Reflection on the Glass Menagerie

We make some progress in our scene that I try to understand the character of Amanda. I demonstrate how the character of Amanda would be like by trying to read the book and analyze the characters. Having talkative and maybe other personality blends into the project. For example, when Tom is coming from the warehouse, she is standing up and nagging him about what should he do with his special eating ways. I slow some sentences down so that Tom will be able to hear me and my emphasis on chewing food.  That emphasizes how annoying she is. Personality I think she is annoying, so I use my interpretation of how annoying she is. Standing up and accusing Tom of not doing the right way of eating ways, also because Tom says about her hawk-like attention,  I should stare at him with my attention. Focusing on him and look at him in a weird way because of his eating way. Amanda doesn’t allow Tom to smoke, doesn’t even allow him to leave the table. As a result, this must have a strict voice to restrict his activities. Yet, Tom doesn’t ever listen to her order. He goes out anyway. However, I think Laura is a kid that obeys to her mother. Laura sees that her mother is angry, so she thinks about mentioning another thing to make mother happy again. She is typically obedient child to Amanda. Also, Amanda treats Laura pretty nice because she knows that Laura will listen to her command, unlike Tom, so she extremely treats Laura in a better way. As a result of my interpretation, I treated Laura in a gentle way, soften my words to Laura and I normally add more action such as holding her arms and smiling to her, nodding to her. Those actions can also give audience about the treating difference in Tom and Laura.  For example, in Scene 1, I said I am going to be the colored boy today, and you are going to be the lady. This part I extremely lower my voice and I said it with a soft voice. Because of this part, I am trying to build up the confidence of Laura. Aside from that, I analyze that Amanda is confident in herself about the talking skills to the gentlemen callers. When the family mentions about the gentlemen callers of Amanda. In my interpretation, I highlight the pride in Amanda’s mind. She also lives in her imagination about having multiple gentlemen callers in her mind. The only thing that makes her happy is to think about the callers she had before. So when I came out to the front, I am exhilarated about mentioning the gentlemen callers in my house. I am so proud that I could ever receive that much. Yet, I should also comfort my daughter Laura, so in the project, I hold her arms so it would let her become confident. However, I am also agitated because my daughter doesn’t get any gentleman caller. As a result, I am getting mad to leave the house.

In the second part of the play, Amanda thinks she is caring more about Tom, but Tom doesn’t think like that. Tom thinks she disrupts his writing. Then, his words angered Amanda: What in hell, am I supposed to..etc” She thinks her son might feel good about Amanda is trying to care about him. Yet, Tom’s reaction agitated Amanda. She then acts angrily at Tom. Tom also thinks that it’s her fault to bring the things up. Then, Amanda just proclaims everything he did to the family. He left the family in the midnight and doesn’t do anything in the warehouse, only goes to the movie. I give every detail about Tom is the one who is wrong about everything. I interpreted this as throwing words to him, scolding him and treating him badly by highing my voice so that the audience can see the different actions I did to different family members. Furthermore, I analyze her emotions that she should be anxious about Tom’s reaction, so when Tom said I will get out, I immediately act more impatiently. The two scenes are the same: both are fighting scenes between Amanda and Tom. It was repetitive, but it highlights the family conflict. It gives the audience a quick view of the family situation.

My weakness is that I didn’t prepare well enough to memorize the lines. Sometimes, I got really nervous and then I just couldn’t remember my next lines. Maybe it is related to the fact that I didn’t have much time to remember my line.  Also, I think another mistake is I shouldn’t have that much of lighting cues because it would be complicated for the people to control it properly. Moreover, it would be kind of messy. I should delete some useless lighting cues for the group. When I forget my lines, and it will be hard for them to take it. Also, when I forget my lines, I always use emmm, to think what’s the next line. That’s a really bad habit because it will show to the audiences that I didn’t remember my lines well enough. I should prepare more on my lines so I can remember every single line. Moreover, I didn’t have the build up emotions in the second scene. At first, I should be calmer because I care about my son, yet then I get angrier. However, in the video, I feel like I am always angry. In the next time, I will control my feeling by having a level of emotion chart.

My strength in this play is I higher up my voice, and I have a clear emotion to Laura and Tom. I distinguish the different reactions clearly since I treated Laura in a nicer way, but I am strongly against Tom. Also, I understand the annoyance of Amanda well that how can I be more annoying such as I stood up beside Tom, and nagging his bad behaviors. I bring out the lighting cues even though it doesn’t work really well.

Our group did a good job actually because I always forget my lines, so Tom has to carry on in his sentences so that we can go on. His emergency habits help our group didn't screw the whole story up. He continues to say about his lines so I can remember some of my lines. That's actually a good thing for our group. Also, Tom is trying to slow down his lines. This helps the audiences to understand our group's emotion better. Also, we all high up our voices so it would be easier for the audience to comprehend and follow our scenes. They won't be lost. Yet, I think I should be more aggressive in the scene, so it could actually have a stronger argument. Then, it would be even more distinguishable. Maybe Tom should use more emotions in the play, so I can also higher up my voice in the play. Furthermore, I think the music that we found is good for our show because it gives a better understand of the project. Tom is sad at first because he feels guilty of leaving his sister alone, so the background music is the fundamental basis to the project in which reinforce the emotions of Tom.