Tennessee Williams' still-relevant 'Glass Menagerie' continues at NEYT

Thursday, October 23

BRATTLEBORO -- Though it was written 64 years ago and set in the Depression, Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" seems a lot like current events.
With the election looming and national events muscling their way more instrusively into our consciousness, the New England Youth Theatre has thrown its hat into the ring with a production of "The Glass Menagerie" that has created a buzz among audiences.

"The audience has been so responsive, both because of its pain and its humor," said Director Rebecca Waxman in a phone interview on her way home from a session her cast had with a drama class at Brattleboro Union High School Monday afternoon. "These kids (in the cast) are just tenacious. You really feel everybody's motor in this."

Performances continue tonight at 7 p.m., Friday at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 3 and 7:30 p.m.

From the opening monologue to the last strains of Williams' searing prose, this heartbreaking memory-tale of the Wingfield family and the dynamics that tear them apart during the hardscrabble years of the Great Depression hits audiences with a wallop that lasts long after the curtain falls.
Take for example, these words penned by enthusiastic audience member Ralph Meima in a letter to the Reformer: "Listening to Tennessee Williams speak through these actors about a very unfortunate period in U.S. history, I found myself hoping that our society manages to stay far from the reality they endured. Classics are classic because they never lose their relevance, or -- if they do periodically fade from fashion -- the cyclicality of human existence wrenches them back into currency when a future audience recognizes its own world in theirs."

The production also marks another new venture for NEYT -- a production which combines teen and adult actors. The cast features Pilar Garcia Sussman, Rosa Palmieri, Jay Gelter and Colin Hinckley.