Glass Menagerie Project

LAB: Choose a character from the play: Amanda, Laura, Tom or Jim, the Gentleman Caller. Create three "scrapbook" entries for that character. Your scrapbook entries should be fiction, although they should be "inspired" by the play The Glass Menagerie. Use the text to support your artistic impulses.

Find 3-5 lines of dialogue from the play to support your choices for your artistic design. In your short explanation of why you chose to write about what you did (at least a paragraph explanation) include at least 3-5 lines of dialogue from the text (with page #'s) to support your creative inspiration.

Choose any three of the following creative tasks to complete for your chosen character's scrapbook project:

• a journal entry (about a page or two)
• a diary entry (about a page or two)
• a series of tweets (at least 10 tweets)
• a series of emails (at least 5 email entries--about a page or two)
• a facebook page* (this should be designed to look like one, it doesn't have to be a real page, although you can set one up if you'd like)
• a blog (with at least 3 entries or short posts)
• a music-cd (of at least 3 songs, and a paragraph explanation about why each song is included on the CD; i.e., how does the song fit the character or situation in the play?)
• a short documentary film (:30 seconds-2 minutes in length)
• a film trailer (:30 seconds - 2 minutes in length)
• a photo album (with at least 5 pictures with a short 1-3 sentence explanation about why these pictures are important or significant to that character--pictures can be from the internet or taken by your own cellphone/camera, etc.). 
• a short home video (:30 seconds-2 minutes in length)
• a sketch book (including at least 3 sketches) Each sketch should have some connection with the play script.
• a drawing or comic book page (for example a page from Comic Life)
• a podcast (:30 seconds-2 minutes in length)
• an interview or magazine expose (make up the questions and the answers, although the answers should make sense in light of the play script)
• a graphic design or flyer based on information in the play
• other ideas (talk to me about your ideas!)

IMPORTANT: Each individual art project should have at least 3 lines of dialogue from the play that help define the choices you are making artistically for your character.

Things to know about Tennessee Williams. Please watch this short documentary student film about the playwright.

Check out these other Williams' films:

• Streetcar Named Desire (1951) 
• Baby Doll (1956)
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958, scene)
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958, scene)
• Suddenly Last Summer (1959)
• The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) This was taken from Tennessee Williams' novel.
• Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)
• Night of the Iguana (1964)
• The Glass Menagerie (1950 film, complete)

Most of Williams' plays (as well as his films) revolve around a central secret: something terrible or haunting or degenerate that a protagonist desperately tries to cover up. Williams' women are often unhappy, the men brutish and insensitive. Oh, where will it lead but to modern American drama!

We can learn a lot about playwriting from Tennessee Williams. A character in pain or conflict lies at the  center of his plays. The use of a "secret" allows appropriate tension and rising conflict until a climactic scene reveals the truth. Learn from this.

HOMEWORK: None.