Play Guide [1.2MB PDF] - Arizona Theatre Company

2) The chosen student playwright will direct the scene because it is his or her memory.
Each director will be in charge of assigning roles, blocking the scene, and helping the
actors understand the emotions of the characters.
3) Decide how much rehearsal time to give the students. Once the groups are ready,
have them present the scenes to the class. (They could spend a whole day or two to fully
prepare the scenes). Encourage positive feedback on their scenes fi rst, but also discuss
areas that could be improved.
4) Debriefi ng Questions
- What did you learn about the process of writing a memory play? What was
diffi cult? What was easy?
- Was it diffi cult to choose a scene within your group? Why or why not? How did
you fi nally choose?
- If you were the playwright/director, what did you learn about creating art from
your personal experiences? Did it bother you when the actors didn’t do something
exactly as you remembered it? Can you see how Williams might have found writing
The Glass Menagerie cathartic?
- If you were an actor in a scene, how did it feel to portray a real person drawn from
the memory of your classmate? Were you concerned about doing it “wrong”? How
did you handle that?
By now, each group should have presented a scene. Students can now be given
a shoe-box lid, paper, coloring supplies, etc and they should return back to their
original memory.
Shoe-box Lid Activity
With your permission, Arizona Theatre Company would like to use the artwork created
through this activity. These shoe-box lids will be shown in the lobby of the Temple of
Music and Art in Tucson and/or the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix during the run
of The Glass Menagerie. *NOTE: If box lids are to be given to Arizona Theatre Company,
please have the students create on the inside of the lid, having the four sides of the lid stick
out.
Artists of all types use their memories and life experiences to create their art. Tennessee
Williams was a playwright, so that was his chosen medium. Students will now be given
the opportunity to create a different kind of art from their chosen memory.
1) In the fi nal moments of The Glass Menagerie, Tom decides once and for all to leave
his mother, Amanda, and his sister, Laura. After his fi nal argument with his mother, Tom
states, “Not long after that I was fi red for writing a poem on the lid of a shoe-box. I left
Saint Louis. I descended the steps of this fi re escape for a last time....” Tom’s departure
concludes the play, although it is clear that he has not really left his past behind.
The Glass Menagerie
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 32