Hudson Village Theatre Presents THE GLASS MENAGERIE, Now thru 7/26

The Hudson Village Theatre (HVT) presents the Tennessee Williams classic, The Glass Menagerie, from tonight, July 8, to July 26, 2015. The cast, a blend of Canadian star, familiar faces and emerging artist, is led by HVT's new Artistic Director, Matthew Tiffin, in his HVT inaugural directorship.

The Glass Menagerie, the seminal work that catapulted Williams to literary fame, is a memory play that takes place during the Depression in St. Louis. With the father long gone, the family ekes out an existence in a meagre apartment too cramped to house the larger-than-life dreams of its inhabitants. The play is narrated by Tom Wingfield, protective brother to the frail and crippled Laura, and son of a self-proclaimed Southern Belle, Amanda. Tom, an aspiring writer, works a banal warehouse job, the weight of his responsibilities bearing down hard as each passing day sees the freedom and adventure he craves slip farther from his grasp. Laura shies from reality, incapable of meeting her mother's expectations, finding solace in her glass menagerie, unaware that Amanda has enlisted Tom to help her find a suitable beau to secure a stable future for her daughter.

Mr. Tiffin plans to deliver a unique blend of realism and magic- visually haunting and beautifully poignant- reminiscent of Gravy Bath Productions, his award-winning, critically acclaimed theatre company renowned for its innovation in the early 2000s. "I chose this play", he announced to the ensemble at the first rehearsal, "because it's time for a Tennessee Williams resurrection. We don't often get to see his genius: the gorgeous lyricism and unforgettable characters. I think it's important to stage the classics from time to time. There's a reason they're called 'classics'; they grab us by the heart and squeeze out of us everything we have, leaving us breathless. They're strong stories that have the chameleonic ability to be reborn with a freshness and vitality that audiences experience as 'new'. For me, this play also represents Williams' 'birth', the beginning of a new voice in theatre. I'm deeply connected to his archetypal need to be free and fully alive, his feeling of being haunted by memory and regret, the illusions of the past, and his dreamlike world mingling past and present. My sincere wish is for the memory of this production to linger long in the hearts and minds of HVT audiences!"

Amanda Wingfield, one of the 20th century's great female roles, is played by the award-winning, Canadian stage and screen actor, Martha Burns, a Stratford and Shaw Festival veteran whom television audiences will recognize as Ellen Fanshaw from the popular show, Slings and Arrows. From the sublime to the ridiculous and back again, Graham Cuthbertson's recent roles demonstrate an impressive range from raving indigent in Centaur Theatre's The Goodnight Bird to Dick Powell, a swaggering 'rat pack' crooner of questionable talent on The Wiggle Room stage, and now the frustrated, wistful son of a strong-willed, southern Belle. The very charming yet sincere Jim O'Connor (Laura's 'gentleman caller') is played by Julian Bailey, the flirtatious Indigo Club bartender on The Young and the Restless, who has also had appeared in episodes of Just Shoot Me and NCIS, and was an original member of the Piven Theatre Workshop (Chicago). The delicate and shy Laura, around whom the story revolves, is played by National Theatre School second year student, Shayna Virginillo, a pupil of Ms. Burns' at NTS.

Adhering to Williams' direction calling for illusory, hypnotic staging, Peter Vatsis' set and evocative lighting, figuratively and literally, remove the threadbare dusters shielding both furniture and memory to reveal the outdated apartment and struggling souls therein. Rob Denton's original music and sound design perfectly portray the period, family discord and awkwardness, as well as each character's innermost longings. Costumes, by Maggi Macaulay, reflect the family's hardships and Amanda's attempts to cling to former days of refinement and decorum. Laura Mitchel fine tunes the cast's southern accent with Seamus Ryan completing the team as Stage Manager.

A MEDIA CALL will be held on Tuesday July 7 at 12:30pm at the Hudson Village Theatre, 28 Wharf Road, Hudson, J0P 1H0. This is an opportunity for still and TV cameras to capture a scene from the play, for radio and podcasters to record sound clips, and for journalists/reporters to interview the director, actors and designers.

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