KU News Release

LAWRENCE — Tennessee Williams’ classic drama “The Glass Menagerie” will be staged by the University Theatre at the University of Kansas at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14, 19, 20 and 21 and 2:30 p.m. Nov. 15 and 22 at the Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Murphy Hall.

The KU production is directed by Jack B. Wright, professor of theatre, and features original music composed by Paul Bowles for the premiere production. Scenic and costume designer is Elizabeth “Biz” Grim, a third-year scenography graduate student from Huxley, Iowa. Lighting designer is Dennis Christilles, associate professor of theatre. Vocal and dialect coach is Austin Robinson, a junior from Merriam.

Originally written as a screenplay for MGM, the play stemmed from one of Williams’ short stories. It premiered in Chicago in 1944. The next year, it won the prestigious New York Drama Critics Circle Award.

Wright says the drama is about relationships, showing characters searching desperately to escape from reality.

“It is impossible for these characters to escape from this world,” he said, “so each person creates their own reality as a way to cope with their life.”

As the play opens, it is introduced to the audience by Tom as a memory play, based on his recollection of his mother, Amanda, and his sister, Laura. Amanda’s husband left the family years before and she remains stuck in the past. Tom works in a warehouse, chafing under the boredom of everyday life and spending much of his spare time watching movies in cheap cinemas. Amanda is obsessed with finding a suitor for Laura, who spends most of her time with her glass collection. At the insistence of his mother, Tom brings a young man home for dinner in the hopes he will be the long-awaited suitor for Laura. When Laura realizes Jim is the man she loved in high school and has thought of ever since, he dashes her hopes for a future, telling her that he is already engaged.

“Williams is an expert at composing memory. All of his works contain elements of his own past,” said Ashley Nicole Swetnam, a graduate student from Monette, Ark., who is assistant director of the production. “In many ways, the play is Williams’ apology to his sister Rose, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia. While he was away at the University of Iowa, their parents agreed that Rose should be given a prefrontal lobotomy, which put her into a permanent childlike state, as fragile as Laura’s glass. Tom, in fiction and reality, had to compromise between his own future and his sister’s welfare.”

Reserved seat tickets for “The Glass Menagerie” are on sale in the KU ticket offices: University Theatre, 864-3982, and Lied Center, 864-ARTS, and online at kutheatre.com. Tickets are $18 for the public, $10 for students and $17 for senior citizens and KU faculty and staff. All major credit cards are accepted for phone and online orders.

Production members are listed below by hometown, level in school, major, parents’ names, high school and role.

BARTON COUNTY
From Hoisington 67544
Jacquelyn Koester, junior, theatre and Spanish majors, daughter of Richard and Pamela Koester, Hoisington High School, Laura Wingfield.

JOHNSON COUNTY
From Lenexa 66216
Ben Sullivan, senior, theatre and journalism majors, son of Rick and Leslie Sullivan, Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, The Gentleman Caller.

From Merriam 66203
Austin Robinson, junior, theatre major, son of Sharon Riley, Shawnee Mission North High School, vocal and dialect coach

From Stilwell 66083
Matthew Crooks, senior, theatre and English majors, son of Mike Crooks and Nancy Wunderlich, Blue Valley High School, Tom Wingfield.

ARKANSAS
From Monette 72447
Ashley Nicole Swetnam, doctoral student in theatre, bachelor’s degree from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, 2005; assistant director.

IOWA
From Huxley 50124
Elizabeth “Biz” Grim, master’s degree student in scenography, bachelor’s degree from Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, 2007; scenic and costume designer.

WISCONSIN
From Racine 53408
Gail Trottier, cutter/draper in University Theatre Costume Shop, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Norb Trottier, William Horlick High School, Amanda Wingfield.