As the lights dimmed and smoke filled the air, Mitchell Theatre was transformed into 1930s St. Louis while Taylor Theatre students performed “The Glass Menagerie” from Sept. 25-28.
Written by Tennessee Williams, “The Glass Menagerie” follows the lives of Tom, Amanda and Laura Wingfield, as well as the gentleman caller Jim O’Connor.
The play examines many themes of longing and regret, TJ Fausnight, the junior musical theatre major who played Tom in the production, said.
“If you're struggling and you're going to see this on stage, you're going to be able to feel something from it that's going to give you something to think about,” he said.
“The Glass Menagerie” is loosely based on Williams’s life, taking the form of a memory play. By using acting techniques to explore the subtext of the characters, each of the actors were able to further understand their characters’ motivations, Fausnight said.
Tom felt this tension as he grappled with his conflicting responsibility to family and yearning for independence, Fausnight said.
By sitting in this tension, the audience is pushed to explore emotions they often avoid, Tracy Manning, the artistic director of theatre and assistant professor of theatre arts, said.
“We want things to be amusing,” Manning said. “We have difficulty knowing how to sit with the difficult, the hard and the lovely. We often feel small in the face of big human expression, and we don't usually like to feel small.”
This discomfort radiated through the audience members. It did not provide easy answers or a story of redemption, but rather the realness of a broken family relationship, Edward Meadors, professor of biblical studies, said.
While viewed and described as a more serious play, audience members still remained hopeful and invested in the lives of the characters, Meadors said.
“It’s very sad, dysfunctional, and at the same time, we're empathetic with the characters,” he said. “They're all endearing in a certain way. We're hoping for reconciliation within the family and hoping for redemption and the daughter's relationship.”
Even if not involved in theater, “The Glass Menagerie” is a well-known play that many are familiar with, and its relatable themes have kept it in circulation since being published in 1944, Manning said.
The truth and tragedy of the play create a universal space where all can find home, Fausnight said.
While an emotionally heavy show, it is also one that carries moments of levity, Selah Grannis, the junior musical theatre major who played Amanda in the production, said.
“‘The Glass Menagerie’ feels so sad, it feels like a sad play,” Grannis said. “I wasn't expecting people to find humor in certain moments.”
This audience response shows how truthfully Williams portrayed the human experience. The humor did not erase the pain of the Wingfields’ lives, but made them feel more real, just as levity and hardship often coexist in real life, Grannis said.
By expressing these weighty topics, Williams gives audiences a chance to work through complex emotions, Grannis said. The “poetic realism” this play is known for created a sense of relatability onstage, she said.
“The Glass Menagerie” represents the first of Taylor Theatre’s performances for the 2025-26 season, with a variety of genres set to be featured throughout the season. It is this diversity in works that adds to the excellence of the program, Taylor University President Michael Lindsay said.
“It's always great to see our students perform,” Lindsay said. “I love the rich repertoire that we have in the Taylor Theatre program, so excited to be able to support the students.”
