Ashley Wilson
Brown
English 152 OM3
4 December 2016
The Glass Menagerie Stevenson University’s production of Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie was a fascinating experience. The play’s setting took place in St. Louis in 1937 where a family of three lived in a small dingy apartment. The narrator and character, Tom Wingfield, desires to leave his mother, Amanda Wingfield, and his sister, Laura Wingfield but has a duty to support his family. Tom and Laura’s father happily abandons them years ago and has left Tom in a predicament in which he is now obligated to fulfill the duties that his father has abandoned. On the other hand, Laura is physically disabled and emotionally crippled in one leg. Instead of attending school and socializing …show more content…
The Glass Menagerie production implemented unique lighting design. Since the play was based on an atmosphere of memory, the lighting was unrealistic and dim. From the production note quotes for The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams’s presents, “A free, imaginative use of light can be of enormous value in giving a mobile, plastic quality to plays of a more or less static nature” (Williams 22). Williams’s idea to focus light in on actors and selected areas have made it clear to the audience that the play’s lighting is corresponding to the actual plot of the play, memory. Unlike most plays, throughout the entire production of The Glass Menagerie, lighting was focused on specific characters in order for the audience to pay close attention to each actor. Even when the lights went out, the actors improvised and used candles to light up the room in order for the audience to still be engaged with the production. During scene seven, the actors used candle lighting when there were no actual lights, Amanda states, “Everybody sits still. I’ll light the candles. Isn’t it lucky we have them on the table Where’s a match? Which of you gentlemen can provide a match? (Williams 67). The Glass Menagerie lighting design corresponded with the play’s plot which grabbed the audience’s attention throughout the
Brown
English 152 OM3
4 December 2016
The Glass Menagerie Stevenson University’s production of Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie was a fascinating experience. The play’s setting took place in St. Louis in 1937 where a family of three lived in a small dingy apartment. The narrator and character, Tom Wingfield, desires to leave his mother, Amanda Wingfield, and his sister, Laura Wingfield but has a duty to support his family. Tom and Laura’s father happily abandons them years ago and has left Tom in a predicament in which he is now obligated to fulfill the duties that his father has abandoned. On the other hand, Laura is physically disabled and emotionally crippled in one leg. Instead of attending school and socializing …show more content…
The Glass Menagerie production implemented unique lighting design. Since the play was based on an atmosphere of memory, the lighting was unrealistic and dim. From the production note quotes for The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams’s presents, “A free, imaginative use of light can be of enormous value in giving a mobile, plastic quality to plays of a more or less static nature” (Williams 22). Williams’s idea to focus light in on actors and selected areas have made it clear to the audience that the play’s lighting is corresponding to the actual plot of the play, memory. Unlike most plays, throughout the entire production of The Glass Menagerie, lighting was focused on specific characters in order for the audience to pay close attention to each actor. Even when the lights went out, the actors improvised and used candles to light up the room in order for the audience to still be engaged with the production. During scene seven, the actors used candle lighting when there were no actual lights, Amanda states, “Everybody sits still. I’ll light the candles. Isn’t it lucky we have them on the table Where’s a match? Which of you gentlemen can provide a match? (Williams 67). The Glass Menagerie lighting design corresponded with the play’s plot which grabbed the audience’s attention throughout the