedy Center in 1979 for his life’s work. In 1995, Tennessee Williams joined the small group of people honored by the U.S. Post Offi ce when they released a stamp bearing his image honoring him for his playwriting work. Williams is undoubtedly one of the greatest American playwrights to ever live, and throughout his tumultuous life he created many rich plays and characters for the theatre.

U.S. Postage stamp honoring Tennessee Williams

Tennessee’s Williams grave

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Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 9

OTHER MEMORY PLAYSTo Kill A MockingbirdThe Kite RunnerDancing at LughnasaHow I Learned to DriveI Never Sang for My FatherSide Man

MEM

ORY

The Glass Menagerie is often described as a memory play. Just what does that mean? In the stage directions Tennessee Williams writes “The scene is memory and is therefore nonrealistic. Memory takes a lot of poetic license. It omits some details, others are exaggerated, according to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for memory is seated predominantly in the heart.” A memory play is therefore a play that is set apart from reality. In The Glass Menagerie, the events of the play are being remembered through the lens of Tom’s experiences. Thus, each event is colored by his perspective. Memory plays must have a narrator, someone whose memories guide the audience through the events of the play.

Actor Catalina Maynard who plays Amanda in ATC’s production of The Glass Menagerie

Actor Barbra Wengerd who plays Laura in ATC’s production of The Glass Menagerie

Memory plays became popular in American playwriting after World War II. At that time “many American playwrights began to tap into the power of memory as a narrative device. Infl uenced by the forces that were shaping American society, especially the psychoanalytical concepts of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, these playwrights used the concept of memory to fuel non-linear plots and intense character development.”* As a memory play, Tennessee’s Williams’ The Glass Menagerie explored territory that was new and exciting to theatre goers because it was something that had never been seen before. - * from http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/2378/

MEMORY PLAYS

TIME FRAMEThe Glass Menagerie takes place in 1937. The novel Gone With the Wind has already been published and the headline on Tom’s newspaper reads “Franco Triumphs.” Below are some events that were happening during that time:

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TIME

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States

Social Trends: Popularity of the movies (by 1930, 90,000,000 people • attended the movies weekly, including Tom Wingfi eld) Billie Holiday gains popularity for her “cool” jazz• Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture gets noticed• Workers’ Unions are on the rise• The New York Yankees win the World Series• Howard Johnson’s starts the trend of franchised restaurants •

Political Events: Franklin D. Roosevelt is the President of the U.S.• Neville Chamberlain becomes the British Prime Minister• Japan invades China (the attack that some mark as the fi rst • battle of World War II)At Francisco Franco’s request for support, Adolph Hitler • bombs Guernica

Financial Issues: Franklin D. Roosevelt states, “I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished” • Business activity suffers a sharp drop• The Miller-Tydings Act allows manufacturers to fi x the resale prices of brand-name • merchandise

Even musical groups have noticed the moving story of The Glass Menagerie and used the play as inspiration for lyrics:

BRAND NEW COLONYlyrics by The Postal Service

I’ll be the grapes fermented,Bottled and served with the table set in my fi nest suitLike a perfect gentlemenI’ll be the fi re escape that’s bolted to the ancient brickWhere you will sit and contemplate your day

I’ll be the waterwings that save you if you start drowningIn an open tab when your judgement’s on the brinkI’ll be the phonograph that plays your favoriteAlbums back as you’re lying there drifting off to sleep…I’ll be the platform shoes and undo what heredity’s done to you…You won’t have to strain to look into my eyesI’ll be your winter coat buttoned and zipped straight to the throatWith the collar up so you won’t catch a coldI want to take you far from the cynics in this townAnd kiss you on the mouth

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TIME

DEPR

ESSION

We’ll cut out bodies free from the tethers of this scene,Start a brand new colonyWhere everything will change,We’ll give ourselves new names (identities erased)The sun will heat the groundsUnder our bare feet in this brand new colonyEverything will change, oOo oOo…

New in 1937: Supermarket shopping carts• Drive-in banking• Spam• U.S. blood bank• Antihistamines• The Golden Gate Bridge• Nylon patented•

-reprinted with permission from the Hippodrome Theatre

THE GREAT DEPRESSION"While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed through the worst -- and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover." -President Herbert Hoover, May 1, 1930

The Glass Menagerie takes place in 1937, during what is commonly known as the Great Depression. Because the Depression had been ongoing for some time by the year The Glass Menagerie takes place, its effects were widespread and deeply felt by the American public.

How did the Great Depression Happen?

After the end of the First World War, the American economy prospered. The war provided American cities with a broad industrial region of textile mills, coal mines, iron and steel furnaces, and timber saw mills. However, the increased wealth in the United States did not affect the farmers and workers who had already been producing the country’s necessary goods.

WWI’s surplus of goods blanketed the American economy and Americans could not consume the goods produced, ultimately leading to the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The excess plagued

A mid 20th century advertisement for Spam

A crowd gathers on Wall Street following the 1929 crash

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DEPR

ESSION

Men working for the WPA

companies and stock prices quadrupled between 1921 and 1929. After the Federal Reserve implemented higher interest rates to lower rising prices, banks and investors lost certainty and began selling their stocks. Suddenly, between September and October 1929, stock prices fell 33%. The ultimate day of panic selling occurred on October 24, 1929, which is known as “Black Thursday.” The additional lack of consumers and investors forced prices down further and as a preventative measure against bankruptcy, people sold their holdings. After the Stock Market Crash, unemployment increased, consumer goods prices declined, and industrial manufacturing declined 47% in the United States. The rise in unemployment and uncertainty about the future prevented consumers from spending money and investing in products. The Crash marked the beginning of the ten year battle against the effects of the Great Depression.

"I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people." – Franklin D. Roosevelt

The New Deal

Under the strain of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt commissioned The New Deal program in 1933, which was designed to "give a hand up, not a hand out." This program promised to repair America and help with poverty, unemployment, and the collapsing American economy. The largest New Deal Agency was the Works Progress Administration, which was created by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. The Works Progress Administration (or WPA as it was commonly known) employed millions of Americans primarily in unskilled labor jobs. Workers constructed public buildings and roads, though other projects included art, theatre and literacy projects. Congress ended the WPA in 1943 during World War II when unemployment concerns fell by the wayside. Prior to 1943, the WPA was the largest employer in the country. -written by Kelli Marino, dramaturgical intern and Jenny Bazzell, Literary Manager

WOMEN IN THE 1930s IN ST. LOUISWhy would Amanda push so hard for Laura to get married? Though it might seem strange in a modern context, in 1930 getting married and raising a family was the most accepted thing a young woman could do with her life. Anything else was considered suspicious. Women won the right to vote in 1920 but that didn’t change the strong bias that a woman’s place was in the home and that a man should be the primary breadwinner—even though that prejudice was a little out of step with a changing reality. In St. Louis there were somewhere around 1200 soldiers that never came home from World War I. With their husbands lost to the war, the need to support their families alone forced women into the workforce in greater numbers. During the Great

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WO

MEN

Map showing the location of St. Louis in Missouri

Logo for the D.A.R.

Depression when it was hard for men to fi nd decent paying work some of their wives took jobs in an attempt to keep their families in the middle class. Still, due to prejudices about a woman’s proper role, there remained a belief that women were working for “frivolous” reasons and female workers faced more diffi culties getting and keeping jobs than their male counterparts.

A 1936 poll in Fortune magazine asked, "Do you believe that married women should have a full time job outside the home?" Only 15 percent of the respondents approved, while 48 percent disapproved, with the remaining 37 percent giving it conditional approval. – from Susan Ware, Holding Their Own: American Women in the 1930s.

However, more and more women were becoming educated and more and more were working. Between 1890 and 1920 women who were college graduates increased by 225% and the percentage of women in the paid workforce increased by four percent. Between 1920 and 1930 women in clerical positions more than doubled and the number of professional women increased by 100%.Though it might be considered a last resort, or a pastime until marriage, women taking classes in business colleges (like Laura briefl y does in The Glass Menagerie) was a fairly common occurrence. In the workforce women employees, same as the men, sometimes faced terrible conditions. Often women weren’t allowed to join with men’s unions so they organized their own and took to the streets side by side with men. Women also became active in other ways, taking on social ills and more readily winning community leadership roles throughout the 1930s. One way that they did this was through banding together in women’s clubs (like the Daughters of the American Revolution to which Amanda Wingfi eld belongs in The Glass Menagerie). Clubs were mostly made up of middle or upper class women.

Though clubs were generally organized around literature or art, many of them included civic work in their charter and ended up branching out into social activism. Some of these clubs in St. Louis in the 1930s included: The Wednesday club, which lasted a

hundred years; the Harper Club; the Women’s Christian Temperance Union; the Wednesday Afternoon Sewing Club and the Orphan’s Home Association. These clubs of women took on big issues like fi ghting poverty and racial prejudice, and attempting to clean up the environment. The women’s clubs of St. Louis were often active in local politics and, each in their own way, worked toward changing the ingrained bias about women’s role in society. - by Katherine T. Corbett, In Her Place: a Guide to St. Louis Women’s History

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LAU

RA

LAURA IN REAL LIFEThe Glass Menagerie was based on a short story by Williams called “Portrait of a Girl in Glass.” Both the play and the story draw heavily on Williams’ actual family experience in St. Louis. The Laura of the story and the play is an abstraction of Tennessee’s sister Rose. Rose Williams was Tennessee’s muse—she became the partial inspiration for many of his tragic female characters and the recurrent themes in his work of fragile beauty crushed into madness by cold reality. Tennessee and Rose were very close to one another as children. Rose was a pretty and vivacious girl who slowly withdrew from the world. In “Portrait of a Girl in Glass,” Williams describes this withdrawal: “As for my sister Laura, she could be classifi ed even less readily than I. She made no positive motion toward the world but stood at the edge of the water, so to speak, with feet that anticipated too much cold to move.” At the age of fourteen, Rose began

experiencing severe mood

Costume Design for Laura by designer Emily Pepper

swings and depression. In 1937, when she was twenty-eight, she was committed to a sanitarium and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. In 1943, she was given a lobotomy and had to be institutionalized for the rest of her life. Tennessee described Rose as the deepest love of his life and, even after his death, made sure she was provided for fi nancially.

“I think all of one’s serious work is rooted in one’s emotional experience.” – Tennessee Williams

The muses in Greek Mythology were the goddesses that presided over the arts and sciences. In modern usage “to muse” has come to mean to ponder deeply and “a muse” is a guiding spirit or a source for inspiration. Rose Williams was Tennessee’s muse; parts of her popped up in many of his characters throughout his long career.

Do you have a muse in your family? Who is it? Write a description of your muse. What makes them unique? Write a story about something they’ve said or done that particularly inspired you.

- written by Andrea Moon, reprinted with permission from Cleveland Play House’s Study Guide for The Glass Menagerie

Tennessee Williams and his sister Rose

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Costume Design for Amanda by designer Emily Pepper

DEFEN

SE

IN DEFENSE OF THE MATRIARCHIn literature, mythology, and drama, one can easily identify the traits of the archetypal mother. She is sweet, kind, loving and loyal, devoting all of her energy to the well-being of her husband and family. Indeed, the virtues of these matriarchal characters are often exaggerated to the point that real-life women cannot possibly measure up. Therefore, it may surprise audiences that Amanda, the matriarch in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, is anything but perfect. Based upon Williams’s own mother Edwina, Amanda embodies what can happen when a mother’s wish for her family’s happiness goes too far and ventures into the realm of fantasy.

The strongest infl uences in my life and my work are always whomever I love. Whomever I love and am with most of the time, or whomever I remember most vividly. I think that's true of everyone, don't you? – Tennessee Williams

Some viewers perceive that Amanda lives in a world of her imagination, choosing to remember an idealized past rather than face grim realities. Others perceive that she has an acute sense of reality she uses to create an optimism that is false. Either way, since her husband has abandoned her to raise two children alone in a time period when a woman on her own would have been in a precarious position, her situation is bleak. However, Amanda succeeds in keeping her family afl oat through sheer force of will by exerting control on her remaining family members. She wants what is best for them, which is shown by her worrying that Tom’s late night activities may endanger his job and signing Laura up for a secretarial course. Both actions are symptoms of her desire to see Tom and Laura well-placed. However, her controlling nature takes a toll on her relationships with her now-adult children. Amanda’s motherly concern and eternal optimism for Laura’s prospective suitors end up coming across as overbearing, unwittingly insensitive, and at times even delusional. Amanda means well, but the best of intentions can have the worst consequences. Her love smothers her children and the safe haven she attempts to create for them actually oppresses them both, leaving Laura and Tom both longing to escape. - written by Alicia James, dramaturgical intern

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STUD

YIN

G?

WHAT IS LAURA STUDYING?In The Glass Menagerie, Amanda has arranged for Laura to study at Rubicam’s Business College. Such places were common in the 1930s when The Glass Menagerie takes place. Women attending colleges like Rubicam’s would have studied the art of stenography (which is defi ned as “The art or process of writing in shorthand.”) Women like Laura would have learned stenography and typing skills so they could work as secretaries. Just what is shorthand and why were typing skills so valuable?

Gregg shorthand symbols

1930s Typewriter

Of all the different types of shorthand Gregg shorthand is the most common. Gregg is a form of stenography that was invented by John Robert Gregg in 1888. Like cursive longhand, it is completely based on elliptical fi gures and lines that bisect them. Gregg shorthand is still the most popular form of pen stenography in the United States. While shorthand used to be a valued skill in a secretary, the necessity for it gradually declined in the business world with the invention of dictation machines, shorthand machines, and the practice of executives writing their own letters on their personal computers.

The rules that govern Gregg shorthand were fi rst published in two small paper-covered pamphlets in 1888 and 1893, with the fi rst book form being published in1897. Throughout the early and middle parts of the twentieth century, Gregg shorthand was a popular way for a person to take dictation. Being skilled at Gregg could result in a well-paying job, especially for young ladies who needed or wanted to work outside of the home. Amanda’s desire for Laura to learn Gregg shorthand coincides with her desire for Laura to learn to type. These two skills were extremely marketable in a world in which many people did not possess such skills. Typing was a particularly coveted commodity before the advent of the personal computer. Businessmen often needed

letters typed, but did not type themselves so they employed skilled typists to use shorthand to “take a letter” and then prepare a typed letter. Laura becoming profi cient in skills such as these could create a situation in which she could provide for herself and Amanda without necessarily needing Tom’s income as well. However, Laura’s parylzing shyness results in her being unable to train to master either of these skills. -adapted from wikipedia.com

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Costume Design for the Gentleman Caller by designer Emily Pepper

HISTORICAL REFERENCES FROM THE PLAYPHRASES FROM THE 1930S WITH WHICH YOU MIGHT NOT BE FAMILIAR:

“THE BOY THAT EVERY GIRL IN THE DELTA WAS SETTING HER CAP FOR”

Comes from the slang term ‘cap acquaintances,’ meaning “Persons slightly acquainted, or only so far as mutually to salute with the hat on meeting. A woman who endeavors to attract the notice of any particular man, is said to set her cap at him.”

“WON THE CAKE-WALK TWICE AT SUNSET HILL”

Originally a plantation entertainment for slaves sponsored by the plantation owners, the cake walk amounted to a comic send-up of the aristocratic and grandiose mannerisms and European dance styles of the white slave-owning class of the Old South. The cake walk as competition became a craze, and appeared in minstrel shows as well as generating its own genre of dance music. The phenomenon crossed over into white society after the Civil War.

“GARBO PICTURE AND A MICKEY MOUSE AND A NEWSREEL”—WHAT’S TOM SEEING AT THE MOVIES?

Greta Garbo appeared in the fi lm Camille in 1937. It is considered her greatest performance. Mickey Mouse appeared in several Disney animated fi lms in 1937, like Clock Cleaners, Hawaiian Holiday and Lonesome Ghosts. Such shorts were often played before full-length fi lms in the 1930s. Newsreels were also played before feature fi lms; topics in 1937 included Roosevelt’s Inauguration, the Spanish Civil War, the Crash of the Hindenburg, and Steel Union strikes in Michigan become violent—broken up by the National Guard.

Century of Progress: The Century of Progress exposition was a huge event in Chicago celebrating advances in technology, science and industry from 1833–1933 in a carnival atmosphere. The tickets cost $0.25 each. Exhibitors included Kraft Mayonnaise, International Harvester and Dr. Scholl, noted “foot authority.”

A Century of Progress world's fair poster

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D.H. Lawrence

D.A.R.: Daughters of the American Revolution, founded in 1890 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a volunteer women's service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing America's future through better education for children. The join the D.A.R. prospective members have to be able to prove lineal, blood line descent from an ancestor who aided in achieving American independence. Amanda mentions that she went to the D.A.R. to be inducted as an offi cer.

D. H. Lawrence: Amanda and Tom have a disagreement regarding the appropriateness of Tom reading a work by D. H. Lawrence. David Herbert Richards Lawrence was born in 1885 in England. He was an English author, poet, playwright, essayist and literary critic. His collected works represent an extended refl ection upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialization. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, human sexuality and instinct. Though he has since been lauded for his contribution to literature, in his own day Lawrence's work was widely thought of as pornographic and he endured offi cial persecution and censorship throughout his career. His best known work is Lady Chatterley’s Lover. -adapted from wikipedia

Dizzy Dean

Dizzy Dean: Jerome Hanna Dean was a Major League baseball pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals (1939-1937) and the Chicago Cubs (1938-1941) and later a well known sportscaster. He was known for his wit, colorful language and for butchering the English language. When Jim is at the Wingfi elds’ house, he looks over the sports pages and notes that “Dizzy Dean is on his bad behavior.”

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The Glass Menagerie

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The Bombing of Guernica, 1937In establishing the social setting of the play in his opening monologue, Tom says “In Spain there was revolution.” Then, in the beginning of scene six, Tom talks about the Paradise Dance Hall across the street from their apartment, saying that young people danced unknowing of the changes about to take place in the world. “In Spain there was Guernica! Here there was only hot swing music and liquor, dance halls, bars, and movies and sex that hung in the gloom like a chandelier and fl ooded the world with brief, deceptive rainbows...While these unsuspecting kids danced to “Dear One, The World is Waiting for the Sunrise.” All the world was really waiting for was bombardments.”

This is a foreshadowing to World War II which began two years later in 1939. Tom is speaking of the Spanish Civil War (1936—1939) between the Right-Wing Nationalists led by General Francisco Franco and the Left-Wing Loyalists of the Second Spanish Republic. The Bombing of Guernica, the cultural capital of the Basque people, on April 26, 1937 was the largest aerial attack on a town up to that point. German bombers destroyed a Spanish market fi lled with afternoon shoppers, presumably ordered by Spanish Nationalists to break the spirit of the Basques, part of the group who resisted the Nationalists. The bombing lasted three hours, killing or wounding about 1600 people (one third of the population,) and destroying 70 percent of the town. It was later revealed that Guernica was the testing site for a new Nazi war tactic of bombing civilians to dishearten the enemy.

Hogan Gang: The Hogan Gang was an Irish crime gang in St. Louis, led by “Jelly Roll” Hogan, known for multiple public shootouts with rival gang Egan’s Rats throughout the 1920’s. During this time of violence, Hogan was a state representative and later became a state senator. When Amanda accuses Tom of not actually going to the movies every night like he says, Tom sarcastically tells her he has joined the Hogan Gang. -reprinted with permission from Milwaukee Repertory Theatre

TERMS OF THE PLAYBeau: A boyfriend of a woman or girl. Amanda is very concerned with Laura fi nding a beau. Amanda claims she had many beaus when she was young.

Beleaguered: Harassed or surrounded. Jim tells Laura he was beleaguered by females in high school.

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Cotillion dresses tend to be very elaborately made

Cotillion: A ball at which young ladies are presented to society. When preparing for the Gentleman Caller, Amanda puts on the dress she wore at a cotillion years ago. A cotillion can be compared to a Quinceañera, as both are events in which a young woman is “coming of age.”

Dandelion Wine: A fermented alcoholic beverage made from the petals of dandelion blossoms, citrus peel and sugar. Typically a light wine lacking body.

Debutante: A young woman from a wealthy and/or important family who is making her offi cial entry into society. She is considered eligible for courtship and marriage.

Light Fantastic: Taken from the phase “trip the light fantastic” meaning to dance. Tom claims that his father skipped the light fantastic out of town, which is a light way of saying that their father left them.

Jalopy: A car that is old and unreliable. Jim tells Amanda that he is going to pick up his fi ancée Betty from the train station in his jalopy.

Jiggered: A British slang term for surprised. When Amanda informs Tom that Jim actually has a girlfriend, Tom says “Well I’ll be jiggered. I didn’t know.”

Mastication: Chewing, grinding or crushing. Amanda lectures Tom on how to eat his dinner by explaining that “animals have secretions in their stomachs which enable them to digest their food without mastication, but human beings must chew their food before they swallow it down, and chew, chew.”

Menagerie: A collection of wild and exotic animals encaged and on display. Laura’s most prized possession is her glass menagerie.

Costume Design for Tom by designer Emily Pepper

The Merchant Marine: The Merchant Marine is the fl eet of ships which carries imports and exports during peacetime and becomes a naval auxiliary during wartime to deliver troops and war material.

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Milk Fund: “Milk funds” were set up all over the country by philanthropic groups (usually religious groups) and local governments to provide milk for undernourished children in public schools. A private Jewish women’s council began St. Louis’ fi rst milk fund in 1917; the public school system took over responsibility in the mid-1930s. Federal funding for milk in schools began in 1940.

Paragon: A model of excellence; a perfect example. When Jim arrives to the Wingfi elds’ for dinner, Amanda tells him Tom has talked so much about him and asked Tom, “Why don’t you bring this paragon to supper fi nally?”

Pleurosis: Also known as pleurisy, pleurosis is an infl ammation of the pleura, the lining of the pleural cavity surrounding the lungs, Symptoms include: fever, cough, chills, shortness of breath, weight loss, poor appetite, sharp chest pain, and itching on the sides and back. Pain can limit the movement on the side of the chest with pleurisy. The pain can also be in the back, up into the neck, or down into the abdomen, Laura had a case of pleurosis that left her frail and crippled.

Quinine: A bitter-tasting drug obtained from the bark of the cinchona tree used to treat malaria. When Amanda reminisces about when she was young, she mentions the time she had malaria, but refused to stay home sick in bed. She took quinine and went to dances every night and for long rides in the country and picnics during the day.

Service Car: The term ‘service car’ in 1937 could apply to a bus, trolley or streetcar, but not to a taxi.

Shipping Clerk: Shipping clerks keep records of all outgoing shipments. They prepare shipping documents and mailing labels and make sure that orders have been fi lled correctly. They also record items taken from inventory and note when orders were fi lled. Sometimes they fi ll the order themselves, obtaining merchandise from the stockroom, noting when inventories run low and wrapping or packing the goods in shipping containers.

Spartan: Sparta was an ancient city-state of Greece where the people were known for their devotion to self-discipline and self-denial. To live a “Spartan” existence generally means to live an austere lifestyle with few comforts.

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Probably the world’s most famous Sphinx, at the Great Pyramids at Giza

Sphinx: A mythological creature depicted as a lion with a human head, historically sphinxes were often depicted as having an inscrutable smile or being secretive about life. In Oedipus, the sphinx asked people a riddle and if they could not answer it, she ate them.

Supercilious: Feeling or showing arrogant contempt or proudness. Amanda warns Tom not to be supercilious when they are discussing the guest Tom has invited to dinner.

Victrola: An antique record player. Laura loves playing the family’s Victrola, but Amanda yells at her not to play it. -reprinted with permission from Milwaukee Repertory Theatre & Berkeley Repertory Theatre Study Guides for The Glass Menagerie.

Throughout The Glass Menagerie, Tom, Amanda and Laura often discuss decisions they make and the fi nancial implications of such decisions. When Laura quits attending business college without consulting her mother, Amanda is horrifi ed to fi nd that their fi fty dollar investment is completely lost. It can be challenging to know how much money was actually worth (in buying power) from an era so much earlier than our own. How much money are we really talking about?

MONEY IN 1937 AND 2010

$65 PER MONTH – THE AMOUNT OF MONEY TOM MAKES WORKING AT THE WAREHOUSE$65 in 1937 is about $975 in 2010

$50- THE COST OF LAURA’S BUSINESS CLASS $50 in 1937 is about $750 in 2010

$85 PER MONTH – THE AMOUNT THAT TOM BELIEVES JIM MAKES WORKING AT THE WAREHOUSE$85 in 1937 is about $1174 in 2010

1937 COST OF BUTTER WHICH LAURA IS SENT OUT TO PURCHASERetail price for butter was about 40 cents per pound.40 cents in 1937 is about $6 in 2010

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DEPRESSION SHOPPING LIST—1932 to 1934Milk—10¢ per quartBread—5¢ per loafCoffee—26¢ per lb.Sugar—5¢ per lb. -based on “For What It’s Worth: The Value of A Dollar” from Berkeley Rep’s study guide for The Glass Menagerie, compiled by Jessica Modrall, ducation Intern, and Dave Maier, Outreach Coordinator

1937 AT THE MOVIESThroughout The Glass Menagerie, Tom repeatedly tells his mother Amanda that he is going to the movies (to escape from his stifl ing life in the apartment he shares with Amanda and Laura). 1937 was a good year for movies. Below are some fi lms that came out that year that Tom could have seen at his neighborhood movie theater.

The Life of Emilie Zola: Directed by William Dieterle and starting Paul Muni and Gale Sondergaard, The Life of Emilie Zola was a critically and fi nancially successful biographical fi lm about French writer Emile Zola.

The Prisoner of Zenda: Directed by John Cromwell and starring Madeleine Carroll and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., The Prisoner of Zenda was based on the 1894 novel of the same name.

The Awful Truth: Directed by Leo McCarey (who won the Oscar for Best Director), The Awful Truth starred Irene Dunne and Cary Grant as a couple on the brink of divorce who realize they’re still in love with each other.

In Old Chicago: Directed by Henry King and starring Alice Brady (who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar) and Tyrone Power, In Old Chicago tells a fi ctionalized story of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. When it was released, its price tag made it one of the most expensive fi lms ever made.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Widely accepted as the greatest American animated fi lm of all time (according to the American Film Institute), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was Disney’s fi rst full-length animated feature fi lm. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs holds the distinction of being the only traditionally animated fi lm on AFI’s list of the 100 greatest American fi lms of all time (updated 2007 list).

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The Glass Menagerie

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Tennessee Williams’s plays are known for his use of symbolism and poetic language used to describe the symbols used throughout. The Glass Menagerie is no exception to the rule; the play is rife with symbols, though some are more obvious than others. Below is a partial list of symbols found in the play. Can you fi nd others?

SYMBOLISM IN THE GLASS MENAGERIE

Blue Roses: When Laura meets Jim, she reminds him that his high school nickname for her was “Blue Roses.” The nickname came about when Jim misheard Laura say she has “pleurosis” and believed she said “blue roses.” Blue roses do not occur in nature; they are therefore set apart from normal roses with colors like pink, red, white, etc. They are strange and do not fi t in with the crowd, much like Laura. Blue Roses is symbolically the perfect thing for Jim to call Laura as he comments how unlike other young women she is and how he thinks that is a good thing.

Dance Hall: The dance hall across the street provides hours of entertainment for Tom as he listens to the music drifting up to the apartment and watches young couples leave the dance hall to kiss in a private corner of the alley. Tom’s unfulfi lled dreams and desires are represented by the dance hall that is right across the street from his house; like the dance

hall his dream-life is close but just out of his reach. While he perceives the lives of the dance hall inhabitants as carefree and full of spirit and love, Tom feels his own life is bogged down with responsibility and a dead-end job. The dance hall represents all he is missing in his life.

Fire Escape: The fi re escape that the characters use as an entrance and an exit to the apartment is a clear symbol of the escape that Tom plans throughout the play. In his stage directions, Tennessee Williams writes that the fi re is escape is “a structure whose name is a touch of accidental poetic truth, for all of these huge buildings are always burning with the slow and implacable fi res of human desperation.”

Gentleman Caller: The gentleman caller (eventually called Jim) is symbolic of hopes and dreams. To Amanda, the gentlemen callers of her past represent all her potential for happiness in life that faded with her choice of the wrong gentleman caller to be her husband (who abandoned her). To Laura, the gentleman caller represents her chance at a “normal” life. He represents all that her mother desperately wishes her to fi nd but that she has failed at acquiring. In the fi rst scene of the play, Tom describes the gentleman caller as the symbol for “the long-delayed but always expected something that we live for.”

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Tom describes the gentleman caller the symbol for “the long-delayed but always expected something that we live for.” SY

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Glass Menagerie: Since The Glass Menagerie is the title of the play, the assumption is clear that the glass menagerie is symbolic. Like the glass animals with which she surrounds herself, Laura is frail and easily breakable but also beautiful when looked at closely. Like the glass fi gurines that are beautiful under light, Laura can radiate a light from within, though the light fl ickers and is extinguished when her mother overbearingly insists that Laura behave in a way that is unnatural to her. The glass menagerie also symbolizes Laura’s isolation from the human race as she continually uses it to escape having to interact with other people.

Movies: In The Glass Menagerie, the movies symbolize escape and adventure from a mostly dreary existence. To Tom, the movies are where he goes when he cannot handle his life and responsibility anymore. Clearly Tom wants to fi nd another life away from his mother and sister and he experiences this other life vicariously by watching the characters on fi lm as they have the adventures that are being denied to him.

Unicorn: Laura’s unicorn is her favorite fi gurine in her menagerie. The unicorn’s horn and the differentiation from the other horses in the menagerie make him special and unique – he stands out from the group and cannot blend. Much like Laura with her physical ailment, the unicorn is different from all of his peers. When Jim accidentally breaks the unicorn, making it like all the other horses, Laura is symbolically wounded (or healed) as well.

Yellow Dress: The yellow dress that Amanda wears when entertaining the gentleman caller symbolizes her lost youth and her resistance to change. Rather than wear something age appropriate, Amanda insists on calling up images of her youth by meeting and fl irting with Jim while wearing the fi nery from her previous life. She is unable to let go of her past and the future that she envisioned for herself. The symbolic proof of these desires is this dress that she has kept for many years (though it is no longer appropriate for her), just as she has held onto her dreams that are becoming increasingly unlikely to manifest in reality.

MONOLOGUES;THEIR HISTORY AND FORMThroughout The Glass Menagerie, monologues are used as a means of expression. Tom in particular has many monologues that help the audience understand his thoughts and feelings. What is a monologue and how did they come about?

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A good place to begin discussing monologues is with soliloquies. The word soliloquy dates to approximately 1613 and is Latin in origin (combining solus which means alone and loqui which means to speak). A soliloquy is a playwriting convention used when characters talk to themselves, refl ecting aloud on things that they are thinking. Soliloquies were often used in Shakespeare plays and are common in Elizabethan plays in general. For good examples of soliloquies think of Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech, and Macbeth’s “She should have died hereafter (tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow)” speech from Shakespeare’s plays.

Soliloquies are still sometimes used by playwrights, though now more common is the monologue. A soliloquy is always a monologue but not all monologues are soliloquies. Sound confusing? The distinction is between the reason the character is speaking and the receiver of information. In a monologue, a character can deliver the text to another character, to the audience or to himself or herself. In another type of monologue, a character can speak uninterrupted for a long period of time to another character. The other character could want to or try to interrupt, but can’t get the other character to stop talking.

This interaction couldn’t happen in a soliloquy because in a soliloquy, the character speaks his or her internal thoughts out loud to himself or herself. There is not another character being addressed. Traditionally, soliloquies are thought of as serious in nature because often a character speaking a soliloquy often contemplates large issues such as the meaning of life or the meaning of death. Monologues can also deal with such weighty issues, but they can also be less serious and sometimes outright silly or funny.

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Discussion Questions1. Tom calls Laura “peculiar,” but Amanda bristles at this word. What is “peculiar” about Laura?

2. Why is the fi re escape important in the play? How does the fi re escape function as a symbol to reveal something about each character's personality?

3. Which aspects of The Glass Menagerie are realistic? Which aspects are the most nonrealistic? What function do the nonrealistic elements serve?

4. Generally, plays do not have narrators. How does the fact that Tom is the narrator affect the style and content of the play? Do you think that your appraisal of the events be different if there were no narrator?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES

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5. What is the signifi cance of the moment when Tom, who is trying to leave, breaks part of Laura's glass collection?

6. What is the symbolic signifi cance of the unicorn? Why is it signifi cant that Laura gives the unicorn to Jim as a souvenir once its horn has been broken? Why does Laura say “Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise” about the unicorn’s broken horn?

7. Tom fi nally agrees to bring the gentleman caller. Amanda agrees that once there's someone to take Tom’s place, he's free to leave. In other words, Jim ends up functioning as a surrogate for Tom. To emphasize this, Williams writes in many parallels between Tom and Jim. What are some of these parallels?

8. Consider Amanda’s character throughout the play. Is she an admirable person or a silly, frustrated woman? Does she arouse your sympathy, or do you think Williams wants you to dislike her? Explain.

9. A play is put in motion by some element that upsets the situation at the beginning of the story. What is the element that sets this play in motion? How does it upset the opening situation, and how does it set the play in motion?

10. What is the signifi cance of the "blue roses" in the play?

11. Each of the Wingfi elds escapes from his or her own unpleasant reality into a comforting, private world. Amanda escapes from her present circumstances by remembering and talking about her youth, her beauty, and her romantic successes. How does Laura escape from the real world? What does Tom do to escape from his unhappiness?

12. How is Laura's relationship with Tom different from her relationship with Amanda? How can you tell that Tom is truly fond of Laura?

13. Amanda often refers to her absent husband, and in the original stage directions his grinning picture is highlighted at various times during the play. What does the photograph represent to Amanda? To Tom? How is the photograph a constant threat to Amanda and Laura's survival?

14. In the middle of the play, Tom displays an attitude toward his mother that he has not shown before. Describe that attitude, and fi nd the lines of dialogue that reveal it. Cite two lines of dialogue that show that Amanda is also trying to behave differently toward Tom.

15. The gentleman caller scene is a perfect little play within a play. How are basic dramatic elements used in this scene: characters you care about placed in a situation where much is at stake, taking steps to get what they want?

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16. The climax of a play is the high point of the story – its most intensely emotional moment. What scene do you think marks the climax of The Glass Menagerie?

17. Tennessee Williams’ characters are known for being what might be called in your English classes “tragically fl awed.” What does this mean to you? What are some tragic fl aws of Tom? Of Amanda? Of Laura? Can you relate to any of these? For instance, one of Tom’s tragic fl aws might be his use of “the movies” to distract him from the reality of his life. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? If you agree, what are similar modern distractions that are used for the same purpose? If you disagree, how would you describe Tom’s going to the movies?

18. How would you describe the family dynamic amongst the Wingfi elds? How is the dynamic among your family members similar? How is it different?

19. Why does Amanda say to her son, “Life is not easy, Tom. It requires Spartan endurance”? Has Amanda’s life been easy? What about her own experiences would prompt her to say this to Tom? Why do you think Tennessee Williams includes the moment in the play when Amanda recalls when she was young and gentlemen callers would bring her jonquils? What does this indicate about Tennessee Williams’ view of the world or more specifi cally, the people in it?

20. How do you feel about Tom’s decision to leave at the end of the show? If there was an alternate ending in which Tom did not leave, what would the implications be for the Wingfi eld family?

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Related Assignments for Post-Performance(Based on the Language Arts State Standards)

1. What might happen to Laura after Tom’s departure? What might happen to Amanda? Imagine that Laura and Tom meet again after 10 years. Write a short scene in which they discuss what has happened to Amanda, Jim, and themselves over the past 10 years and how they have changed. Make sure to have a beginning, middle, and end.

2. What effect do the abstract images and setting that appear on stage throughout the play have on the story? Does it enhance or detract from the mood of what is occurring onstage? This choice was made by the director and the production team. Write a persuasive essay that convinces the reader that this directorial choice works for The Glass Menagerie or that it does not. Remember to back up your opinion with examples from the production.

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3. Discuss the symbol of the glass menagerie. What does it represent? Does it represent the same things throughout the play, or does its meaning change? Think of other plays or books where symbols are used to represent people, places or things. How is The Glass Menagerie similar or different? Write an expository essay in which you compare/contrast the symbols in The Glass Menagerie with the symbols in the play or book of your choice.

4. Write a critical analysis of this production. Use clear, concise adjectives to state your opinions. Remember to back up your analysis with examples from the show.

5. Select and read another of Tennessee Williams’ plays. Write an expository essay in which you compare/contrast the characters and themes in The Glass Menagerie with the characters and themes in the play of your choice.

6. Who do you think is the main character of the play—Tom, Laura, or Amanda? Why? Is the main character the protagonist? Is there an antagonist? Write a persuasive essay in which you argue for the person you chose to be considered the main character of the play.

7. In The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams has created "theater poetry" by using various arts besides language. In the script, he uses the two transparencies at the beginning of the play to enhance the idea that this is a memory play. Check through the stage directions and dialogue to fi nd other uses of visual and sound effects, which, combined with the words, help to create "theater poetry." Do any of these effects add a touch of humor to the play? Think about the production you just saw. How was it different from the stage directions? Write a memo to the director explaining what Tennessee Williams meant by his stage directions and dialogue that would help stage certain scenes more clearly.

8. The basic dramatic situation from which a play can grow involves a person or persons whom viewers care about, who are in more or less desperate situations with a great deal at stake. Such characters decide to act and then actually take steps to achieve their "wants." Write an essay discussing how these dramatic elements are used in The Glass Menagerie.

9. One can say that The Glass Menagerie shows a series of contrasts between (a) the dreamer and the doer, (b) the past and the present, (c) fantasy and reality, (d) psychological and physical handicaps, and (e) the desire for escape and the awareness of responsibilities. Choose one of these contrasts, and trace the way it is developed throughout the play.

10. Tennessee Williams’ play might be viewed as a way of inspiring the audience to view human beings in a complete and rounded manner. Write an essay exploring what you deem to be three positive and three negative aspects of Amanda Wingfi eld.

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Related Assignments for Post-Performance(Based on the Theatre Arts and Language Arts State Standards)

Playwriting, Acting, and Visual Art Lesson PlanExploring the Memory Play

The following activities are based on the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. Williams drew inspiration from his own life to write the play, and the characters are loosely based on his own family. The Glass Menagerie is also a “memory” play, which is a term used to describe a non-linear structural pattern used in modern American drama. Memory plays tend to employ the use of a narrator who directly addresses the audience, and to intersperse narration with scenes in order to tell the story. The term non-linear is used to describe a structure in which the scenes are not presented in chronological order. In The Glass Menagerie, Tom’s character is the narrator in addition to being present in many of the scenes. The scenes with other characters are presented in chronological order, but Tom’s narration is timeless. It is unclear what “time” Tom is in when he is fi lling in the gaps or telling his side of the story. Tom is also something of a day dreamer. By the end of the play, he is fi red from his job at Continental Shoemakers for writing a poem on the lid of a shoe-box.

The following activities are designed to help students explore their own memories and make connections between their experiences and those of the characters in the play. The activities can be done in any number of ways, depending on curricular needs. Although the lesson is designed in a linear sequence, teachers may choose to read and analyze the play with the students and then jump straight to the shoe-box activity or the activities can be done with less student knowledge of the play.

Materials you will needCopies of The Glass Menagerie script or scenePaper and pensSpace to move/ a small performance spaceShoe-box lidsArt supplies: Markers, scrap paper, decorations, glue, scissors, etcCreative art supplies: Foil, newspapers and magazines, nature, etc.

Playwriting Activity

1) If the students have not read and analyzed the play, show the students the attached scene from The Glass Menagerie. Discuss how a play is written differently than a book. Specifi cally, how is the format different?

- There are setting notes before the scene begins, explaining how the set looks and where set pieces such as furniture are located.

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- Speaking characters are shown by name followed by what they say. For example:Jim: How are you feeling now? Better?Laura: Yes. Yes, thank you.

- There are stage directions (in parenthesis) discussing the character’s emotions, as well as providing information about staging and blocking.- Discuss the differences between linear and non-linear narrative. How does this impact storytelling on stage? How does the narrator function in a non-linear memory play?

2) Have each student think about a happy memory that he or she remembers very clearly. Have the students write notes about what was happening, how they were feeling, others involved, etc. Each student should also list the objects present in the memory, as well as the ways in which people moved and the actions they took. These specifi c memory pieces will become props, scenic elements, and blocking in the student’s scene.

3) Next, each student will take his or her memory and create a short scene (2-4 minutes) following the format of the discussed example from the play.

- Students should try to keep the character limit between 2-4 people to focus the events (depending on how many students are in the classroom). If their memory has more than 2-4 people in it, have them pick a specifi c part of the memory to accommodate the class. Remind them that they can use the non-linear structure and a narrator to help keep the number of actors low.

4) Once the students have fi nished writing, ask a student to volunteer to have his or her script read aloud for the class. Ask the class clarifying questions about the script to see if they understood what happened. Then discuss the characters and relationships they see, fi nd ways to add to or change it, and make sure there is a beginning, middle, and end.

Staging Activity

1) Once the scripts are written, create groups of 3-5 students (adjusting as needed to fi t with number of characters in each scene). Have the groups discuss each person’s scene and choose one scene they would like to perform based on their interest in the scene and the ability to perform it. In order to help the students choose a scene, as them to consider the following:

- Character clarity – Who are these characters? Are they active? Do they have clear objectives within the scene? The clearer the characters, the easier they are to present and embody.- Action – Does the scene contain activity for the characters so that they are not merely sitting around talking? The excitement of the theatre comes from watching characters on stage do things, rather than talk about them. Although The Glass Menagerie employs a narrator, it is also still full of action.

Students should use these ideas to help guide their scene choice.

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2) The chosen student playwright will direct the scene because it is his or her memory. Each director will be in charge of assigning roles, blocking the scene, and helping the actors understand the emotions of the characters.

3) Decide how much rehearsal time to give the students. Once the groups are ready, have them present the scenes to the class. (They could spend a whole day or two to fully prepare the scenes). Encourage positive feedback on their scenes fi rst, but also discuss areas that could be improved.

4) Debriefi ng Questions- What did you learn about the process of writing a memory play? What was diffi cult? What was easy?- Was it diffi cult to choose a scene within your group? Why or why not? How did you fi nally choose?- If you were the playwright/director, what did you learn about creating art from your personal experiences? Did it bother you when the actors didn’t do something exactly as you remembered it? Can you see how Williams might have found writing The Glass Menagerie cathartic?- If you were an actor in a scene, how did it feel to portray a real person drawn from the memory of your classmate? Were you concerned about doing it “wrong”? How did you handle that?

By now, each group should have presented a scene. Students can now be given a shoe-box lid, paper, coloring supplies, etc and they should return back to their original memory.

Shoe-box Lid Activity

With your permission, Arizona Theatre Company would like to use the artwork created through this activity. These shoe-box lids will be shown in the lobby of the Temple of Music and Art in Tucson and/or the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix during the run of The Glass Menagerie. *NOTE: If box lids are to be given to Arizona Theatre Company, please have the students create on the inside of the lid, having the four sides of the lid stick out.

Artists of all types use their memories and life experiences to create their art. Tennessee Williams was a playwright, so that was his chosen medium. Students will now be given the opportunity to create a different kind of art from their chosen memory.

1) In the fi nal moments of The Glass Menagerie, Tom decides once and for all to leave his mother, Amanda, and his sister, Laura. After his fi nal argument with his mother, Tom states, “Not long after that I was fi red for writing a poem on the lid of a shoe-box. I left Saint Louis. I descended the steps of this fi re escape for a last time....” Tom’s departure concludes the play, although it is clear that he has not really left his past behind.

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2) Have each student return to his or her original memory and have each of them use those memories to guide them as they creatively decorate the lid of a shoe-box. Now that the students are familiar with the concepts of linear and non-linear, ask them to consider whether their memories lend themselves better to literal or non-literal interpretation. Students can write a poem, draw a picture, graffi ti the box, write the lyrics to a song, etc. Their decoration can be as realistic or abstract as they like, but each student’s box lid should be a personal refl ection of his or her memory. Students should use this activity to develop their thoughts and ideas just as Tom did when he wrote the poem on the shoe-box lid in The Glass Menagerie.

3) Optional Presentation of box lids, allowing each student to tell the class what their memory was and how they represented it.

3) Debriefi ng Questions- How was creating a visual or poetic interpretation of your memory different from creating a dramatic interpretation of the same memory? Which was easier for you? Which did you like doing more?- Can you think of other art objects, books, plays, or songs that use memory as their inspiration? Do you fi nd yourself drawn to art like that? Why or why not?- What did you learn about yourself through this project? How do you think that artists use their art to work through memories or life events?

Text Analysis and Character Development Lesson PlanExploring The Glass Menagerie 2010

The following activities are designed to help students explore the text of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams in order to gain a better understanding of the story and characters, and to relate the story to their own lives. Students will read and analyze specifi c scenes from the play as they look for cultural references about the 1930s and search for clues that let the audience know more about the characters in this story. This process will continue as the students see the play, and the residency will culminate with each student taking on a contemporary version of one of the four characters, creating a modern look at a classic text. Students will see how text can transfer to a new setting and time period but retain its original setting. All of the activities can be modifi ed depending upon curricular needs.

Materials you will needCopies of The Glass Menagerie script or scenePaper and pensSpace to move/ a small performance space

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Day One Activity

1) Pass out the selected scene from The Glass Menagerie. Discuss how a play is written differently than a book. Specifi cally, how is the format different?

- There are setting notes before the scene begins, explaining how the set looks and where set pieces such as furniture are located. - Speaking characters are shown by name followed by what they say. For example:

Jim: How are you feeling now? Better?Laura: Yes. Yes, thank you.

- There are stage directions (in parenthesis) discussing the character’s emotions, as well As providing information about staging and blocking.

2) As a class, discuss why an actor analyzes the text, looking for information about the time period in which the play is set as well as clues about his/her character. How does text analysis make an actor more prepared for a role and a performance?

3) Divide the students into small groups of 3 or 4 people. Have each group read and analyze one scene looking for specifi c cultural references and/or objects that illustrate the play’s 1930s time period (music, movies, dances, slang, etc…) and have personal meaning for at least one of the characters. As they read, they should also write down adjectives that best describe the characters in the scene. As an alternative to adjectives, ask students to list verbs that describe how the characters are trying to affect one another in a scene, i.e. manipulate, enlighten, patronize, exalt.

4) As a class, list all the cultural references or objects found in each scene on the blackboard, as well as which character or characters are connected to that particular reference/object.

5) As a class, fi nd a similar cultural reference/object from 2010 for each item listed on the board. Be specifi c. References and objects may have more than one contemporary equivalent…be creative and list as many as you can think of!

6) Next, list the four characters in The Glass Menagerie. Who are these characters? What is it that each character wants to achieve in the scene? In the play? What do the references or objects listed on the board mean to these characters? Keep in mind that some of these things will have a positive connotation for one character and a negative connotation for another (e.g., Tom loves the escapist nature of the movies, whereas Amanda sees them as putting ideas in his head and making him more of a dreamer.)

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Debriefi ng Questions1. Do you feel more prepared to see the play? Why or why not?2. As you look at the characters in this play, do any of them seem like people you know? How does that make you feel? 3. Do any of you see any elements of yourself in the characters? In the story? In what way?4. Can you see how these characters might be “updated” to fi t in 2010?

Tell the class that the remainder of the workshop will focus on looking at The Glass Menagerie through contemporary eyes. Students will work together to create a 2010 “production” of The Glass Menagerie fi lled with the contemporary objects or cultural references that would be found in a 2010 version of The Glass Menagerie. The list we generated is a starting point – if students have other ideas, they should discuss them with the teacher and bring them in. Each student will select an item (not their own) to write a monologue about the meaning of that object as seen through the eyes of one of the characters. The meaning can be positive or negative, depending on the character chosen. Through this activity, we will create contemporary versions of Amanda, Laura, Tom, and Jim.

If appropriate, skip ahead to sharing a sample monologue.

1) Each student should bring in a contemporary object/item that indicates a specifi c cultural reference (photo, CD, etc.) that correlates with one of the references or objects found during the analysis of The Glass Menagerie. Please let students know that if an object that they want to bring in is large or expensive or an object that they do not own, they may bring in a picture of the object instead. All students must have brought their objects in before ATC returns for the post-show workshop.2) After the students see the performance, each student should think of one additional thing that each character wants, as well as one new adjective to describe the character. Students should share those with the class.

Day 2 Activity

1) Briefl y discuss the performance.

2) Explain that today the students will be writing their monologues as contemporary versions of the characters in The Glass Menagerie. Begin with one of the sample monologues below. Ask for a student volunteer. Using the original monologue and contemporary prop provided, have one student model a monologue and prop for the contemporary “production.” The monologue will also contain a character description for 2010, which the student will not read aloud. The student performing the monologue should read it however, to get a sense of the character is being portrayed. All student

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written monologues will be based on this example.

3) Once the monologue has been performed, ask the class who they think the character is. What clues were present in the example? Did the object or cultural reference make it easier to guess? Why or why not?

4) Have each student select an item that is not his/her own.

5) Each student will then have 10-15 minutes (or longer, depending on class length) to write a short monologue as a character for whom the chosen object has meaning. Parameters for the monologue are as follows:

Monologues should be formatted like the sample scene from • The Glass Menagerie.The monologue should begin with a contemporary description of the character. • Using what they know of the characters from the play, students should consider the following:

o How old is this character?o What is he or she wearing in this monologue scene?o Where does the scene take place? (Again, keep in mind what you know of the characters and the play. Don’t take the character completely out of their world – update that world to 2010.)

The monologue should be the length of a decent paragraph and should have a • beginning, middle, and end.The character is sharing what the chosen object or cultural reference means • to him or her. If a student chooses an object or reference that could relate to multiple characters, it is up to the student to choose which character they would like to write as. However, there must be evidence in the play that a character would relate to the contemporary object (e.g., the character had a relationship with the 1930s equivalent in the original play). Remember who the characters are and their relationships to one another and to keep those relationships the same in the contemporary monologue. Students should not feel obligated to write as their own gender; they should write what is interesting to them. Students should try to capture the voice of the character as much as possible, • while also considering what a contemporary version of the character would sound like. What contemporary phrases might this character use? Encourage students to really delve into the minds and emotions of the characters • that they are writing. WHY is this object or cultural reference meaningful to the character? WHAT does the character get from his or her relationship with this object/reference? HOW do they feel about the object/reference? HOW does the character respond to the way that other characters in the story feel about the chosen object/reference?

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6) Depending on the class, choose one of the following performance options. You may choose to have volunteers read their own monologues, which gives the • students an opportunity to portray the characters as they were written. Alternatively, ask the students to trade monologues and perform each other’s. This is a • good option if the class seems less comfortable with each other or the students seem concerned about reading their own work aloud. If the second option is chosen, the students should do their best to portray the character as described by the monologue’s author; he/she should use the character description to assist in character development.

7) After each monologue, ask the class the following questions:Which character was this? How could you tell?• What in the monologue made it clear what the object/reference means to the • character? If it wasn’t clear, what could have been done to make it more apparent? How was the character emotionally connected to the object/reference?• How did the writer captured the contemporary voice of this character in the • monologue? How did the actor assist with presenting this character?

8) Continue this process until all monologues have been performed.

9) As a class, discuss the idea of producing a 2010 version of The Glass Menagerie. Could this play work in a contemporary setting with its original text? Why or why not? If you could not change the text, what on stage would need to be changed in order to set this play in 2010? What would you imagine? Would you enjoy seeing a version of this play with modernized characters and references?

Debriefi ng Questions1. Did seeing the play help to clarify the characters and story in your mind? Why or why not?2. What was diffi cult about this activity? What was fun?3. Did you feel comfortable writing the monologue? Why or why not?4. Did you feel comfortable acting out the character? Why or why not?5. Do you feel like you have a better understanding of these characters now that you have considered them as contemporary people?6. Do you think that families like the Wingfi elds still exist?7. Did any of these characters seem more familiar to you once they had been updated? In what way? How did that make you feel?

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Sample Monologue 1

(The woman in this monologue is modeled after the character Tom. They are both artists that do not practice their art. Tom is a writer. The woman in the monologue is a painter. They both use entertainment as a way of escape. Tom goes to the movies. The woman in the monologue watches Judge Judy. Their family situations are similar in the sense that she feels, as Tom did, that she is being controlled by someone close to her. In this monologue that person is her husband. In the Glass Menagerie, Tom feels that his mother Amanda is controlling him. Both Tom and the woman in this monologue have in their lives someone delicate and dependant on them. In The Glass Menagerie, Tom’s sister Laura is this person. In the monologue that person is the woman’s daughter. Even though the gender and circumstances of the characters are different, they are similar people in what deal with, and how they deal with their lives.)

Today I said forget it. Casey’s a dip-stick wanting everything perfect like some kind of idiot museum dusted and polished and perfect perfect perfect. I ain’t perfect, I’m not ever gonna be perfect. (Talks to the t.v. as if it were Casey, her husband) in fact, you know what Casey? I’m gonna sit on my butt and watch Judge Judy for the next half hour and not even THINK about this “perfect family unit that we have so miraculously put together,” as I hear you say every evening and every morning… (barks at the t.v.) Tell ‘em Judge! Speak it! (back to the audience) I love my kid. She is a miracle. She’s beautiful and sweet and full of me and life and her dad. I painted the murals on the walls of her room. I feel like they inspire her. And that’s good. Why did you get me talking about this. (to Judge Judy) Tell ‘em the truth, Judy!!!! Tell ‘em why he’s here!!! (back to us, an explanation of what’s happening on t.v) This dip-stick thinks he’s gonna get away with keying his ex-girlfriends Honda, but Judy has got another think coming for him, Don’t you Judge?! Don’t you, St. Jude?! Tell it like is, my sister in arms!!!... (back to us but eyes still glued to the t.v.) I can’t even remember the last time I picked up my brushes. Or caught the smell of oils. Or laughed the way my kid does when she looks at my walls and tells me a story about the little red-headed girl that’s her favorite and that I painted when I found out that Jazzy was gonna be a girl. (breaks out of this and looks at us) But you know what, this is my time right now, okay?! I don’t wanna talk about this crap while Judy’s on… This is the reprieve, you understand… So let me have it… (focuses in on the t.v.) That’s right, Judge, AHHHH go ON, now! Speak the TRUTH, Judy Penelope Judy Sparks! Speak the TRUTH, now!!!!

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Sample Monologue 2

(The girl in this monologue is modeled after the character Laura. Both characters have active imaginations and escape into worlds of fantasy. Laura escapes to the world of her glass menagerie. The girl in the monologue escapes into her fantasy books. Both have intense crushes on one of their classmates. Both allude to diffi culties moving. The girl in the monologue could be considered an updated version of Laura in the sense that they both are the “shy type” while underneath their shyness, they both bubble with emotion.)

The eighth installment of The Realm of Westington is amazing. The world is so so beautifully described. My favorite location in the series is the Tower of Rachel where Angus Westington and Warlock Renfi eld battle by the black arts over the descendent of the House of Rachel. She is lovely and confi dent and can run with the horses. I want to run like her. But I won’t. I will throw myself into her world though. And what an amazing world! I SO LOVE THESE BOOKS! To be the object of Angus’ passion! He reminds me of Jackson the way he’s described. Jackson called me by a nickname and he was tall and beautiful and when I think of him I feel safe and protected and loved.