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| Local theater presents a classic By Stacy Trevenon [ stacy@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 9:45 AM PDT “The Glass Menagerie” began in 1944 as an MGM screenplay “The Gentleman Caller,” author Tennessee Williams’ sentimental look back. The following year it won a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and became Williams’ first successful play, star-studded movies in 1950 and 1987, an Emmy-winning television version in 1973 — and, opening Friday, the closing play of Coastal Repertory Theatre’s 2008-2009 season. It is the local theater’s first production involving a professional actor: Half Moon Bay native, local theater veteran and now Actors Equity Association member Elise Hunt. Williams’ theater classic is “like a kiss,” said director Michael Lederman, adding that he strives to remain true to the playwright’s intention that the story offer a fresh look at what theater can be. Viewers will look through a misty tulle scrim into a Depression-era St. Louis living room oozing Southern gentility, into a pivotal, autobiographical moment. “The audience will view it through the haze of memory,” Lederman said. Family matriarch Amanda Wingfield (Roxane Ashe) is aflutter as she prepares for the “gentleman caller” (Evan Saunders,) her son’s buddy from the warehouse, whom she hopes will be the long-awaited suitor for her fragile daughter Laura (Hunt.) Giddy yet overbearing, she fails to perceive the alienation of her restless son Tom (Pete Owen.) Dominating the room is a little table on which glitters the collection of glass animals which, along with playing old records on the Victrola, fills Laura’s time. Amanda does not notice it, nor can she relate to her daughter when a twist of fate cruelly intervenes between Laura and the vibrant Jim, whom Laura had long cared for from afar. The story comes to life in Williams’ crystalline writing. “The language is so beautiful and crafted, you have to spend time getting out of its way,” said Hunt. “It’s a wonderful play,” agreed Saunders. “Quite heart-wrenching in a beautiful manner.” Amanda “loves her children but has a deep, deep sadness and regret over the way life turned out,” said Ashe, adding that she “is so honored to play one of the great female characters of the American theater.” Tom chafes not only over confining home life but work life, when he longs to pursue writing. Like Tennessee native Ashe, Owen lived in the South, participating in Alabama’s “marginalized” artists’ network. “That helped me understand” life from a Southern outlook, he said. Growing up in Half Moon Bay, Hunt was introduced at age 8 to theater through Coastal Theatre Conservatory, and appeared in many CTC and CRT productions including the accuser in “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the title role of “The Diary of Anne Frank.” After graduating from Half Mon Bay High School in 2002, she studied drama at the University of Washington and joined the Washington Ensemble Theatre in Seattle. When she was offered an equity contract through the South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, she took it. “I believe in walking through doors when then are opened for you,” she said. Being a member of the AEA allows her access to a vast professional network of actors and stage managers. But it has not swept her feet off the ground. “Whether I’m pro or not does not change the quality of the work I’m doing,” she said, “and I approach it like it’s work. You follow your heart and do it.” Lederman, as CRT artistic director, said he had planned for months to bring Hunt back to her Coastside stomping grounds, and that casting her meant “a leap of faith financially” for CRT. But it “sends a powerful message that artistic growth is a large part of theater in Half Moon Bay.” “The Glass Menagerie” will run at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m., Sundays through Oct. 10 Admission ranges from $18 to $25. For information, call 569-3266. |