“The Glass Menagerie” on stage at Northwestern

Tennessee Williams’ classic, “The Glass Menagerie,” will be presented by Northwestern College theatre April 20 and 26–28 at 7:30 p.m. and April 21 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. The award-winning intimate family drama will be performed in the Allen Theatre of the DeWitt Theatre Arts Center.

The play is set in the memories of Tom Wingfield. The play opens with an empty stage that soon fills with actors playing Tom’s family and simple props that recall the Wingfields’ 1937 St. Louis apartment.

The family’s matriarch will be played by professional actor Karen Bohm Barker, Northwestern theatre professor and dean of the humanities. Karen has played the role of Amanda Wingfield one other time: as a college student in the early 1970s. During that production, she fell in love with one of her co-stars, Jeff Barker, who had the role of Tom. Now, as Karen reprises her role, Jeff is directing the show.

Jeff’s affection for the production goes beyond just the fact that it introduced him to his wife. He hopes audiences will look empathetically, compassionately at the Wingfield family and see more than just an overwhelmed mother, a fragile daughter and an aggrieved son. “What sticks in my mind and heart is this mothers’ love for her children, these siblings’ love for each other,” says Jeff. “Family and home bind us—yes, in the sense of constricting us, but also in the sense of holding us together.”

Tickets for “The Glass Menagerie” are $8 for adults and $4 for students and are available starting April 9 for Theatre Patrons and April 10–28 for the public. Tickets can be reserved at www.nwciowa.edu/tickets or by visiting the DeWitt Theatre box office between 5 and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday or between 1 and 4 p.m. on Saturday. The box office can also be reached by phone, 712-707-7098, or e-mail, boxoffice@nwciowa.edu.