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Overview

Synopsis

A theatrical piece of distinct power, with some of Tennessee Williams’ most potent lyricism, The Glass Menagerie is a memory play as told to us by Tom Wingfield, a merchant marine looking back on the Depression years he spent with his overbearing Southern genteel mother, Amanda, and his physically disabled, cripplingly shy sister, Laura. While Amanda strives to give her children a life beyond the decrepit St. Louis tenement they inhabit, she is herself trapped by the memory of her life past-- a life of cotillions and suitors and wealth, now long gone. Tom, working at a shoe factory and paying the family’s rent, finds his own escape in drinking and going to the movies, while Laura pours her energy into caring for her delicate glass figurines. Tom, pressured by his mother to help find Laura a suitable husband, invites an acquaintance from the factory to the apartment, a powerful possibility that pushes Amanda deeper into her obsessions and makes Laura even more vulnerable to shattering, exposed like the glass menagerie she treasures. Williams’ intensely personal and brilliantly tender masterpiece exposes the complexity of our memories, and the ways in which we can never truly escape them.

Show Information

Category
Play
Age Guidance
Youth (Y)/General Audiences (G)
Number of Acts
1
First Produced
1944
Genres
Drama
Settings
Unit/Single Set
Time & Place
st. louis, missouri, 1930s
Cast Size
small
Ideal For
Community Theatre, College/University, Regional Theatre, Includes Young Adult, Adult, Mature Adult Characters, Small Cast

Context

Plot

Characters

Name Part Size Gender Vocal Part

Tom Wingfield

Lead

Male

Spoken

Amanda Wingfield

Lead

Female

Spoken

Laura Wingfield

Supporting

Female

Spoken

Jim O’Connor (The Gentleman Caller)

Featured

Male

Spoken

Songs

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A song with an asterisk (*) before the title indicates a dance number; a character listed in a song with an asterisk (*) by the character's name indicates that the character exclusively serves as a dancer in this song, which is sung by other characters.

Monologues

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Scenes

All scenes are the property and copyright of their owners. Scenes are presented on StageAgent for educational purposes only. If you would like to give a public performance of this scene, please obtain authorization from the appropriate licensor.

Key Terms

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Themes, Symbols & Motifs

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