Play Guide [1.2MB PDF] - Arizona Theatre Company

Play Guide
The Glass Menagerie
Arizona Theatre Company America Play Guide Plays! Special Edition, Volume III of V
1

CONTENTS SPONSORS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
3 WHO WE ARE
4 INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAY
4 THE CHARACTERS
5 SYNOPSIS
6 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
9 MEMORY PLAY
9 TIME FRAME
11 THE DEPRESSION
12 WOMEN IN 1930s IN ST. LOUIS
14 LAURA IN REAL LIFE
The Glass Menagerie
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:
Tucson: Alison C. Terry
Education Manager
(520)884-8210 ext 8506
(520)628-9129 fax
Phoenix: Cale Epps
Education Associate
(602)256-6899 ext 6115
(602)256-7399 fax
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.
Support for ATC’s Education and Community Programming has been provided by:
Organizations
APS
Arizona Commission on the Arts
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona
City Of Glendale
City Of Peoria
Community Foundation for Southern Arizona
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
Phoenix Offi ce of Arts and Culture
PICOR Charitable Foundation
Scottsdale League for the Arts
Target
The Boeing Company
The Marshall Foundation
The David C. and Lura M. Lovell Foundation
The Hearst Foundation, Inc.
The Maurice and Meta Gross Foundation
The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation
15 IN DEFENSE OF THE MATRIARCH
16 WHAT IS LAURA STUDYING?
17 HISTORICAL REFERENCES FROM THE PLAY
19 TERMS FROM THE PLAY
22 MONEY IN 1937 AND 2010
23 1937 AT THE MOVIES
24 SYMBOLISM IN THE GLASS MENAGERIE
25 MONOLOGUES AND THEIR HISTORY AND FORM
26 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES
The Stocker Foundation
The Stonewall Foundation
Tucson Electric Power Company
Tucson Iron & Metal
Tucson Pima Arts Council
Individuals
Mr. Craig Altschul
Mr. and Mrs. Rob Aronoff
Mr. Randy Brookshier
Ms. Penny Buckley
Mr. and Mrs. Larry A. Cesare
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Clark
Mr. and Mrs. Tyrone Clark
Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Coris
Mr. and Mrs. Darryl B. Dobras
Mr. and Mrs. Bruce L. Dusenberry
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Glaser
Ms. Roseanne Gonzalez
Mr. and Mrs. Richard F. Imwalle
Mr. Bill Kelley
Drs. Steven and Marta Ketchel
Mr. and Mrs. David Krogen
Mr. and Mrs. John Lamse
Mr. Raul Leon
Mrs. Ann C. Lynn
Mr. and Mrs. Doug McClure
Mr. and Mrs. Fred A. Nachman III
Ms. Dana Pitt, Donald Pitt Family Foundation
Ms. Sandra D. Rutherford
Mr. Marc Sandroff
Drs. John and Helen Schaefer
Ms. Gretchen H. Shine
Ms. Peggi Simmons
Mr. Jeffrey Sorrentino
Mr. Joe Tarver and Ms. Peggy Johnson
Ms. Teresa Welborn
Dr. Raymond L. and Mrs. Julianne Woosley
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 2

WHO WE ARE
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.
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.
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.
The Glass Menagerie
ARIZONA THEATRE COMPANY: WHO WE ARE
Thousands of people make our work at ATC possible!
Herberger Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona
All of this is in support of our mission: to
create professional theatre that continually
strives to reach new levels of artistic
Temple of Music and Art in Tucson, Arizona
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 Play Guide 3

INTRO
CAST
The Glass Menagerie
by Tennessee Williams
INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAY
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.
THE CHARACTERS
Costume Design for Amanda by
designer Emily Pepper
The Glass Menagerie
Costume Design for Tom by designer Emily Pepper
Tom: 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.
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 4

SYNOPSIS
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.
SYNOPSIS
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
The Glass Menagerie
“If the writing is honest it cannot be separated
from the man who wrote it.” – Tennessee Williams
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
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 5

WILLIAMS
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
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Young Tom with his sister Rose
and mother Edwina
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
Playwright Tennessee Williams
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 openminded
than any he had ever experienced. While there
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 6

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.
"Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory."
– Tennessee Williams
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
A fi rst edition copy of
The Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie
Actor Noel Joseph Allain who
plays Tom in ATC’s production of
The Glass Menagerie
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.
Death is one moment, and life is so many of them.
–Tennessee Williams
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,
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 7

WILLIAMS PLAYS
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.
Plays by Tennessee Williams:
The Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie (1944)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
Tennessee’s Williams grave
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)
U.S. Postage stamp honoring Tennessee Williams
In Masks Outrageous and Austere (1983)
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 8

MEMORY
MEMORY PLAYS
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
TIME FRAME
Memory plays became
popular in American
playwriting after World
War II. At that time “many
American playwrights
Actor Barbra Wengerd who plays Laura in
ATC’s production of The Glass Menagerie
OTHER MEMORY PLAYS
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Glass Menagerie
The Kite Runner
Dancing at Lughnasa
How I Learned to Drive
I Never Sang for My Father
Side Man
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/
The 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:
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 9

TIME
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
The Glass Menagerie
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
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd
bombs Guernica
President of the United States
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 COLONY
lyrics by The Postal Service
I’ll be the grapes fermented,
Bottled and served with the table set in my fi nest suit
Like a perfect gentlemen
I’ll be the fi re escape that’s bolted to the ancient brick
Where you will sit and contemplate your day
I’ll be the waterwings that save you if you start drowning
In an open tab when your judgement’s on the brink
I’ll be the phonograph that plays your favorite
Albums 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 eyes
I’ll be your winter coat buttoned and zipped straight to the throat
With the collar up so you won’t catch a cold
I want to take you far from the cynics in this town
And kiss you on the mouth
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 10

TIME DEPRESSION
We’ll cut out bodies free from the tethers of this scene,
Start a brand new colony
Where everything will change,
We’ll give ourselves new names (identities erased)
The sun will heat the grounds
Under our bare feet in this brand new colony
Everything 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
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
The Glass Menagerie
"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
A crowd gathers on Wall Street
following the 1929 crash
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 11

DEPRESSION
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 Men working for the WPA
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. LOUIS
Why 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
The Glass Menagerie
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 12

WOMEN
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.
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.
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.
Map showing the location
of St. Louis in Missouri
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
Logo for the D.A.R.
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
The Glass Menagerie
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 13

LAURA
LAURA IN REAL LIFE
The 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
Tennessee Williams and his sister Rose
experiencing severe mood
Costume Design for Laura
by designer Emily Pepper
swings and depression. In 1937, when she was twentyeight,
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.
The Glass Menagerie
- written by Andrea Moon, reprinted with permission from Cleveland Play House’s Study Guide for The Glass Menagerie
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 14

DEFENSE
IN DEFENSE OF THE MATRIARCH
In 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.
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
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
Costume Design for Amanda
by designer Emily Pepper
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
The Glass Menagerie
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 15

STUDYING?
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?
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
1930s Typewriter
Gregg shorthand symbols
The Glass Menagerie
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
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 16

HISTORY
Costume Design for the Gentleman
Caller by designer Emily Pepper
The Glass Menagerie
HISTORICAL REFERENCES FROM THE PLAY
PHRASES 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.”
“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.
“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.
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.”
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide
A Century of Progress
world's fair poster
17

HISTORY
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
D.H. Lawrence
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.”
The Glass Menagerie
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 18

HISTORY TERMS
The Bombing of Guernica, 1937
In 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 PLAY
Beau: 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.
The Glass Menagerie
Beleaguered: Harassed or surrounded. Jim tells Laura he was beleaguered by females in high
school.
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 19

TERMS
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.
The Glass Menagerie
Cotillion dresses tend to be very
elaborately made
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.
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 20

TERMS
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?”
The Glass Menagerie
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.
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 21

TERMS
Probably the world’s most famous
Sphinx, at the Great Pyramids at Giza
MONEY IN 1937 AND 2010
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?
The Glass Menagerie
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.
$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 PURCHASE
Retail price for butter was about 40 cents per pound.
40 cents in 1937 is about $6 in 2010
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 22

MOVIES
DEPRESSION SHOPPING LIST—1932 to 1934
Milk—10¢ per quart
Bread—5¢ per loaf
Coffee—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 MOVIES
Throughout 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 fulllength
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).
The Glass Menagerie
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 23

SYMBOLISM
SYMBOLISM IN THE GLASS MENAGERIE
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?
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.”
The Glass Menagerie
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 24

SYMBOLISM
Tom describes the gentleman caller the symbol for “the long-delayed
but always expected something that we live for.”
The Glass Menagerie
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 FORM
Throughout 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?
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 25

MONOLOGUES
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.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
AND ACTIVITIES
The Glass Menagerie
Discussion Questions
1. 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?
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 26

DISCUSSION
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?
The Glass Menagerie
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 27

DISCUSSION
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?
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.
The Glass Menagerie
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 28

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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The Glass Menagerie
Related Assignments for Post-Performance
(Based on the Theatre Arts and Language Arts State Standards)
Playwriting, Acting, and Visual Art Lesson Plan
Exploring 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 need
Copies of The Glass Menagerie script or scene
Paper and pens
Space to move/ a small performance space
Shoe-box lids
Art supplies: Markers, scrap paper, decorations, glue, scissors, etc
Creative 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 Plan
Exploring 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 need
Copies of The Glass Menagerie script or scene
Paper and pens
Space to move/ a small performance space
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Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 33

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 Questions
1. 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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Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 35

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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Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 36

The Glass Menagerie
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 Questions
1. 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?
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 37

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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Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 38

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.
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Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 39