Newnan Community Theatre Opens 2011 with THE GLASS MENAGERIE, 2/17-27

On February 17th, the Newnan Community Theatre Company celebrates the 100th anniversary of Tennessee Williams' birth by presenting Williams' classic memory play The Glass Menagerie. This haunting family drama takes place at a particular time in American history, in 1938 right before World War II, just as the country was coming out of the Great Depression. While the setting controls their circumstances, the traits, conflicts and relationships of the characters are beyond time and place. They are people we will all recognize, and perhaps come away with a deeper understanding of the family members who have made us what we are - for better or worse. 

According to Paul Conroy, NCTC's Artistic Director and also the director for this production, "It's an interesting time as well as an interesting story. You can read a novel or play - but to read a drama and then see it performed and interpreted - it can really bring these things to life." Conroy considers the theatre's Black Box, with a smaller seating capacity than the theatre's main stage, to be most appropriate for the play's intimate emotional content and profound themes. Though not as famous as A Streetcar Named Desire or Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Glass Menagerie is an appropriate anniversary choice because it is a true story drawn from Williams' own life.  Like the character Tom Wingfield, Williams worked in a shoe factory in St. Louis during the Depression.  His mother closely resembled Amanda Wingfield, the faded Southern belle and matriarch in the play. 
His sister Rosa's sickliness may be represented in Laura Wingfield's slight limp. Like the absent father Mr. Wingfield, Williams' father had deserted his family and, like Tom, Williams was the family's sole support. In the play, Tom Wingfield narrates the story as a memory that has faded into his past but haunts his present. .

Of the four players in the NCTC production, three of them live in Newnan:  Susan Patterson, Robbie Kirkland and Justin Sims. The fourth, Mandy Mitchell, lives in Atlanta. Susan has been a part of NCTC for several years, both behind the scenes and treading the boards, most recently co-directing the theatre's production of The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds this past August. Robbie is a member of NCTC's improv comedy troupe NITWITS, and has appeared in several other productions here in Newnan. Justin has appeared with such theatre companies as Atlanta Lyric Theatre and Onstage Atlanta, and makes his debut with NCTC with this production. Mandy, who is also choreographing NCTC's upcoming production of Cinderella, appeared with the theatre twice last season in both Psycho Beach Party and Dog Sees God.

The Glass Menagerie was first performed on Broadway in 1945 and won a Drama Critics Circle Award. Since then it has been adapted for film twice, once for a television adaptation and as a critically acclaimed Indian movie in the Malaysian language. The Glass Menagerie has also been revived for the Broadway stage an amazing five times since its first production in 1945.
NCTC's production will run from February 17th through February 27th.