All Campus Theatre brings energy with ‘The Glass Menagrie’
On September 12 through the 15, All Campus Theatre performed their second play of the semester, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. The play was preformed at UT Wesley Foundation.
The actors started off strong and their energy was consistent from start to finish. The play was emotional, dramatic and kept audience at the edge of their seats, even those who had read The Glass Menagerie before.
“I thought it was great, I thought they worked really hard on it,” said Chelsea Murphy, an audience member and recent graduate of UT. “I actually got to see it before it was finished and now that it is finished its even better than before.”
The Glass Menagerie is a “memory play” set in the late 1930s, by Tennessee Williams. The play features a dysfunctional family of three and one man who disrupts their lives for a brief moment.
The play was directed by McKinley Merrit, a junior majoring in educational interpenetrating.The play starred UT students, Kolt Free, a junior at UT as Tom Wingfield, Karissa Kirch, a junior at UT as Amanda Wingfield, Rachel Finney, a senior at UT as Laura Wingfield and Eric Sorrels a junior at UT as Jim D. O’Connor.
A preview show was held on Wednesday, September 11, at 7:30 p.m. and opening night was Thursday, September 12 at 7 p.m.
“The first performance was great,” said Merrit. “I thought they did a really good job. I sat in the second row and was sobbing, like literal shaking, dry heaving and I felt bad for the person setting next to me.”
The audience was engaged from start to finish. Even in a small theatre, the audience brought a lot of energy to the performance as well. There were gasps, laughs and awe’s from the audience throughout the performance.
“My favorite scene would have to be with the gentleman caller when he’s talking with Laura,” said Murphy. “I love their scene.”
The audience’s enthusiasm was much appreciated by the cast members.
“I feel really good about what we put out there and we got a lot of audience response, so that was nice,” said Kirish at September 13 preformance. “The energy in the room way great tonight.” Kirish says the audience was great at opening night as well. “I think the audience gave us what we needed, so I’m really grateful that we’ve had such good crowds,” said Kirish.
The production team included ACT members Isabel Tipton as stage manager, Brooke Cunningham as set director, Matt Miller as lighting designer, Jessica Hill as costume designer and Ben Murphy as sound designer.
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