The Glass menagerie

Media

Part of The Carolinian

Title: The Glass menagerie
Creator: Satorre, Manuel S. Jr.
Language: English
Year: 1965
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Fulltext: USC DRAMATIC EVENT OF THE YEAR 1964: SOMETHING sentimental and heart warming, something un-realistic, but surprisingly memorable, the wildly ac claimed Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie rode into town on turbulent November week of last year. Much to the surprise of many, it did not leave with the typhoon that invited itself into the heart of the city, impromptu threat ening the play presentation; yes, some thing wonderful, something beautiful lingered in the memory.... The play presentation in arena-style, with barely two months of hectic pre paration at the Cebu Youth Hall, geared for a showdown with the almost artistic ally-impoverished but James Bond-orient ed Cebuano audience. It was like an egg about to be hatched and yet, when it was actually hatched, the chick would not come out of its broken shell, afraid the world might not suffer it. Nevertheless, through the erstwhile sponsorship of the 8th Supreme Student Council of the University in cooperation with Fulbright Professor Joseph Fitch and his workshop and USC Rector Rev. Fr. John Vogelgesang, S.V.D., the play was finally put to a test before a select audience of about 200 persons who (most probably) went to see the play in spite of the typhoon. Almost as in a dream, the play headed for a happy ending with drama enthu siasts who witnessed the sudden drama tic rebirth in Cebu declaring thus, ‘‘The play was superb! Who’s the director? Who are the casts? etcetera, etcetera, etcetera....?” The Play and The Author Ably directed by visiting Fulbright Professor Joseph Fitch, the arena-style play presentation recreated Tennessee Williams’ fiercest and boldest cry of “catastrophe without violence." While the Williams audience accepted for many years his outrageous and almost disgust ing portrayal of violence which he was dealing out to them — of rape, castra tion, and cannibalism — the Glass Me nagerie is a far cry from what he has been feeding us. Interviewed by News week in the spring of 1960 after the first presentation of the play, Williams said, “I want to pass the rest of my life be lieving in other things. For years I was too preoccupied with the destructive im pulses. From now on I want to be con cerned with the kinder aspects of life.” It could not have been only a period of adjustment, the sudden turn in his liter ary career or that which was expected The Director and the Cast of The ©lass Menagerie pose for posterity before the final rehearsal of the arena-style presentation. Photo show from left to right: Wllfredo Jnstlmbaste, Hannah Flores, Professor Joseph Fitch, Vivien Ordoiia, and Mr. Agaplto Severino. of Jean Paul Sartre when he rebuked the Nobel Prize in literature. The cry and the resolution came from someone alone, utterly and irrevocably, in his agony. It could have been an Osbornian crisis. But it was Williams’: the writer of the macabre world of violence, making headway for the lost province of the more American, concerned with the more smil ing aspects of life. Violence portrayed in his plays as The Night of the Iguana, The Rose Tattoo, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly Last Summer, Summer and Smoke, and many others, perhaps, provides the spring board for this remarkable change in Wil liams. Anyway, as the philosophers would put it, the literary world should be dyna mic and not static, which means it should be capable of transcending from one di mension to another. The Glass Menagerie was hailed as a major dramatic event when it first ap peared. The play survives mainly on symbols rather than the literal which holds to the fore the rise of the memory play. by Manuel S. Satorre Jr. Williams has successfully woven a pattern which pieces together the frag mented lives of human beings, winding up into a tragedy quietly fulfilled in the words of one of its characters: “Blow out your candles, Laura — and so good bye. ..." The play — which Williams calls the “new plastic theater” where evanescent characters and images flicker across the stage momentarily, with characters who often want to withdraw from the blind ing light of reality into the softer world of illusion — is a story of five characters, Amanda, the mother; Laura, the daught er; Tom, the son; Jim, the Gentleman Caller; and the father whose presence is felt in his absence. It starts with Tom and his mother in mortal conflict. Amanda, in their poverty but without losing hope, wanted to create a new world for Laura who happens to have lost the essence of life when she suffered a limp after a fall. She asks Tom to get Laura a Gentleman Caller which thus ushers in the fragility in Laura’s world imbedded in the symbolic "glass menagerie" she treasures in her home. Finally, after hours of confrontation, Amanda succeeds in persuading Tom to bring into their anguish-ridden home a Gentleman Caller. THE GLASS MENAGERIE March-April, 1965 THE CAROLINIAN Page Twenty-five Professor Joseph Fitch coaches Hannah Flores (left) and Vivien Ordoiia (extreme right) the proper diction and the art of drama. When Jim, the Gentleman Caller, comes, Laura, (afraid because she real izes the man is the same person whom she had a crush on during her school days) refuses to see him. But Amanda, playing the matchmaker successfully brings them together in happy reunion. But the twist as in any other play comes. Laura discovers that Jim, the sweetest thing that ever came into her life, is engaged with another woman. Laura is left alone painfully trying to heal her wounds. Amanda sighs. While Tom leaves their home in search for adventure. Commenting on the play, Dr. Roger Stein, Assistant Professor of English at the University of Washington, said, “The particular excellence of The Glass Me nagerie, by contrast, is that Williams was able at th.s one point to sustain both a credible dramatic situation of the an ticipation and appearance of the Gentle man Caller at the same time that he de veloped with extraordinary skill the secondary level of allusion which gives to the drama its full symbolic signific ance. The pattern of allusion, the tight ness of poetic texture, transforms the pathetic story of the Wingfield family into a calamity of immense proportions.” THE ARENA AND THE MEMORY PLAY The arena is a new technique in theater presentation. It places the stage in the center with the spectators view ing the play from all sides which brings to the limelight the character and the drama and moves the play right into the midst of the audience. This is effected by the proximity of the players to the spectators and the concomitant austerity of the set, because of its own nature, the audience has to be limited and the acting stressed. The memory play is perhaps most suit able for the arena. As Williams des cribes it: “The scene is memory and is therefore non-realistic. Memory takes a lot of poetic license. It omits some de tails. Others are exaggerated. Accord ing to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for memory is seated predo minantly in the heart. The interior is therefore rather dim and poetic.” Dr. Stein explains it this way: “The structure of the play helped Williams to move away from realistic drama and too great a dependence upon only the literal significance of word or action. His development of The Glass Menagerie as a ‘memory play,’ organized around Tom’s remembrances of things past, gave Williams the freedom to develop the “new plastic theatre” of which he spoke in the author’s production notes to be published versions of the play. Lighting, music, and the device of the narrator who is both a commentator on and a part of the series of tableaux which he presents in his search for the meaning of the past all contribute to the play’s fluidity, a quality and metaphor which one critic sees as central to Williams’ art.” Mr. Agapito Severino (left) executes a dramatic pose before Wilfredo Justimbaste in a touching scene in The Glass Menagerie. THE DIRECTOR, CAST, AND PRODUCTION STAFF The visiting Fulbright professor, we may call him: Professor Joseph C. Fitch. He was responsible for the success of the play presentation. As someone who has not really been used to the Cebuano temperament, it was amazing how Professor Fitch managed to direct the play in utter smoothness. We can still remember how he would nervously walk around the arena and observe his students performing during the actual presentation of The Glass Menagerie at the Youth Hall last Nov ember 19 to 22, 1964. Many were even amazed how he succeeded in letting his actors speak with an American accent! Fitch who was a professor of theater arts at Montana State College, is a United States Educational Foundation grantee at the University. He has both theoretical and practical knowledge of drama and the arts. He holds the degree of Bachelor of Science in English from Murray State College. From the same institution, he obtained a Master of Arts degree in Education and Psychology. His Master of Fine Arts degree in drama he obtained from Yale University. He had made special studies of the theater and television at the American Theater Wing. Helping Professor Fitch bring The Glass Menagerie into a successful conclu sion were the cast and the production and promotion staff of the play. Mr. Agapito Severino, an English instructor in the un'versity, played the role of Tom, the poet whom Jim, port rayed by Wilfredo Justimbaste, called Shakespeare. Although Severino was a little bit older for his role of Tom, he successfully displayed intensity in his characterization. “Maybe,” Severino said when asked to comment after the p'fay presentation, “it was due to my ulcers that I really looked like Tom." The role of Amanda, played by Vivien Ordoiia, a former Graduate School stud ent, now an East-West researcher, was the most taxing of all the performances. Hannah Flores, a Commerce student in this university, was just perfect for the role of Laura: naive, innocent-look ing and a first timer. Those who composed the production (Continued on page 47) Page Twenty-Six THE CAROLINIAN March-April. 1965 6. Spoon-feeding — Too much spoon-feeding is evident in our schools and universities. Students show aversion to subjects or me thods of instruction which require thinking. More attention on train ing how to think should be given and the greater use of the library should be encouraged to develop the habit of independent study. 7. Teachers’ and students’ load — More emphasis on quality than quantity should be exercised; on what the diploma stands for than on the diploma proper. A passion for thoroughness and hard work should be inculcated in the stu dents. Similarly, professors should not be overloaded, but be allowed time to improve themselves profes sionally and meet students for much-needed consultations. 8. Size of class — The size of classes, especially in laboratory courses, should be kept as small as possible. 9. Student apprenticeship — Students in engineering and other course preparing for a scientific profession should be encouraged to take apprenticeship in some indus tries or business firms. The mix ing of work and study is a whole some arrangement for a growing mind. 10. Equipment and facilities — Since the laboratory place an indis pensable role in technological edu cation, it should be adequately equipped with materials and equip ments for individual, group and class experiments. But most of the supplies have to be imported, so the government should help decrease the cost and difficulty of procurthem by minimizing if not abolish ing red tape and import taxes on them. Inspired with the unselfish ef forts of the private sector of edu cation for the upliftment of our educational system, the Board of National Education created a Re vamp Committee with Secretary of Education Alejandro R. Roces and the then Undersecretary Mi guel B. Gaffud as Co-chairman to look over our present system. With the realization of this projected educational revolution, we hope our country’s need for scientist engineers who are liberally edu cated and who can assume without further effort the managerial as pects of industry will thus be met more effectively. # THE SANTO NINO OF CEBU (Continued tury before the formal introduc tion of Christianity during the suc cessful colonization of the islands by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. Hardly realizing its true signifi cance, the early Cebuanos had held the image in great reverence, peti tioning it in all their necessities, and offering sacrifices to the San to Nino in the manner of their other idols. The Santo Nino be came, then as now, the symbol of deliverance in times of drought, famine and plague, and protector in times of fire and other dangers, which in those early days were ma nifested in “Moro” attacks. After the Spaniards came, the cult of the Santo Nino spread to the rest of the islands where important se condary centers were set up in the islands of Luzon (the southern part) and Panay. In Panay the early parishes es tablished by the Augustinians where, up to this day the devotion to the Santo Nino is well establish ed, were in Aklan, Banga and Ibajay. Aklan, which is now a sepa rate province, incorporates the municipalities of Banga and Ibajay, and in addition, three other centers of Santo Nino devotion: the proTHE GLASS MENAGERIE (Continued from page 26) and promotion staff are the following: Resi) Mojares, executive chairman; Leandro Quintana, production manager; Eddie Yap, and Vic Cui, stage managers; Tony Buagas Jr. Manny Manlegro, Nes tor Magan, Frank Coliflores, Edgar Saso, Manuel Amora and the Engineering Deltans, stage crew; Vic Cui, light; Ed gar Gica, sound; the Deltans and the USC-SCCAC Chapter, property; Fely Lucas, make-up; Beth Hermosfsima, costumes: Ellen Viloria, hair-do; Jennie Kimseng, finance; M. Satorre, Jr., pro gram, sales, publicity; Vivien Alix, Rise Faith Espina, reception; Sally Go, cock tails; Fotorama, Inc., photography and Rev. Fr. John Vogelgesang, S.V.D., ad viser. Obviously, as in any play or story, we must end. Tennessee Williams sleeps, but his works tremble all over the world like a burning candle stirred by the wind. Professor Fitch would soon leave us and leave for the United States. Some mem bers of the Cast and of the production staff must have graduated and left the front page 22) vincial capital of Kalibo and the municipalities of Makato and Altavas. An indigenous religious prac tice connected with the devotion to the Santo Nino of Cebu, is tak ing the Santo Nino in fluvial pro cession. This is still very much in evidence in Aklan and the prac tice is called “Pasalom.” For that matter, the fluvial procession is evident throughout those other areas where the Santo Nino devo tion is strong among the people. In the Visayas, one other area which merits mention is the island of Leyte, especially the City of Tacloban. In Manila, aside from the city proper, the districts with a flour ishing devotion to the Santo Nino are Pandacan, Tondo and Makati. Immediate surrounding provinces with a strong devotion to the Santo Nino are Bulacan and Cavite. Highly responsible for the propa gation of this devotion in the abovementioned areas, were, no doubt, the pioneer Augustinian mission aries who belonged to the Province of Santisimo Nombre de Jesus. From these early centers the devo tion was, in turn, spread through out the rest of the islands. J university by now. But the memory ling ers, one turbulent November week of last year cries out the unfulfilled echoe of Williams, in agony: ‘‘I didn’t go to the moon. I went much farther. For time is the longest distance between two places.... I travelled around a great deal. The cities swept about me like dead leaves, leaves that were bright ly colored but torn away from the branches. I would have stopped, but I was pursued by something. It always came upon me unaware, taking me alto gether by surprise. Perhaps it was a familiar bit of music. Perhaps it was only a piece of transparent glass... Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you be hind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be! I reached for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into a movie or a bar. I buy a drink, I speak to the near est stranger — anything that can blow your candles out — for nowadays the world is lit by lightning. Blow out your candles, Laura.... And so — goodbye!!” March-April, 1965 Page Forty-Seven