Release Date: September 15, 2008
Kennesaw State presents a fresh take on a classic Tennessee Williams play
Contact: Cheryl Anderson Brown, Assistant Director of Public Relations, 770-499-3417 or cbrown@kennesaw.edu
|
KENNESAW, Ga.—The Kennesaw State University Department of Theatre and Performance Studies will present the “The Glass Menagerie” Tuesday, Sept. 23 through Saturday, Sept. 27 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 28 at 2 p.m. in the Studio Theater in the Joe Mack Wilson Building.
Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” is the semi-autobiographical story of a transplanted Southern family in crisis as seen through the eyes of Tom, an aspiring writer who struggles to escape his overbearing mother and fragile sister. Much of the play’s action centers on the family awaiting a “gentleman caller” whom the aging, Southern belle matriarch of the family hopes will save her disturbed daughter from eternal spinsterhood. Tom watches as his family’s habit of clinging to the past eventually unravels them.
The original play’s combination of expressionism and realism was considered too experimental for audiences when it premiered in 1944, and theaters performed it using a commercialized script, according to the KSU production’s director, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies Harrison Long. To reclaim Williams’ original vision, and the cast and crew spent five months researching the play, their parts and Williams’ life.
“The actors have taken real ownership of the play. This has been the most collaborative production I have ever directed,” said Long.
Long chose to direct “The Glass Menagerie” because he finds the play’s World War II-era theme of isolation versus engagement strikingly relevant to modern times. “One of the small ways theatre can change the world is by allowing us to objectively examine the past and then use those observations to make sense of the present,” he said. “That is the essence of ‘The Glass Menagerie.’”
Tickets for “The Glass Menagerie” performances at KSU are $5. For more information or to purchase advance tickets, visit www.kennesaw.edu/arts or call the KSU Box Office at 770-423-6650.
# # #
A member of the 35-unit University System of Georgia, Kennesaw State University is a comprehensive, residential institution with a growing student population of more than 21,000 from 142 countries. The third-largest university in Georgia, Kennesaw State offers more than 65 graduate and undergraduate degrees, including new doctorates in education and business.
The KSU College of the Arts is one of only four Georgia institutions to have achieved full national accreditation for all of its arts programs.