Elm Street Presents 'The Glass Menagerie'

WOODSTOCK, GA -- Audiences for Elm Street Cultural Arts Village’s production of "The Glass Menagerie" will be up-close and personal with the Wingfield family as they struggle to find their way through hard times and into a bright future.

Tennessee Williams’ legendary play is semi-autobiographical, featuring characters based on Williams himself, his histrionic mother and his mentally fragile sister, Rose. The show is told as a remembrance by Tom, the frustrated son of Amanda Wingfield (a faded, yet domineering Southern Belle).

He remembers the attempts of his mother to push her timid daughter, Amanda, into the arms of a “gentleman caller,” as well as his own struggles in the structure of the family dynamic.

Williams’ intensely vulnerable characters are poignantly realized in this production, which is directed by Reinhardt University’s Stewart Hawley.

“The cast is doing a great job,” says Hawley, “The work is challenging, requiring the actors to dig deep to find the love and humor in the piece, despite the amount of arguing and contention that is written in. This production is different than other productions that you may have seen. there is more physicality involved, it is more contemporary, and less ‘precious’ that the usual presentations."

While the original play was set in the 1930's, Elm Street's production have situated the plot line in the 1980's "in order to better connect with a contemporary audience," Hawley added.

In real time onstage, recollections from the Wingfield apartment are converted into moments from a lost black-and- white film, as Tom re-imagines those he left behind. In another twist, Hawley and set designer Kaitlyn Pierce are placing the action on the same level as the audience in a three-quarter- round configuration, rather than on Elm Street’s elevated stage.

“The beauty of building such a small stage is that the audience will be completely immersed by the close proximity and the intimacy of this play,” added Pierce.

Tickets will be limited in availability due to the three-quarter in the round seating. Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, Sept. 30 through Oct. 9. Tickets are $13.50 in advance and $18 at the door.

The show, which is rated PG-13, will be held at the Chambers at City Center at 8534 Main Street in downtown Woodstock.

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Images via Elm Street Cultural Arts Village