Gina Wilhelm Actress – Judith Ivey Digs into “The Glass Menagerie”
Tony Award-winner Judith Ivey loves the language of “The Glass Menagerie.” She says she pulls the play off her shelf two or three times a year to savor Tennessee Williams’ work.
The role of Amanda Wingfield, Williams’ fictionalized version of his own mother, is one Ivey has always wanted to play, but it isn’t a part one steps into lightly. The role is mammoth.
“It’s a damn near perfect play,” Ivey says.
Whe director Gordon Edelstein asked her last year to set aside some time to play the role at the Long Wharf Theatre of New Haven, CA, she answered “Absolutely!” without a moment’s hesitation.
She didn’t realize the gig would land in the middle of preproduction for the musical “Vanities,” which she will start directing at New York’s Second Stage Theatre her last week of the run of “Menagerie.”
She says that’s just the way the business works.
To prepare for the role, Ivey has been enjoying reading about the life of Williams’ mother. She enjoys researching the woman she’s about to play.
She also wonders if Williams’ distinctive cackling laugh is something he got from the woman.
He described her as “somebody who could suck all of the air out of a room,” but he fiercely loved her.
Ivey thinks the role allows for a great deal of interpretation by actress and director. However, she also thinks it’s possible to really “destroy” the play with a bad interpretation.
As great and as well written as she finds the show, she also calls it “fragile.” She also says one can’t overlook the family comedy woven into the obviously tragic elements of Williams’ story.
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