Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.

— The Glass Menagerie, Scene 1 (Tom, as narrator)

In celebration of the 100th birthday of playwright Tennessee Williams, Out North Contemporary Art House will present Williams’ most produced play, The Glass Menagerie — “where the literature of ‘the poet of the outcast’ comes alive to delight, stir, and move you” — with a preview on Thursday, May 5, and opening Friday, May, May 6.  Performances will continue each Thursday to Sunday through May 22.

Born as Thomas Lanier Williams III on March 26, 1911 in Columbus, Missouri, Tennessee Williams is  acknowledged today as one of the most accomplished playwrights of English-speaking theater.  The name by which he’s better known, “Tennessee,” was originally bestowed by university classmates, due to his Deep South accent & impovershed background. He began writing plays as a student at University of Missouri and Washington University, St. Louis, ultimately earning a B.A. degree at University of Iowa in 1938. Around that same time he becamse aware of his homosexuality; according to one interview, his first same-sex love affair took place when he was 28. By 1939, he had adopted Tennessee Williams as his professional name. He died on February 25, 1983.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Tennessee Williams in 1965 at a celebration of the 20th anniversary of "The Glass Menagerie". Via Wikimedia Commons."][/caption]As an artist Williams made use of the materials of his own life, including his family and friends and his own alcoholism and homosexuality, as inspiration for his work.  “Everything in his life is in his plays,” said the great director Elia Kazan, “and everything in his plays is in his life.” Williams’ plays (many also made into movies) include The Glass Menagerie (1944), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), The Rose Tattoo (1951), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Orpheus Descending (1957), Suddenly, Last Summer (1958), and The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore (1962), and others.

The Glass Menagerie is a four-character memory play — that is, a play that focuses on the past as narrated by the main character — which premiered in 1944 to such good reviews that it was moved to New York City, where it enjoyed a Broadway run of over a year and received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for 1945. The play has been made into at least four films, most recently a 1987 film directed by Paul Newman.  It’s accounted by many to be autobiographical, or at least to be heavily inspired by the social background and familial relationships of Williams’ life. Set in St. Louis, Missouri in 1937, during the Great Depression, the play tells the story of Tom Wingfield, an aspiring poet who works at a shoe warehouse to support his disabled sister, Laura, and their controlling mother Amanda, who attempts to make a match between Laura and a gentleman caller.

Out North’s production of The Glass Menagerie, co-produced with Dick Reichman, is directed by Bob Pond and features Max Aronson as Tom, Scarlett Kittylee Boudreax as Amanda, Sarah Baird as Laura, and Patrick Killoran as The Gentleman Caller, with set design by Brian Saylor and light design by Steve Hunt.

Join Out North’s talented cast in this unforgettable and family-friendly production, which is sure to inspire discussion about what makes a family, and what makes enduring art.

• Dates/times: Friday, May 6 through Sunday, May 22:
  Thursday through Sat at 8 PM; Sunday at 3 PM
  (Thursday, May 5: Preview; Friday, May 6: Opening)
• Location: Out North Out North Contemporary Art House, 3800 DeBarr Road Anchorage (see map)
• Cost of admission: Thursdays are Pay What You Can, $10 suggested;
  $20 general; $15 students/60+/military (show ID at door). Discounts available at CenterTix.net.
• For further info: Out North’s event page.

Keep track of this and other events in LGBTQ Alaska at Bent Alaska’s new & improved events calendar.