by Kari Lutes, Features Editor
While Campus is abuzz with thoughts of Highbridge, graduation, and summer, Senior Allison Acuff and the cast and crew of The Glass Menagerie are preparing for their final show of the semester—and the final play of director Acuff’s undergraduate career.
“[The play] is kind of a poetic ending to the four years at Asbury,” Acuff said.
Glass is a memory-play set in 1937, depicting the character Tom Wingfield’s challenge of choosing between his devotion to his family and his dreams.
“It’s in a time where the lead characters are all in this space where they’re waiting,” Acuff said, seeing the plot of the play as a mirror to both our current culture and the Anchored class.
“I feel like the whole culture is in this place of expectancy, because I feel like we’re on the cusp of something,” Acuff said. “I think it’s a good play for the time we’re in.”
She added, “Particularly for the Anchored class, we’re in this space where we’re going to have to start making decisions of whether or not we’re going to follow our artistic dreams and decisions or to go back to our families and live into our lives there.”
Acuff looks forward to seeing the response of campus to the ideas the play has to offer.
“I want everyone at Asbury to be able to know that sometimes your decisions are going to come at a cost, and [to ask] is that cost worth it?” Acuff said. “Particularly when God calls us to do something, He always calls us to leave something behind, like the disciples, He said, ‘leave your nets and follow me,’ and they did.”
While the play is the last of Acuff’s undergraduate career, it has offered Acuff many new experiences.
“It’s very different from a lot of my other work,” Acuff said. “It’s a more poetic work and a more thoughtful piece. It’s slower; Antigone was really in your face and big, and Glass is much more intimate.”
Not only is the play a smaller and more intimate experience, but it has also offered Acuff the ability to collaborate with more media-trained students.
“I love the collaborative process and the creative minds coming together,” Acuff said.
Senior Andrew King has learned a lot since joining the crew as the producer for Glass.
“This is actually the first time I’ve ever worked on a play, so it’s been incredibly challenging, yet satisfying.” King said. “It’s been a steep learning curve, but I can’t wait to release it to the world in a few short weeks.”
Freshman Sarah Cole has also had to learn a new role in joining the crew of the play as both the costumer and dramaturge.
“Since I have never been a dramaturge before, I had to google what that was,” Cole said. “It turns out that dramaturges do exactly that. We have a question about the context in the script, so I pull up my laptop and start researching.”
Cole has also learned about working together as a part of the small crew for Glass.
“I have learned so much about what it looks like to work together in the theatre, and to say ‘I can’t do everything by myself,’” Cole said. “That’s what theatre is all about: ensemble.”
Acuff agreed. “All of my cast and crew, I love them so much,” she said. “It’s a great meeting of creative minds.”
The cast and crew will continue to put their own creative touches on the play in anticipation opening night.
“I cannot wait for the audience to be as captivated by Williams’ play as I was.” Cole said. “Even though it takes place in the 1930s, the struggles that the Wingfield family face are timeless and will pull on your heart. There is a reason that The Glass Menagerie is still being played after all these years. It has something important to say, and I hope you will come and listen.”
The Glass Menagerie opens on Wednesday, April, 19 at 7 p.m. in the Great House Theater and run through Friday, April 21.