Ensemble Theatre Company Presents
Tennessee Williams’ Beloved Classic
The Glass Menagerie

Ensemble Theatre Company’s 30th anniversary will continue its season by presenting a fresh new production of one of the most beloved plays of the American stage, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. Executive Artistic Director Jonathan Fox will direct. Considered by many theater historians, scholars and critics to be one of the most famous plays of the modern theatre, this drama of great tenderness, charm and beauty will open on April 8 and play through May 2. Opening night is Saturday, April 10, 2010.

The Glass Menagerie is a lyrical and haunting portrayal of a family in a St. Louis apartment during the 30’s. In a story laid bare through memory, the play depicts the struggles of a young writer who tries to break through his suffocating environment and to free himself of the ties to his demanding mother, his emotionally impaired, painfully shy sister, and a dead-end job in a warehouse. The arrival of a "gentleman caller" offers the family a glimmer of happiness and redemption.

Mr. Fox is no stranger to Tennessee Williams, having directed European productions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire to critical acclaim. “My work on Tennessee Williams’ plays over the last few years has opened me to the great power of his poetic language and human interaction at its fiercest and most emotional,” said Mr. Fox. “The Glass Menagerie was a groundbreaking play, using expressionistic and imagistic forms that were new to American theatre. The play, set during the Great Depression, has resounding echoes for today’s audiences.”

In March of 1945, The Glass Menagerie opened on Broadway, where it won the prestigious New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. This highly personal, explicitly autobiographical play earned Williams fame, fortune, and critical respect, and it marked the beginning of a successful run that would last for years. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. His 1952 play The Rose Tattoo received the Tony Award for best play. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Williams’ works is considered by many to be a national treasure, with a uniquely original view of American life.

Joe Delafield plays Tom Wingfield, the narrator of the story haunted by memory. Mr. Delafield has worked on Broadway as Damis in the Roundabout’s production of Tartuffe, in addition to several roles off Broadway. He received his MFA in acting at NYU. He has performed at top regional theatres around the country, including the Alley Theatre, Pittsburgh Public, and the Guthrie Theater.

Sara Botsford will play his mother, Amanda, who clings to her memories of a long vanished Southern genteel past. Ms Botsford has extensive acting and directing credits throughout the US and Canada, and has performed on Broadway in The Real Thing, directed by Mike Nichols, as well as off Broadway, where she was honored with an Obie Award for her performance in Top Girls. On the west coast she performed in Romeo and Juliet under the direction of Sir Peter Hall. She starred in 96 episodes of the very popular E.N.G., which was a primetime Canadian television drama that dealt with the personal lives of a group of newscasters and staff in the newsroom of a fictitious Toronto news station. Selected television shows include ER, Without a Trace, NYPD Blue, Crossing Jordan, Ally McBeal, Family Law, Judging Amy, Law & Order and The West Wing.

Playing the fragile, withdrawn Laura, Amanda’s daughter and Tom’s older sister, is Erin Pineda. After earning her degree at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, she has gone on to play Juliet in The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts production of Romeo and Juliet and Jessica in This is Our Youth at the Stella Adler Theatre. She has also performed at The Guthrie Theatre and New York’s Playwrights Horizons.

Rounding out this outstanding cast is Joel J. Gelman as the “Gentleman Caller,” on whom the Wingfield family pins their hopes and dreams. Mr. Gelman performed in Les Miserables at the Hollywood Bowl, Tobacco Road at the La Jolla Playhouse and Lives and Hours at Pennsylvania Centre Stage.

Ensemble Theatre Company of Santa Barbara was founded in 1979 and is housed at the intimate Alhecama Theatre located in the historic Presidio District in downtown Santa Barbara at 914 Santa Barbara Street. Now celebrating its 30th Anniversary season, under the leadership of Executive Artistic Director Jonathan Fox, ETC is Santa Barbara's longest running, award-winning professional resident theatre company. The 2009-10 Season will end with Loot by Joe Orton (June 3 to June 27, 2010).

Performances run Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 2:00 and 7:00 pm. Single tickets for The Glass Menagerie range from $29.00 to $48.00. Discounts for seniors and students apply. Subscriptions, single tickets and group tickets are available through the Ensemble Theatre Box Office at (805) 965-5400 or online at www.ensembletheatre.com.

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Calendar Listing — STAGE

Production:
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

Dates:
Thursday, April 8, through Sunday, May 2, 2010
Opening Night Saturday, April 10, at 8:00 pm

Schedule:
Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8:00 pm.
and Sundays at 2:00 & 7:00 pm.
(no evening show Sunday, April 11, 2010)

Producer:
Ensemble Theatre Company (ETC) of Santa Barbara.

Director:
Jonathan Fox, Executive Artistic Director

Where:
Ensemble Theatre Company of Santa Barbara
at the Alhecama Theatre
914 Santa Barbara Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Admission:
$29.00 – $48.00. Discounts are available to seniors, students and groups of 10 or more.

Tickets:
For reservations and information call the Ensemble
Box Office at (805) 965-5400. VISA/MC.
Box office hours are: Performance days 1:00 pm. to curtain,
non-performance days 1:00 pm. to 5:00 pm. Group Sales: (805) 965-5400.

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