FARMINGTON – Sandy River Players is proud to announce its production of Tennessee William’s classic “The Glass Menagerie,” directed by Kyla Wheeler. A symphony for four actors, “The Glass Menagerie” portrays a family’s struggle to maintain the precarious balance between a difficult past and an uncertain future, exploring the bonds of family, the weight of memory, and the force of loss.
“The Glass Menagerie” is the story of a family desperate to break free of the burdens of their past and their present. William’s bittersweet semi-autobiographical account of his coming of age in 1930’s St. Louis is told from the perspective of his literary surrogate, Tom Wingfield, who serves as both narrator and the lens through which we experience the Wingfield’s plight. Tom’s mother, Amanda has been abandoned by her husband, and now lives only for her children; his unmarried sister, Laura, is a fragile and painfully shy creature who retreats into a world of glass animals; and Tom himself. His dilemma forms the central conflict of the play as he faces the agonizing choice between responsibility for his family and living his own life.
Director Kyla Wheeler is back in the director’s chair for the first time since she helmed Sandy River Player’s production of “Plaza Suite” in 2007.
“The story has been one of my favorites since I first read it as a teenager,” Wheeler says. “I found I related to each of the Wingfields in some way and I believe an audience can as well.”
Wheeler and her small team of dedicated and talented actors have been rehearsing multiple times a week since mid-February, discussing the complexities of staging Williams’ memory play.
“In rehearsals the actors and I have spent a bit of time talking about how to represent their characters as pieces of Tom’s memory and how memory is subjective. It’s been a really interesting process for sure,” says Wheeler when discussing the depth of work being done behind the scenes. “I love the idea of staging the malleable nature of memory and how to visually represent that on stage. The details that may be forgotten and lost, as well as the bits that are cemented and may even appear more pronounced.”
“I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to be in “The Glass Menagerie” and even more so to be able to play Amanda Wingfield,” says Brianna Rush who plays the fading matriarch of the Wingfield family. “This is one of my favorite plays and there’s just so much to do with the character.”
“The Glass Menagerie” opens on Thursday, April 13 and runs Friday, April 14 and Saturday, 15 at 7:30 p.m. each night in the Bjorn Auditorium at the Mt. Blue Campus.
Tickets can be purchased from Devaney, Doak & Garrett Booksellers or by calling the Sandy River Players’ ticket line at (207) 779-7884. General admission tickets are $11.00, students/seniors are $9.00.
