Play Guide [1.2MB PDF] - Arizona Theatre Company

TIME DEPRESSION
We’ll cut out bodies free from the tethers of this scene,
Start a brand new colony
Where everything will change,
We’ll give ourselves new names (identities erased)
The sun will heat the grounds
Under our bare feet in this brand new colony
Everything will change, oOo oOo…
New in 1937:
• Supermarket shopping carts
• Drive-in banking
• Spam
• U.S. blood bank
• Antihistamines
• The Golden Gate Bridge
• Nylon patented
-reprinted with permission from the Hippodrome Theatre
THE GREAT DEPRESSION
The Glass Menagerie takes place in
1937, during what is commonly known
as the Great Depression. Because the
Depression had been ongoing for some
time by the year The Glass Menagerie
takes place, its effects were widespread
and deeply felt by the American public.
How did the Great Depression Happen?
After the end of the First World War, the American economy
prospered. The war provided American cities with a broad
industrial region of textile mills, coal mines, iron and steel furnaces,
and timber saw mills. However, the increased wealth in the United
States did not affect the farmers and workers who had already been
producing the country’s necessary goods.
WWI’s surplus of goods blanketed the American economy and
Americans could not consume the goods produced, ultimately
leading to the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The excess plagued
A mid 20th century
advertisement for Spam
The Glass Menagerie
"While the crash only took place six months
ago, I am convinced we have now passed
through the worst -- and with continued unity
of effort we shall rapidly recover."
-President Herbert Hoover, May 1, 1930
A crowd gathers on Wall Street
following the 1929 crash
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 11