The African-American Shakespeare Company Returns With THE GLASS MENAGERIE
The Glass Menagerie runs from March 10 through March 26.

The African-American Shakespeare Company is proud to finally present The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. Originally scheduled for February of 2022, it had to be postponed due to COVID but now will take its place beside two other Williams plays performed by the company: Cat on a Hot Tin Roofin 2013 and most recently their hugely moving and well-received production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 2018.
As conceived and directed by Monica White Ndounou, Executive Director and Founder of The Craft Institute, this version will most definitely reflect the ethos of the African-American Shakespeare Company of "Envisioning the classics with color."
"I want to explore and illuminate the various ways people of color experienced the economic circumstances and family dynamics inherent in the play," says Ndounou. "Consider it a conversation between our artists and creative team and Tennessee Williams. A call and response of sorts if you will."
This autobiographical play catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame, and is well known for many things, not least of all the fierce and at times resentful matriarch Amanda Wingfield who though originally from means and very much a particular type of Southern belle, has what would now be called a "side hustle" selling magazines. This contrasts against her very introverted and heartbreakingly sensitive daughter Laura who collects delicate glass animals, and her elusive son Tom.
Noting that some critics have objected to the idea that a Black Amanda Wingfield would be so wistful about her southern upbringing and her place in it, Ndounou casts it aside and looks to her own personal experience as a guide. "As a Black woman and native southerner," she says, "I see this as an opportunity to bring the south and southern culture of the time alive for these characters of color as it would have been lived. While the experience of Williams as a writer was of course from a white perspective, books such as Our Kind of People by Lawrence Otis Graham outlines the ways that well-off Black communities engaged in some of the same standards and practices like cotillions and other things that continue to this day. So there is a lot to work with here. And I am here for it!"
What: The African-American Shakespeare Company Presents The Glass Menagerie
When: March 10-26
Where: Marines Memorial Theatre
Tickets: $35.00-$75.00 at City Box Office
More Hot Stories For You

March 31, 2023
San Francisco Playhouse will conclude its 20th Anniversary Season with the hit Broadway musical A Chorus Line.

March 31, 2023
Playful People Productions presents Disney's The Jungle Book KIDS, featuring children ages four to 11 in this musical tale of standing by your friends.

March 31, 2023
In May, New Conservatory Theatre Center is overjoyed to conclude their daring 2022- 23 Season with Charles Busch's The Confession of Lily Dare. Starring Bay Area icon, J. Conrad Frank in the titular role of Lily Dare, this rags to riches to rags romp set in the hedonistic heyday of the Barbary Coast is a loving lampoon of the confession films of Hollywood's Golden Age.

March 29, 2023
Theatre Rhinoceros presents Shakespeare's Pericles, textually queered and performed outdoors on the beautiful grounds of Yerba Buena Gardens, per Theatre Rhinoceros tradition.

March 29, 2023
Opera San José and ArtSmart have announced a new partnership to support free voice lessons, musical opportunities, and mentorship for under-resourced students in San Jose.