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Menagerie
Emotions dominate play
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By Colette Hutchings
Battalion Staff
A “Southern drama" dealing
with anguish, frustration and
warm human emotion will be
presented this weekend and
next by the Theater Art Depart
ment in Tennessee Williams'
classic play “The Glass
Menagerie." The storyline re
volves around a traditional
southern family which moves to
a Missouri city. Amanda Wing
field (played by Sharon Barrow),
grieving over her husband's de
sertion, lives with her two chil
dren: her crippled daughter
Laura (played by Benita Faulk
ner) and her son Tom (played by
Richard Strayer.)
Conflicts arise between
Amanda and her son about the
mother's over-protective atti
tude toward Laura, whose only
true pleasure in life is a collec
tion of glass animals in her
menagerie.
Director Mary Ann Mitchell
said the play traces the process
in which the characters come to
terms with themselves as indi
viduals and as members of the
family.
It's Laura who gets the bad
end of the deal in this search —
Amanda uses her to make Tom
feel guilty and, therefore, to
keep him from leaving home
and pursuing his own life. In
turn, Tom uses his sister as a
means to escape what he consid
ers to be a prison.
“She's cruelly abused — not
out of overt cruelty, but they use
her to get what they need from
each other," Mitchell said.
Mitchell said she selected the
play because it is a "very human
play."
She said: "I hope it reveals the
pain we cause one another."
Mitchell said students have
been working hard on designing
the set and costumes, although
the play's cast is small.
"Technically, it's an involved
show," she said.
The set, lights, costumes were
created and designed by stu
dents, as were the glass animals
and the iron-rod table they are
kept on.
"Glass Menagerie" will run
tonight and Saturday, and
March 4, 5 and 6 in Rudder
Forum. Tickets are available at
Rudder Box Office and are $2.50
for students and $3.50 for non
students.
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Susan Charlton works on one of the
glass animals which will be used in
the Theater Arts Department's
production of "The Glass
photo by Diana Sultenfuss
Menagerie." The play runs tonight
and Saturday night, and March 4, 5
and 6. Charleton learned this skill during
a summer job.
MSC Fair brings campus
touch of Hollywood
by Kelli Proctor
Battalion Reporter
Mime shows, a new wave band and game booths are planned
for this year's MSC All Night Fair, which is scheduled to start at 9
p.m. tonight in the Memorial Student Center.
The theme of this year's fair is Hollywood, and romance,
western, spy thriller, comedy, horror and silent movie themes
will decorate the game booth sections.
Sue Leibert, MSC All Night Fair adviser, said Steve Harris, a
mime artist from Kansas City, will perform two stage shows,
one from 10 to 11 p.m. and another from 12:30 to 1:30 a.m..
The Inanimate Objects, a new wave band, will play through
out the night in Rumours. Admission for the band is $2.50 at the
door, Leibert said.
Any recognized student group at Texas A&M is encouraged to
participate in the event, Leibert said. About 65 groups have
already volunteered.
The fair is sponsored by the MSC Council. Although proceeds
go the the Council, a large profit is not expected, Leibert said.
A 50 cent charge at the door will cover the MSC Council's
expenses, and 10 cent tickets can be bought for the games. The
games cost between two and five tickets.
Despite its name, the All Night Fair actually will not last the
entire night.
"3 a.m. is late enough," Leibert said.
Thousands put
their fingers on it.
Advertising in
845-^
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611 1
A&M student creates
glass animals for play
By Colette Hutchings
Battalion Staff
When those little glass animals crash on
stage in the Theater Arts production of "The
Glass Menangerie," Susan Charlton will
flinch. You can bet on it.
She's the theater arts major who has been
painstakenly making the glass-blown animals
for the past couple of weeks.
In the menagerie's collection are bears, giraf
fes, swans, doves and snails. She'll even weld
a horn on a glass horse to create a unicorn.
On first glance making the figures seems
easy, but Charlton said it takes a great deal of
skill to turn a glob of glass into a giraffe.
In about one week, Charlton said, she com
pleted 20 to 25 animals in her spare time —
between working on costumes for the play and
attending classes.
Some of those animals were broken during
dress rehearsals but Charlton said that "sever
al were made to be broken."
For the performances, she said, some of the
animals will be wired to the shelf as insurance
against breakage.
Charlton said she was drafted into creating
animals for the plav when she mentioned to a
cast member that she used to glass-blow anim
als about two years ago.
"When I lived in Maryland, I was looking for
a summer job and found an add for a glass
worked with her employer for two years,
where she learned to create glass figures.
Her employer sold the glass figures in shop
ping malls and stores.
Charlton said she made glass figure neck
laces and earrings, and that her speciality was
making glass teddy bears.
"It takes about five minutes for me to make
one, once I get going," she said.
Although she doesn't have exact figures,
Charlton said she believes the Theater Arts
Department is saving money by having her
make the animals.
"They would have ended up buying them
all," she said, "and they can be expensive."
The glass was donated by Jack Shannon,
who works in the glass repair shop in the Che
mistry Department.
The Chemistry Department also supplied a
regulator, which is used in the glass-blowing
process. The Theater Arts Department had to
supply oxygen and settling tanks, which cost
about $20 each.
Because of her inexperience in making glass
unicorns, Charleton said, a horse is being im
ported from Dallas and she will weld the horn
on it.
Charlton said she's been told by cast mem
bers that it really doesn't matter what the
animals look like since they probably won't be
eyed closely by the audience.
J But she disagrees: "If they look ugly. I'll be
she said.