Bernell DorroughTennessee Williams: The Secret Year” International Symposium
By Matt Simonton
Let’s say you were intrigued by the performances of “Me, Vashya” and “The Glass Menagerie,” or you’re a newbie to the whole Tennessee Williams scene, and you want to know a little more. Well, “Tennessee Williams: The Secret Year” International Symposium doesn’t know the meaning of the word “little”! The Symposium, which starts this Thursday, February 12, offers over 24 hours-more than a day of your life-of various speeches, presentations, and bus tours concerning the University’s favorite dropout.
This whirlwind tour of all things “Tennessee” begins on Thursday with an opening reception in the Jewel Box in Forest Park at 7:00 P.M. Our very own Chancellor Mark Wrighton will kick things off, along with keynote speaker C.W.E. Bigsby, Professor of American Studies at University of East Anglia, UK. It should be interesting to hear an Englishman weigh in on such a deeply American figure.
The festivities continue on Friday with a bus tour of Tennessee Williams historical sites, which leaves Mallinkrodt at 8:00 A.M. Another tour begins at 9:00. This should be a great opportunity for business school students with no class on Friday! At 10:45, show up at the Gargoyle for a special talk, “Reminiscences of Tom,” hosted by Williams’s younger brother Dakin. Grab a gordita at Taco Bell and return at 1:00 for “Caged Hearts: Five Early Plays of Tennessee Williams,” performed by the company from University of Illinois. The drama continues at 3:30 in Brown Hall, room 100, with a special screening of the 1950 version of “The Glass Menagerie,” starring Jane Wyman and Kirk Douglas. After sampling the school’s photo and manuscript collection in Olin Library from 5:00-6:00, grab a big N’awlins Cajun meal (or a Russian feast, if you can find a restaurant) and get ready for “Me, Vashya” and “The Glass Menagerie”, starting at 8:00 P.M. If you still haven’t gotten your “fill of Will,” too bad; that day is done, but Saturday offers a plethora of choices.
For anyone who missed Friday’s bus tours, Saturday at 9:00 A.M. is your last chance. After that, the Lab Sciences Building, room 300 is the place to be for Tennessee. Come for any of the six lectures that will run from 10:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Topics range from “The Challenges and Satisfactions of Staging the Early Plays of Tennessee Williams” to “Tennessee Williams’s St. Louis Blues.” (The guy got outta town pretty quick after the failure of “Me, Vashya.”) Speakers are coming from far and wide, from Clemson University and the Free University of Brussels, to name a few of the various institutions represented. (Hey, the United Kingdom and Belgium-this Symposium really is international!) The evening winds up with yet another screening of “The Glass Menagerie,” but this time it’s the 1987 version, directed by Paul Newman (himself a veteran of Williams’s plays-see “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”) and starring John Malkovich and Karen Allen. If you haven’t gotten a good grasp on “The Glass Menagerie” after that, you weren’t listening closely enough.
If any of those events sound like they’d tickle your fancy, check out the Symposium’s full agenda, available at www.artsci.wustl.edu/~pad. It’s shaping up to be a fascinating weekend of Williams. Come get the full scoop on Washington University’s most famous playwright.
The Empty Glass
By Laura Vilines
From the time I first stepped onto campus as a prospective freshman, I heard tell of Tennessee Williams’s overwhelming loss in the annual playwriting contest which was held every year here at Washington University. Whenever the subject was broached here on campus, I could not help but wonder why the famous playwright was slighted so significantly in such a small pool of competitors.
For me, and for perhaps all WU alums and students, this question was finally answered this weekend with the world premiere of Williams’ submission to the 1937 playwriting contest, “Me, Vashya.” After receiving fourth place in the contest, Williams left the university, outraged at his loss and overwhelmed with the feeling that his talent was being grievously overlooked. However, after seeing the world premiere of his submission, one can not help but side with Williams’ professors and adjudicators; “Me, Vashya” was not extraordinary. At its best, it was mediocre, and definitely not the artistic genius expected from the man who has been touted as “America’s greatest playwright.” Even though the version of “Me, Vashya” that was performed this weekend was a first draft, and Williams would probably roll over in his grave if he knew that it was being presented in its current form, the short play was reminiscent of a stereotypical student work. Its characters lacked depth and artistry, and the ending seemed like a forced conclusion to a story which presented significantly more questions than answers for it befuddled viewers.
Despite the play’s inherent faults, “Me, Vashya’s” saving graces came in the form of the outstanding performances by the actors themselves. With a sub-par text and the pressure of a world premiere on their hands, the actors managed to pull off the best performances that could possibly be expected from a text that offered them so little in return. Especially notable were the performances of Dan Hirsh, Vashya Shontine, and Tara Neuhoff, who plays Vashya’s mad wife, Lady Shontine. Hirsh embodied the character of Vashya perfectly, from the way he purposefully beat his finger on the desk to his ringing self-proclamations, “Me, Vashya.” Neuhoff also did a splendid job, countering Hirsh’s manic behavior with her own believable, yet frantic, neuroses.
Even though the play’s content was lacking, the performances were noteworthy and its historical significance was great. So, if you are a Tennessee Williams buff, or a budding playwright looking for consolation that even the greatest sometimes fall short of brilliance, then “Me, Vashya” is a worthwhile expenditure. Not to mention, it is paired with one of Williams’ greatest accomplishments, “The Glass Menagerie,” which in comparison, reminds us once again why despite his more lackluster attempts at magnificence, Williams later went on to become one of the greatest playwrights of his time.
The Full “Glass”
By Robbie Gross
Despite all of the talk surrounding “Me, Vashya” and the upcoming international symposium, the true gem of this Tennessee Williams extravaganza is the performance of “The Glass Menagerie.” Perhaps Williams’ best known play, it is especially fitting when performed in St. Louis, the city where the action is set, and at Washington University, the school rather randomly poked fun at in the fifth scene. Fortunately, any and all expectations placed on the performance of the play by the school Williams once attended are met, if not exceeded. Spurred by some of the finest acting and direction of this year’s Performing Arts Department productions, “The Glass Menagerie” sparkles and shines as an honest testament to Williams’ young romanticism and mature sensibilities.
Much of the beauty of Tennessee Williams’ script is seen in its formal simplicity. Whereas many of his contemporaries and idols-including Anton Chekhov, whose “The Three Sisters” was recently performed here-were writing plays with large casts and larger themes, “The Glass Menagerie” is especially striking for its ostensible austerity. Set throughout in a boxcar-like apartment, the play’s action spans merely a few days and a few scenes. The apartment belongs to the Wingfields: mother Amanda, daughter Laura, and son Tom. The story belongs to Tom. As the 20 or so year-old narrator he introduces us to the “memory play” and what follows are a sea of recollections, the clearest of which is the actual plot: of Amanda’s quest to find a husband for her crippled daughter, and of Tom’s depression, alcoholism, and romantic yearnings. The fourth character in the play is Jim O’Connor, a gentleman caller and friend of Tom’s, who comes to the apartment in the final scenes unknowingly as the only love of Laura’s life.
Like most great playwrights, however, Williams includes additional characters in the play, mute in terms of dialogue, yet powerful in their symbolic presence. “There is a fifth character in the play,” Tom acknowledges to the audience, the Wingfield father, whose physical absence in the play (he left the family) is contrasted with his portrait hanging on the wall, empty and imaginary to the audience but full of meaning to the Wingfields. The glass menagerie is the sixth character. Placed in the front of the stage its glimmering beauty is complimented only by a crushing sense of fragility, as though the fate of the play rests on whether the score of transparent animals will crash into broken pieces or remain intact; a situation none too different from the Wingfields themselves. On the edge of poverty and stagnation, the drama’s central questions surround the future of the two children-whether Tom will escape like his father, and whether Laura will find love and security.
“The Glass Menagerie” is in many ways a play more dependent on its characters than its themes. Because of this, much of the responsibility for the play’s success lies in the actors. Without a doubt, the greatest strength of this PAD’s performance is found in the acting. As the loquacious, loving, and slightly narcissistic Amanda, junior Lindsay Brill frequently becomes the center of audience attention. Infused with energy, Brill captures and balances both the mother’s comedic delusions and painful realities. Rob Klemisch and Emily Grosland, as Tom and Laura, are equally exceptional. Klemisch, despite being only a freshman, acts the part of the substance abusing and depressed narrator with a restrained excellence. Given the immense responsibility of delivering the famous quip to Wash U he does so admirably. “I’d rather smoke,” he says after a brief pause, responding to his mother’s plea to use the money he spends on cigarettes to attend a “Washington U” accounting course. Grosland, a junior, is also splendid as the shy and laconic Laura. Often settling for a wide range of compelling facial expressions rather than words, Grosland appears to be physically perfect for the role, incorporating the character’s pretty appearance with her underlying sense of delicacy.
Where the performance stumbles a bit is in the second half. As the gentleman caller O’Connor, sophomore Matt Shapiro is slightly off the mark. O’Connor is, to be fair, a difficult character with obscure motives. Still, the approach taken to play him as a rather one-dimensional optimist, a “My gosh!” caricature, falls a bit short, leaving the audience especially unsure as to why he is worth loving, or whether he ultimately becomes the sleaze-ball he appears to be.
In a hectic week of Tennesse Williams this and that, it is appropriate that one of the highlights will be one of his admired plays. If anyone is curious as to why all this University attention be given to a man who shunned this University, the answer is that it doesn’t matter. “The Glass Menagerie” speaks for itself.