Final Product Of The Glass Menagerie
Jacob Lebowitz
Mrs. Guarino
I.B. Literature and Performance
May 20, 2018
1903 word count
For the past 2 months we have been reading the Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. This book seems to be a relationship problem between all the characters. This play is set in St. Louis around the year of 1930. Tom supports his family which is Amanda and Laura. In the very beginning, Tom and Laura's Dad, leaves the family. Throughout the play there is a lot of arguments going on between most of the characters. The Wingfield's are very poor and soon gonna be living on the streets if they don't change things around the house. Anyways, there were many steps that all connected into this one big essay. To start off, first we had to read the book, The Glass Menagerie written by Tennessee Williams. After finishing the book, every class we would discuss or work with groups and share our thoughts between each act. Then After we were done with the book, we were assigned to come up with our own scenes from the play and pick a partner to work with for this acting project. We ended up having a partner who had the same idea for the performance as us. After preparing for 2 weeks we then performed in front of the whole class. After finishing our performance we now have to talk about how this whole process went. In all, after a good amount of time reading and performing the Glass Menagerie I have really understood each and every characters specific parts in the play.
After reading the Glass Menagerie and lots of class discussions about the context of the reading we finally came together and analyzed each character. Amanda is a bit strict and seems to annoy Tom throughout the play. Laura seems to be living in her own dream thinking about her fantasy's. Tom seems to show no support even though he is the one lifting his family up in a way. Although if you look at it, Tom can also be bringing his family down cause of his escape every night. Relationship is a major theme in this play. For example, the relationship between Laura and Tom, Tom and Amanda, and a bit of Jim and Laura at the very end before Jim leaves to go back home. Also Amanda and the Dad before he left them and never came back. In the play it said, "A blown up photograph of the father hangs on the wall of the living room, to the left of the archway (Williams)." This quote is showing the true relation that Amanda had. The only thing Dad left them was a postcard of him smiling which means a lot to the family that he was happy at one point with Amanda. Another theme in the play is freedom. For example, Tom just wants to find a way out by using the fire escape or cigarette to get his freedom from his family. "The apartment faces an alley and is entered by a fire escape, a structure whose name is a touch of accidental poetic truth, for all of these large buildings are always burning with the slow and implacable fires of human desperation (Williams)." This quote is saying how Tom uses this escape path to break out his freedom from his family. Seems like a door to nowhere but independency. Just like his Dad who left his family to go into the world and have his own freedom. Tom is a very outgoing person who is willing to do whatever is best for him and himself only. Tom is willing to find his younger sister a nice gentlemen caller. Tom has always dreampt about leaving the family for a better life. Throughout the whole play all Tom thinks of doing is making money for himself to live on his own and leave Laura and Amanda. Although it may not seem like it, Tom truly does care about his younger sister Laure and his deerful mother Laura. Anyways, lies is also a theme that plays a major role to both Laura and Tom. For instance, Tom lies about the movies but in reality he is drinking and getting drunk in town. When he gets home he is caught by Laura and Laura is very upset that he is trying to screw up not only the family but also his career. Laura lies about how she dropped out of business school and now screwed unless she finds a gentlemen caller. Love is another theme for all three of Amanda, Tom, and Laura. Love is very close to the theme freedom. Tom and Laura support their mother since Amanda's husband left her in the dust. Also Jim and Laura showed some love even though Jim was supposedly engaged and ended up not marrying the lonely Laura. In the text it said, "haven't you ever liked some boy?""Yes. I liked one once. I came across his picture a while ago (Williams)." This is showing Laura true feeling for Jim even though Jim has yet to realize that Laura used to like him. Laura must find love so she will not be living on the streets. Since Laura's education is done that means she can not make that much money and will have to find a nice, rich gentlmen to support her. Amanda does not want Tom to leave cause he is the one that is supporting both Laura and Amanda. Tom is motivated to leave cause he can not stand his mother.
It was finally presentations day! We were the second group to go on presentation day. I felt very prepared. Our scene was defiantly a bit longer than everyone else cause our first scene that we acted out was very long and ongoing. I did feel a bit of jitters before performing but after my first line I felt comfortable. The blocking was a bit awkward in the beginning. Kinda just standing there but have no other choice. The moon is good cause it changes the drought of not moving. The fire escape is bit small and closed. Not much room to walk around without getting in Amanda's (Grace') way. Our door is basically the coat hanger. It was very scary for me cause when we were going to the next scene, the lights went down and I had no light to see where I was going. You could probably tell cause I was still on stage when I was supposed to be behind the big wall. Anyways, our next scene was my favorite scene cause there was good use of the stage at least for me. I went from one side to the other in different parts. First I come out of my room and talk with Amanda. I soon get annoyed cause Amanda is giving me a hard time about Jim so I leave for the door. I try to show annoyance and that I am completely done with Amanda and will not be coming back. Grace shows good emotion pretending not to want me back even though she needs me. I slam my hand against the wall showing that the door shut (goodbye). In all, I felt our final act was very good and improved a good amount compared to our draft performance in the beginning.
After first reading the book and acting out multiple scenes in the play, I really thought back to the book. You can really feel the emotion Toms and Amanda have. The relationships in the play are very tense. You feel like you are the character and can feel there emotion/ feelings. You do really get the idea of how the character shows his emotion throughout the scene. For example, Tom is very serious. He dislikes his family and can not wait to get away to his own fantasy. Although he is the most successful out of them all he shows anger. To not only his mother but also his sister. When he was having an argument with his mother he accidentally breaks Laura's glass menagerie's cause of his anger management. I felt after watching many performances on my scene on youtube that you were practically the character and new what emotion they were feeling at the time. It was tough starting off because we were all very down and were not confident to perform a good amount of lines. As we went along you really just have to go at a slow and steady pace and not rush it. I practiced and rehearsed not only to myself but also Grace and my parents. It really all came together as the practice time winded down.
Mrs. Guarino
I.B. Literature and Performance
May 20, 2018
1903 word count
The Fragile Figurines
For the past 2 months we have been reading the Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. This book seems to be a relationship problem between all the characters. This play is set in St. Louis around the year of 1930. Tom supports his family which is Amanda and Laura. In the very beginning, Tom and Laura's Dad, leaves the family. Throughout the play there is a lot of arguments going on between most of the characters. The Wingfield's are very poor and soon gonna be living on the streets if they don't change things around the house. Anyways, there were many steps that all connected into this one big essay. To start off, first we had to read the book, The Glass Menagerie written by Tennessee Williams. After finishing the book, every class we would discuss or work with groups and share our thoughts between each act. Then After we were done with the book, we were assigned to come up with our own scenes from the play and pick a partner to work with for this acting project. We ended up having a partner who had the same idea for the performance as us. After preparing for 2 weeks we then performed in front of the whole class. After finishing our performance we now have to talk about how this whole process went. In all, after a good amount of time reading and performing the Glass Menagerie I have really understood each and every characters specific parts in the play.
After reading the Glass Menagerie and lots of class discussions about the context of the reading we finally came together and analyzed each character. Amanda is a bit strict and seems to annoy Tom throughout the play. Laura seems to be living in her own dream thinking about her fantasy's. Tom seems to show no support even though he is the one lifting his family up in a way. Although if you look at it, Tom can also be bringing his family down cause of his escape every night. Relationship is a major theme in this play. For example, the relationship between Laura and Tom, Tom and Amanda, and a bit of Jim and Laura at the very end before Jim leaves to go back home. Also Amanda and the Dad before he left them and never came back. In the play it said, "A blown up photograph of the father hangs on the wall of the living room, to the left of the archway (Williams)." This quote is showing the true relation that Amanda had. The only thing Dad left them was a postcard of him smiling which means a lot to the family that he was happy at one point with Amanda. Another theme in the play is freedom. For example, Tom just wants to find a way out by using the fire escape or cigarette to get his freedom from his family. "The apartment faces an alley and is entered by a fire escape, a structure whose name is a touch of accidental poetic truth, for all of these large buildings are always burning with the slow and implacable fires of human desperation (Williams)." This quote is saying how Tom uses this escape path to break out his freedom from his family. Seems like a door to nowhere but independency. Just like his Dad who left his family to go into the world and have his own freedom. Tom is a very outgoing person who is willing to do whatever is best for him and himself only. Tom is willing to find his younger sister a nice gentlemen caller. Tom has always dreampt about leaving the family for a better life. Throughout the whole play all Tom thinks of doing is making money for himself to live on his own and leave Laura and Amanda. Although it may not seem like it, Tom truly does care about his younger sister Laure and his deerful mother Laura. Anyways, lies is also a theme that plays a major role to both Laura and Tom. For instance, Tom lies about the movies but in reality he is drinking and getting drunk in town. When he gets home he is caught by Laura and Laura is very upset that he is trying to screw up not only the family but also his career. Laura lies about how she dropped out of business school and now screwed unless she finds a gentlemen caller. Love is another theme for all three of Amanda, Tom, and Laura. Love is very close to the theme freedom. Tom and Laura support their mother since Amanda's husband left her in the dust. Also Jim and Laura showed some love even though Jim was supposedly engaged and ended up not marrying the lonely Laura. In the text it said, "haven't you ever liked some boy?""Yes. I liked one once. I came across his picture a while ago (Williams)." This is showing Laura true feeling for Jim even though Jim has yet to realize that Laura used to like him. Laura must find love so she will not be living on the streets. Since Laura's education is done that means she can not make that much money and will have to find a nice, rich gentlmen to support her. Amanda does not want Tom to leave cause he is the one that is supporting both Laura and Amanda. Tom is motivated to leave cause he can not stand his mother.
Well first Mrs. Guarino chose Grace and I to be partners cause on both of our lists we had the same scene just different characters. The memorizing had to come first. Both Grace and I felt that we should memorize the acting before the actual blocking on the stage. We had about 2 weeks to memorize both of our lines. By helping each other out we quizzed each other. Sometimes I would have all the lines and Grace would not (Vice Versa). Whenever we had no idea what our lines were we had them say it multiple times so we had an idea of our part so we remember for next time. We ended up taking a few parts out cause our lines could have been shorter. At home when I had free time I would have my mom quiz me. I felt very prepared a week before our performance even though it got pushed back a few days. Tom is more of a simple guy who likes to end the conversation. As for Amanda she is a bit more detailed and likes to go on and on. Grace had a little more detail in her lines than me. For myself, I felt very prepared when presenting. Usually I am a bit nervous cause my big problem is the memorization when I act. In previous acting projects I had trouble memorizing my lines cause I had barely practiced. I knew this was a big project and had to focus on the memorization and which I did.
It was finally presentations day! We were the second group to go on presentation day. I felt very prepared. Our scene was defiantly a bit longer than everyone else cause our first scene that we acted out was very long and ongoing. I did feel a bit of jitters before performing but after my first line I felt comfortable. The blocking was a bit awkward in the beginning. Kinda just standing there but have no other choice. The moon is good cause it changes the drought of not moving. The fire escape is bit small and closed. Not much room to walk around without getting in Amanda's (Grace') way. Our door is basically the coat hanger. It was very scary for me cause when we were going to the next scene, the lights went down and I had no light to see where I was going. You could probably tell cause I was still on stage when I was supposed to be behind the big wall. Anyways, our next scene was my favorite scene cause there was good use of the stage at least for me. I went from one side to the other in different parts. First I come out of my room and talk with Amanda. I soon get annoyed cause Amanda is giving me a hard time about Jim so I leave for the door. I try to show annoyance and that I am completely done with Amanda and will not be coming back. Grace shows good emotion pretending not to want me back even though she needs me. I slam my hand against the wall showing that the door shut (goodbye). In all, I felt our final act was very good and improved a good amount compared to our draft performance in the beginning.
After first reading the book and acting out multiple scenes in the play, I really thought back to the book. You can really feel the emotion Toms and Amanda have. The relationships in the play are very tense. You feel like you are the character and can feel there emotion/ feelings. You do really get the idea of how the character shows his emotion throughout the scene. For example, Tom is very serious. He dislikes his family and can not wait to get away to his own fantasy. Although he is the most successful out of them all he shows anger. To not only his mother but also his sister. When he was having an argument with his mother he accidentally breaks Laura's glass menagerie's cause of his anger management. I felt after watching many performances on my scene on youtube that you were practically the character and new what emotion they were feeling at the time. It was tough starting off because we were all very down and were not confident to perform a good amount of lines. As we went along you really just have to go at a slow and steady pace and not rush it. I practiced and rehearsed not only to myself but also Grace and my parents. It really all came together as the practice time winded down.
In conclusion, I really learned a lot by reading and acting out the scenes in The Glass Menagerie. After a good amount of time reading and performing the Glass Menagerie I have really understood each and every characters specific parts in the play. I can really connect to my life and other peoples lives. Yes, at times all of us feel the need to leave our families. In the end we all show love. Its to bad that Tom could not deal with the tension anymore. After lots of revising and reading it has finally all come together to become one big piece. I really thought Grace and I did a great job preparing and rehearsing for the performance part of this play. I must give her credit for teaching me the proper ways about blocking and where to go when speaking to Grace or the audience. At first, I was very unconfident about performing but soon became very comfortable. I feel like this was a perfect amount of time to not only read the whole book but also perform and write about The Glass Menagerie. This is a play that I will always remember for the rest of my acting career. I really enjoyed this project not only the class discussions but also the acting involved.
Works Cited:
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. New Directions, 1970.
Works Cited:
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. New Directions, 1970.
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