Third Draft

                           Dreams Are Selfishness

The story is named "The Glass Menagerie." It is a story talks about three family members with different ideas and dreams in an incomplete family. An ambitious young man, a conservative young girl, and a typical middle age woman are three members of the family. They keep different dreams for the future, but they are also cautious to the most significant extent to not harm each other. My group chose the scene 7 act II, which is a scene including a supporting character. When one of the leading characters stands in front of the others, he will consider it is a time to release his pressure of preventing his dreams, and that is an exciting reason of why we chose this scene, a big contradiction always makes a great impression to everyone. 

If it is a climax of how does the figure in this story express his idea, the customs and behaviors of them have previously told what they are looking for. Tom becomes the economy source of the family because his dad has been absent for sixteen years. Tom works in a warehouse, and he doesn't get fulfilled there. His interest was watching movies, but he just used it as an explanation when he escapes from the home. Tom doesn't have a peaceful relationship with his mom when his mom talks too much or talks about their prospects. To be a mom and a leader of the house, Amanda puts a lot of efforts on deciding and guiding two of them in their lives. Amanda doesn't get an official job as Tom, but she also has a little income per month. Besides, Amanda likes to show off about her attraction and wisdom. Amanda feels upset about the leave of husband since she doesn't want anyone gives up this family and leaves them along. To protect this family, Amanda becomes to restrict Tom's behaviors on learning information about adventures. Laura is the sister of Tom; she is always quiet. Even though she seems like an obedient girl, she can't obey one thing if it is embarrassing. Laura is really passive that she is only waiting for the coming of the love and happiness. However, Tom and Laura seemingly obey their mom while each of them carries a dream. Both of them are not enjoying the jobs or marriage that Amanda suggests, but they are still making concessions to the family. The glass menagerie represents the variety and weaknesses of dreams of three of them. They are beautiful but fragile if anyone wants to breakthrough the balance in the family to fulfill his dream. It is interesting that everyone wants to affect others with their dreams and wants to get a sense of identity. The reasons and causes of an incomplete family relate to the goals.

In the first half of the story, it can interpret from the series of events that all family members doing every day to analyze each characters' personalities and the direction of the story. In the scene7 actII, Tom finally exposes his dreams and ideas to the future to a normal friend. Jim is working in the same place with Tom. Also, he is a positive and facetious person. His jobs, personalities, and appearance become the prime goal of Amanda set to build the relationship with Laura. Scene 7 becomes a key scene to decide the following stories since it involves the dream of Laura and Amanda. Although the Laura doesn't have a chance to communicate with Jim in the beginning, the conversation between Tom and Jim build a climax to the Tom which interprets Tom's activities, jobs, ideas to the movies, and dream. In the point of Tom's view, Tom is feeling gradually inspired by his friend Jim, from the bedroom to the terrace and back to the bedroom. Tom is a silent man, and he doesn't like to show himself too much, while Jim finds something unusual in Tom's daily life. To know the secrets of Tom, Jim induces Tom to speak out. However, Jim doesn't show any perspective on the any of Tom's idea. When Jim wants to know why Tom doesn't work hard in the warehouse, Jim mentions Mr. Mendoza" Mr. Mendoza was speaking about you."(pg.47 line32) to stimulate Tom to express his ideas about the jobs and going on to the main topic which is Tom's dream - adventure. When Tom has finished a passionate monologue and ended with an exclamatory sentence" I am about to move!" (pg.48 line18)Jim is not shocked by a brand new person in front of him, and he replies to him curiously "When?"(pg.48 line21) which represents his goals are digging more information from Tom. This scene reveals Tom's specific ideas to the dream and speaking skills of Jim which is a foreshadow to the following conversation between Jim and Laura. 

Playing this scene, I found that Tom requires the actor to focus on reacting to your opponent and tuning into your own rhythm. In the lines, I realized that Tom has a lot of replies to the conversation. To act a silent man, I recognized Tom feel embarrassed and awkward when he replies to Jim, and I thought Tom's answers and questions in the lines shorten to the shortest characters when he respects that person. Since Tom is a monotonous person, I didn't consider that he doesn't have too many facial expressions so that it is risky to add a lot of gestures. On the one hand, I wanted to add some gestures to enrich one's image which enhances it's impression to the audience, on the other hand, I recognized that adding inappropriate or excess gestures may destroy the character. In my opinion, I found that Tom has not really known Jim even though they were classmates. Also, I felt that Tom didn't consider about how to treat Jim because his goal was bringing him to here for Laura. I thought Tom has gradually changed his moods in the process of Jim entering this bedroom. Jim tries different ways to warm up Tom, and Tom has the progress of becoming more talkative with him. I found there are three examples of how does Jim approach Tom: " I didn't know that Shakespeare had a sister!"(pg.46 line11) , "You know, Shakespeare - I am going to tell you a bill of goods."(pg.47 line2) and "What are you going?" show that Jim has become to figure out the real goal of this inviting from a lazy Tom. In this situation, I thought Tom should do everything quickly and prepare to go to the terrace. "(pg.46 line38) Well, you know I have one, you want a piece of the paper?"(pg.46 line29) reminds me that Tom should hand the paper to him quickly and stand up to go out on the terrace. When Tom starts to talk about some serious topics such as the life at home or the situations of movies and adventures nowadays, I am ready to start the fast-talking and become to have more exaggerate gestures. Also, I thought the changing of Tom's performance is not gradualness It is changing phase by phase, and it requires Jim and Tom always sharing an amount of positive and passive. When either one becomes positive, I thought the other one should be passive in the speed of talking, amounts of gestures and facial expressions. Such as a boxing match between two gamers, there always should be one person to offend while the other should defend and the game is processing with the changing of defense and offense.

Before I decided to choose this scene, I didn't have a deep impression of the great talk between Tom and Jim. When I prepared for the scene and played with my partner for the first time, I felt the great impact from this scene and I noticed the importance of the performance. I liked this scene because it didn't include too many characters since people are not conservative if there are fewer people.

To feel the changing of the atmosphere of the conversation, I practiced the lines of the whole scene over and over again to be familiar with the emotion of Tom. Through this process, I start to design some gestures and facial expressions. At the beginning of the scene, I open the door for the Jim and say: " Laura, this is Jim. Jim, this is my sister Laura."(pg.46 line8) When I design this part, I find that Tom doesn't remain any enthusiasm in the beginning. When Tom stands on the terrace, Tom becomes quiet and unconcern because he wants to escape. I decide to slow down the speed of everything in this part including Jim. At this time, Tom has not been to the desire of talking, I realized there are several dashes here to express Tom's emotion right here. " Well -"(pg.47 line35) and " I am waking up -"(pg.47 line37) inspired me to act this part lazily. When Tom decides to talk about his ideas and dreams, he goes back to the bedroom and accelerates everything. I decide to use both hands to make gestures when Tom is emphasizing something. When Tom is inspired totally, his voices turn to the top by " Do you see how he grins? And he has been absent for sixteen years."(pg.48 line38) and "The bastard son of the bastard."(pg.48 line37) Moreover, I didn't like to interpret Tom admires his dad, so I wanted to act this part in an angry mood. I considered that Tom wanted to do the same thing with his dad, but he is looking far beyond his dad and looking down his dad. Eventually, the last line of Tom proved his rejection of his parents,:" Sh! Here comes Mother! Mother's not acquainted with my plans!"(pg.49 line1) made me be disliked and avoided to the parents with a disgusting tone of voice. I thought Tom is a slow-type man, he has several phases to show different behaviors. It is fortunate that I am the similar person like Tom, so I am confident with my comprehend to this character.

When I finished the final performance, I thought I have done some improvements. At first, I spoke louder than the last time, and I had more gestures and body movements. Between the scene of talking with Jim on the terrace and having a passionate monologue in the bedroom, I had changed my tone of voices due to the circumstances. However, there are some points that I should notice and be aware to not do again. In the beginning, I went to open the door for Jim, and it was a short time that I didn't show my face to the audience. Not looking at Audience, it is a great mistake for me. Moreover, my gestures were too monotonous. I found that gestures are not only representing the moving of your hands since I became aware that head moving and legs moving are also important. 

                                  Bibliography

Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library, 2017.