Play Guide [1.2MB PDF] - Arizona Theatre Company

LAURA
LAURA IN REAL LIFE
The Glass Menagerie was based on a short story by Williams
called “Portrait of a Girl in Glass.” Both the play and the story
draw heavily on Williams’ actual family experience in St.
Louis. The Laura of the story and the play is an abstraction of
Tennessee’s sister Rose. Rose Williams was Tennessee’s muse—
she became the partial inspiration for many of his tragic female
characters and the recurrent themes in his work of fragile beauty
crushed into madness by cold reality. Tennessee and Rose were
very close to one another as children. Rose was a pretty and
vivacious girl who slowly withdrew from the world. In “Portrait
of a Girl in Glass,” Williams describes this withdrawal: “As for
my sister Laura, she could be classifi ed even less readily than
I. She made no positive motion toward the world but stood at
the edge of the water, so to speak, with feet that anticipated
too much cold to move.” At the age of fourteen, Rose began
Tennessee Williams and his sister Rose
experiencing severe mood
Costume Design for Laura
by designer Emily Pepper
swings and depression. In 1937, when she was twentyeight,
she was committed to a sanitarium and was
diagnosed with schizophrenia. In 1943, she was given
a lobotomy and had to be institutionalized for the rest
of her life. Tennessee described Rose as the deepest
love of his life and, even after his death, made sure she
was provided for fi nancially.
“I think all of one’s serious work is rooted in one’s emotional experience.”
– Tennessee Williams
The muses in Greek Mythology were the goddesses that presided over the
arts and sciences. In modern usage “to muse” has come to mean to ponder
deeply and “a muse” is a guiding spirit or a source for inspiration. Rose
Williams was Tennessee’s muse; parts of her popped up in many of his
characters throughout his long career.
Do you have a muse in your family? Who is it? Write a description of your
muse. What makes them unique? Write a story about something they’ve
said or done that particularly inspired you.
The Glass Menagerie
- written by Andrea Moon, reprinted with permission from Cleveland Play House’s Study Guide for The Glass Menagerie
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 14