performance literary analysis
Info About The Play
In the play The Glass Menagerie, Laura is Tom’s older sister and Amanda is Tom's mom, they both are unemployed and the father of the house is not in the picture. So Tom being the only man in the house and only one with a job. He is the breadwinner he pays all the bills in the house. But Tom doesn't like this responsibility he wants to be free and discover the world and take risks, but he can't because his family is holding him back. On top of that Amanda is a mother who constantly nags him on what he's doing wrong and never compliments him on what he's doing right, this makes her look like a negative person, and she kinda is. She has this negative energy that happens to spread to Tom. He said “What do you think I'm at? Aren't I supposed to have any patience to reach the end of, Mother?” ( William scene 3). This shows that Tom is fed up with his mother and her telling him what to do. Me playing the role as Tom I had to show this Mood of depression and negative towards his mom. Ex she tells Tom to “ straighten up his back” and “slow down when your eating, put cream in your coffee to cool it because hot coffee isn't good for you” ( Williams scene 3) even though he likes it how it is. She even tries to tell him what books to read. In my opinion it's ok to be that controlling if your child is 10 years old but if he's 20+ that's outrageous. I understand that she cares but she needs to learn how to let him go.
Reflect on my performance
Being an actor is not a easy task. It's not as easy as people make it look and sound in the movies. It's a lot of preparation and hard work. There's countless of details that you have to pay attention to, like your reactions toward an event that has happen, hand movements to express yourself, and facial expressions because if something happens for example smells you don't wanna sit there with a regular face. You have to make a stink face. This plays a big key in performing because if you don't have them, you'll look like your going through the motions. When I was playing Tom those were the three rules I had to work on, when my group and I practice I found myself being very dry. I knew I had to fix it, so when I got more comfortable with my lines. Making expression became easy. I felt as if I was actually In the character's shoes and I've been in arguments before, so I just reacted like how I would if it was my personal argument . This helped me a lot, actually I learned this from Lee Strasberg and his lesson on method acting. He taught to use pass events in your life to help act out your character. Example like if you have to perform a sad scene you can use a sad experience in your life to remember to get you sad and maybe even cry, I know this may sound weird and upsetting but a lot of amazing actors uses this method.
Setting up the performance
When my partners and I was Setting up the stage for our performance we needed to include props. Some props that are mandatory in my opinion was a little Toy that would take place of the glass menagerie, a couch/bed for Tom to sleep on, and a table so the family can sit and eat breakfast together. To get into character you have to have costumes. The costumes that we needed where 2 robes for Amanda and Laura to wear, 1 coat for Tom so when he goes to get it he accidentally knocks over the glass, 2 wigs for Amanda and Laura because the people playing them are boys so the wigs make them appear as females. Lighting also was a major factor, we started the play with the lights off, then had them turn on to show that's it's a new day. We had them turn off one more time when Tom left to show that the scene ended. We had some music to set the. Mood. A song played in the beginning and the end
The proposal
In our scene Amanda tells Tom to sit up straight multiple times and he gets upset and starts the argument between them. I can't blame him for getting so mad. Amanda treats like a baby. Tom is old enough to make his own decisions. He said ”Look !- I've got no thing, no single thing!, In my life here that I can call my OWN ! Yesterday you confiscated my books ! “ ( Williams scene 3) That proves that Tom is at the end of his patience with his mom because all the things she did. She even took all the books and brought them back to the library . That's his personal stuff she shouldn't interfere with his personal life. can you relate to Tom how would you feel if your mom took your books that you liked, and brought them back to the library. I would be upset. But Towards the end of the argument between Tom and Amanda . Tom leaves knocking over the glass menagerie breaking it. This scene is very important because it shows how corrupt the family is. The audience can see Tom’s depress life, Amanda's annoying behavior, and Laura's awkward shy personality because she just sits there and does nothing when her family is arguing.
Literary analysis
In our performance, we tried to bring The Glass Menagerie to life. In the play I feel like Amanda and Tom have a hard time accepting reality and basically growing up. They believe that everything should always go their way, and when it doesn't go their way they end up throw a fit. Mainly it's Amanda because of how she complaints about her wants and needs. This also affected Tom because he's stresses himself out trying to fulfill them. So he finally made him express himself and say hey I have wants too then he starts to see all his hopes and dream and ending up wanting to chase them. Laura on the other hand is handicap, she can't think for herself, so she doesn't have any dreams to follow. She drop out of college, stays home all day, and is very socially awkward. Example when the gentleman caller showed up at her house, she stood behind the door trying to hide from him she's a grown woman hiding from a boy she had a crush on in high school . When we performed we tried to show their personalities traits in the characters during the play. For Laura she sat quietly on the bed when Tom and Amanda was going through their dispute. She didn't move a muscle and when she tried to have a input in the conversation she gets shut down because she can't physically express her opinion with confidence and stand up for herself. Amanda is hyperactive she tries to tell everyone what to do, say, eat she ask her grown son where he's going at night. Being an adult and having your mother constantly telling you how to live your everyday life can be annoying, so Tom is like a dandle in distress. Who's at the point to blow up. He snaps at his mother easily In the play he starts the argument with no hesitation because of all the past experiences he has of her annoying him. If you watch the video of us it may look like Tom just gets angry out of nowhere, but you have to take in consideration that our scene took place towards the middle-end of the story. So you wouldn't be able to see all the past event/conflicts between Tom and Amanda.
Conclusion
Overall I had a great time practicing and performing this play. There was some things that's I wish went differently but This was a great experience that helped me test out my acting skills and put them into work. It was cool working on this project for several weeks, practice in the black box and now getting a chance to look back at our video. That we took in class of the final product to see what things we did wrong as a group and as individuals . Now I can learn from my them and fix my mistakes. With this opportunity it gave me a chance to put my brain to work and work together with my partners together all the things we needed to set up our scene. We ended up trying different thing out and putting our own twist to it see what works and what doesn't. In all honesty I was really happy with our results. I felt that there was stuff that we could've done better, like cutting Amanda and Tom off in the scene when they was talking. At least we gave it a shot and now we know that if we was to do this activity again, we should probably practice a little more or try different tactics and techniques to make the scene go the way it should .
