LIt& Perf IA2

    The play Glass Menagerie is written by Tennessee Williams, This play was produced by Eddie Dowling and Louis J. Singer at the Playhouse Theatre in New York, on March 31, 1945. Laurette Taylor acted Amanda, Eddie Dowling acted Tom, Julie Haydon acted Laura and Anthony Ross acted Jim. Glass Menagerie is a very famous play. The story is about the tragic life of family Wingfield. This play is talking about the tragic life of the lower class. Laura is a character who has relatively short lines to say. In the text Laura is a silent person. She always wants to be the nice person in the family, everytime when Tom and Amanda are arguing Laura will be the person who stops this fight. Sometimes she also feels unconfident, she thinks she is crippled no one will like her. Sometimes she feels happy when she spends her time with Glass Menagerie.  

    In the opening of the play Tom standing on the fire escape, and lights a cigarette, then Tom is begging to introduce the play. Let a character to introduce the background information of the play, then Tom just enter the scene naturally. It is a unique way to open the play. In the end of the play, after Tom leaves the house, the scene return to the beginning Tom is still standing on the fire escape and he thinking about Laura and Amanda, at last he leaves. I think the ending echo the beginning of the text. Two paragraph use the same way to act. Both paragraph is the monologue of Tom. I think the author wants Tom to express his emotions and opinions of his family.

     In Act one scene two it is about the conversation between Laura and Amanda. In the beginning of the performance Laura was typing and she found out that her mom Amanda comes home. The conversation start with Laura, She greeted her mother " Hello, Mother, I was just.." Form the punctuation “ …” I can know that Laura is lit bit nervous, because she is lying to her mother. At the beginning of the scene, Amanda always says something indirectly that makes Laura very confused. In the text Amanda says:“ deception, deception, deception.” Laura scared by her mother. The play says Laura asked her mom shakily. So in the play I asked Amanda: “ How … was the DAR meeting mother?” Laura asked Amanda: “ mother has something happened.” Laura really wants to know what‘s happening. You were just practicing your typing, I suppose "Amanda said. " yes" Laura reply. In the text Amanda says ”Deception, deception, deception!" angrily, when I performed this part I showed Laura is confusing. Because Amanda just says “deception”, she doesn’t say the reason. From here Amanda shows her anger. She thinks Laura lying to her. After that Laura begins to ask the reason of why does mom angry about her. From “ has something happened, mother? Mother, has something happened.” From here I can know that Laura is very anxious to know the reason. In the performance I still used the normal tone to Amanda. But Amanda still says the sentence indirectly. “ Mother, I wished that you would tell me what happened!” Form the “!” I knew that Laura is impatient. So in the performance I use tough tone to said this sentence

In the middle of Scene two, it’s about the conflict part in this scene is that Amanda tell the truth to Laura that she went to the business college, no one in the college know Laura. In the Play after Amanda tells the truth to Laura that she finds out Laura doesn’t go to the college. That’s why Laura says:” Oh…” and I showed embarrassed when I said this sentence in the performance. Amanda is very worried about Laura, she thinks Laura can't gain knowledge anymore. Amanda worried no one will like Laura, she afraid Laura won't have gentlemen callers.   In the play the author wrote “Even after you'd started catching that cold?" Amanda showed that she is very confused. But Laura is very optimistic, Laura says From this sentence we can notice that Amanda is very angry, she can't understand where will Laura go during the cold winter. "It was the lesser of two evils, Mother. I couldn't go back. I threw up on the floor!", she thinks leave the college is the better choice. Then in the performance I showed smile on my face, I used relaxed mood to say this sentence. During the argument Amanda don't understand why her daughter leaves the college. Laura thinks she did lots of interesting things after she leaves the college. “ I just went walking in all sorts of places---mostly in the part.” She likes to spend time in the park, I think she may forget the cold when she is doing the thing she likes. Laura also says to her mom that "I went in the art museum and the birds-houses at the Zoo. I visited the penguins every day! Sometimes I did without lunch and went to the movies. Lately I've been spending most of my afternoons in the Jewel-box, that big glass house where they raise the tropical flowers." Laura talks about many interesting things she did. I think she will enjoy her life more. She will have more time to relax, to experience the life. During the performance, in this part I stood up and showed the audience that Laura is happy when she spends time with these glass stuff.

I think the theme of this scene is about the action of the kids in the lower class family is limited by their parents. But they have right to choose their own lifestyle. In the Act one Scene three Laura only has two sentences. In the beginning Amanda says: “ Why the women...hung up on me.” she looks very angry. But Laura is very optimistic, “ Oh, mother, mother, Tom’s trying to write.” Laura feels good, she thinks Tom is trying to write is a good thing. But Amanda thinks writing is not useful, writing can’t earn money for the family. Laura and Amanda have a great difference that can showed two characters different characteristics. Laura is excited about Tom’s writing, I used cheerful tone in the performance. At the end of scene three Tom breaks Laura’s Glass Menagerie. In the text Laura says “ my glass!--- Menagerie…” Three punctuations in the sentence show that Laura is very sad, she can’t believe her only friends were broken by her brother. In the performance I followed the text I covered my face and turned away. After I read this part in the text, I knew that Laura is very upset and sad. Glass Menagerie is very important to Laura. On the one hand, these glass toy is Laura’s friends. On the other hand, Glass Menagerie was given by Laura’s dad. I think the reason why Laura always keeping the Glass Menagerie is Laura still missing her father. I acted very sadly, I want to show the how sad Laura is. I also add some crying sound in order to make the performance more vivid.
     In the play I acted Laura. In order to go inside the character I keep reading this scene. I want to know what does the character thinking when they saying their lines. I use the techniques of Uta Hagen, I asked myself nine questions, in order to know more about the character and understand the relationship between Laura and Amanda. During the practicing I had trouble with memorizing the sentences and to show the emotion of my character, so I always found my teammates to help me and practice with me. In the play in order to let the audience to know my emotion I added some body language. When I said:" "I went in the art museum and the birds-houses at the Zoo... raise the tropical flowers." I will stand up and looks like I'm very happy to memorize the scene when Laura was staying in the Jewelry house. I will show Laura is very relaxed and enjoy to spend time in the museum, birds house and jewelry house. At first after I realized that I have to wear dress during the acting I felt very embarrassed, it's my first time to act a female character. I searched this play online and trying to look how did actor Julie Haydon act Laura well. In this play Laura is a taciturn girl. In the family she barely talks. I should always sit on my chair and be silent.
    After I read this play, I gained knowledge from this play. it tells me what is the lower class family be like, and what is their lifestyle. It teaches me how I can improve my performance, when I say a sentence, what kind of body language can I add. What I should do when others are speaking.