The Glass Menagerie - - 1st pass

This image is from my first design pass of The Glass Menagerie," by Tennessee Williams.

This was my least successful idea, but it was very helpful in my process. When I was doing my first readings of the play I was stuck by the beautiful language and the images it conjured up. Tennessee Williams originally wrote in a series of projected images to add to the atmosphere of the play. I have never worked on a show with projections or video and thought it could be a very effective tool.

The set was heavily informed by the Chinese water torture trick performed by Houdini. Tom mentions magic and magicians a few times. Tom also talks about escape a lot and I wanted to show that, while he does leave the apartment at the end of the play, he is still trapped in the story, by his memory. He never escapes. The Chinese water torture trick also heavily involves glass. The set is comprised of the Wingfield apartment, surrounded by the glass walls of a large tank. The apartment is on a rake, helping to push the action closer to the audience. The walls, at times are covered in the images that Williams calls for: blue roses, text, a winter scene, the moon, etc... Below are some examples.
As you can see in the above photos, the images projected onto the glass walls are very striking. However, their size makes them too important, overshadowing the beautiful imagery of the spoken words. The set as a whole, in this design, is too large. There is too much "stuff" standing between the audience and the play.

I do think that projections could be a useful and exciting element to the design for "The Glass Menagerie," but I don't think this was the right way to use them. The next design pass will have no projections.