Inner workings of theatre family: ‘The Glass Menagerie’

Theatre VCU’s February production, “The Glass Menagerie,” takes audiences into the life of the Wingfield family, who is trying to function in the midst of the 1930s Great Depression. Amanda (Lorri Lindberg) struggles to marry her shy daughter Laura (Jenny Hann) and deal with her reclusive son Tom (Charley Raintree) who dreams of being a writer.

Before the grand opening Thursday at 7:30 p.m., “The Glass Menagerie” director Janet Rodgers and actors Lindberg and Raintree sat down with The Commonwealth Times to discuss their involvement with the play.

The Commonwealth Times: Why is the play called “The Glass Menagerie”?

Janet Rodgers: It’s something very real. It is in fact a cluster. It is Laura’s occupation and it’s what she loves. Her mother, Amanda, has named this collection of glass animals the glass menagerie.

Charley Raintree: And a menagerie is like a zoo, sort of.

CT: Janet, how did you pick the cast?

Rodgers: We had 200 people audition and then out of those 200, I selected about 10 possibilities of people for each role. Then we had a day of call back auditions and selected the main cast. We have a complete understudy cast that’s completely rehearsed and costumed. They’ll be doing the show once. Last night in fact, two of them stepped in when actors weren’t feeling well. So we have two casts. Lori (Lindberg) was cast prior to the show. Lori is on the faculty and she’s a fabulous actress. She was cast last year.

CT: What qualities were you looking for in actors when you were casting them?

Rodgers: Tom, I was looking for someone who . oh, boy, this is really hard. Someone who .

Lorri Lindberg: Could jump a generation and not be of his own generation but of a different generation. That’s what I love about what you picked. They have the ability to seem like people from the 1930s.

Rodgers: And look like people from the 1930s, and speak like people from the 1930s. They were all able to do that.

Lindberg: You picked people that were very comfortable with language, (and) had strong voices.

Rodgers: And had a physical training and ability to transform themselves.

CT: What has the cast improved on since rehearsals started?

Rodgers: Well, everything’s grown. When we start rehearsals, the actors are new to the text so they’re just beginning to make their words their own. They’re new to the “physicalizations” and the actions and playing with the props and walking through the set. As they act, they become more and more part of the character and it all becomes integrated into one organic whole.

Raintree: Early on we did establish the frame work but what I think is one of the most important things for an actor to do is have a constant sense of discovery, and to figure out the nuisances. I think that’s how this cast has been lucky is to have that framework early on and then to still have the permission to play and find the detail so the show is very specific in its relationships and character development.

Rodgers: And it comes from the actors-not from me.

Lindberg: It has something of what family is. We’ve always had to remind ourselves that we’re not enemies because there’s a lot of arguing. There’s a lot of controlling and trying to get away from control and all the natural dynamics that happen in families. I’m always trying to find the “I love you” in any of the moments that are going on, if I can possibly fit it in there because it’s a very different type of dynamic than any other sort of relationship?based play.

CT: What about “The Glass Menagerie” will attract college students?

Rodgers: I think that the play opens up the heart and the soul of truth that all of us feel and see and sense. I think there’s a basic human truth about this family that everyone in the audience can relate to regardless of whether their family is a functional family or a dysfunctional family. We all have these experiences where we love people very dearly but we can not stand living with them or they thwart our desires of what we want to do with our lives. The butting of heads with parents, “Well I want to do this. No. You should go do this. Do something sensible with your life.” We see that all the time.

Lindberg: Then there’s this weird correlation with what’s going on now. Every time I go home after rehearsal I have this decompression time and I’ll sit and I’ll go, “Let’s just watch the news,” which is not particularly pleasant, but I’ll sit there and go, “All the research we did on 1936 and the 30s you’re hearing on television. If the people in this play had money and had a stronger sense of security, this kid would be in college, studying, writing and doing what he wants to do.” Now, because we don’t have enough money to do that, it takes an already pressured single-mother family and just triples it. You see that a lot on the faces of students. They’re living that, “I’m not sure I’ll be able to come back next year because I don’t have any money.”

Rodgers: Or, “I’m going to join the military because I’ve got to make a living and my parents can’t support me, and I can’t support myself.”

Lindberg: You see this on the faces of teachers. I probably won’t get as much summer work because people aren’t going to summer school because they’re trying to save the money to go to regular school. That’s four months of work out of me. Everybody has got this economic stress on them which immediately affects anything intimate.

Raintree: And Tennesse Williams (the writer of “The Glass Menagerie”) generally writes about a very specific type of human experience, and in examining a life within this family, I think he somehow captures the universe within it.

CT: What do you hope audiences take away from The Glass Menagerie?

Raintree: It’s interesting because it’s a look into a broken home and that’s something I haven’t been considering very much. The play has no resolution. It’s difficult to say what exactly the audience is supposed to do other than form their own opinion. It does not say “this is what you should be.”

Lindberg: Isn’t it a little bit like a dream? Dreams don’t end and you wake up going, “What the heck does this mean? I need to go to a dream solver.” That’s what I love about this show. It is just what (Charley is) saying.

Raintree: Without a flowery ending, without being blatant about the message, I think it just shows people that everyone suffers in their own way and it’s just a slice of life. (It’s) what it is and that people have to do things.

“The Glass Menagerie” runs Feb. 12-14, Feb. 19-21 at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 15 and 22 at 3:00 p.m. High School Matinees are at 10 a.m., Tues. Feb. 17. General admission tickets are $20. $18 for seniors and VCU faculty and staff, and $8 for VCU students with a valid ID. Other students with ID, $12, and groups over 15, $18 per person. For more information call 828-6026.