Highwood's 16th Season Launches With THE GLASS MENAGERIE

Launching its boldest and biggest season yet, The Highwood Theatre is excited to present an all-student production of Tennessee Williams' classic, The Glass Menagerie, to be performed September 28 through October 7 on Highwood's black box stage in downtown Silver Spring. A talented cast of 8th through 12th graders, working in an intimate production designed entirely by a team of 4th through 12th grade students from Highwood's Technical Theatre program, will bring life to this drama of family angst and conflict.

Rarely performed by casts of student actors, the play fits squarely within Highwood's mold of innovative educational theatre as well as the theme for their 16th Season, subtitled Betrayal: the Truth Revealed. Williams wrote The Glass Menagerie as a "memory play," which is to say that the narrator and protagonist, Tom, opens the drama by cautioning the audience that what they are about to see is based on his memory, and may not reflect what actually happened. The drama unfolds to include a woman whose husband abandoned the family years earlier, and who lives mostly in the past; her daughter who is fragile both physically and emotionally; and Tom, her son and the sole support of the family, who desperately wants to get away. Generally regarded as a semi-autobiographical piece, Williams' play thus sheds light on the complexity of what it means to be family, and the universality of our search for happiness.

The play is directed by Highwood's Production Manager Jade Brooks-Bartlett, whose vision of the unique nature of the memory play informs the development of the action. "The most interesting part of working with this specific concept is that, although it is a 'memory play,' this specific production is far more grounded in a reality than most others. The story is told by a very unreliable narrator [Tom], and our inventive staging will remind the audience that the actual story might not be exactly what they are seeing. Hopefully this will encourage the audience to relate a bit more with every character on the stage, or - if they so choose - doubt the truth of the story being told before them."

The Glass Menagerie will run for a limited engagement at Highwood's home in downtown Silver Spring: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, September 28-30, and again on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, October 5-7.

The Highwood Theatre is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing the community together through theatre. Now in its 16th season, Highwood's guiding principle is "anyone can do theatre." Highwood was founded in 2004 and began executing its mission through seasons of professional quality theatre featuring all-student casts, design teams, and production staff. In 2013, in conjunction with its relocation to the heart of downtown Silver Spring, The Highwood Theatre expanded to more fully carry out its mission and develop innovative, engaging programming for artists of all ages through professional and student productions, classes, and programs in schools and for home schooled students.

Tickets: http://www.thehighwoodtheatre.org/tickets.html