In this 9-12 lesson, students will explore structural and technical devices of memory play through Tennessee Williams’s play, The Glass Menagerie. Students will apply the concept of memory play to write and dramatize original scripts.
Students will:
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Teachers should know that plays by Tennessee Williams contain adult content. Teachers should review the conflicts, themes, and events in The Glass Menagerie prior to teaching the lesson. Obtain copies of the play, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, and have specific knowledge about the plot, characters, themes, historical background, and literary analysis of the play. See the Wikipedia: The Glass Menagerie entry for more information.
Students should be familiar with the elements of a story, the writing process, and symbolism as a literary device.
Modify handouts, text, and utilize assistive technologies as needed. Allow extra time for task completion.
Ask students to close their eyes and recall a memory of one of the following: A happy event, traumatic event, “panoramic” account of a particular summer, return to a favorite place of one’s childhood, weekend afternoon spent with family members, an intense conversation with a parent, encounter of meeting someone you knew in the past.
Ask students, with their eyes still closed, to scan for a specific memory. Use the Memory Scan: Point of View questions to facilitate their thinking.
Ask students now to open their eyes and record, in free-style writing, specific details from the memory they recalled. Encourage students to share some of their memories and points of analysis of their scans. Ask students: Did any immediate thoughts or outside sounds from the present environment intrude on your train of thought? How were the past and present simultaneously operating in your consciousness during the memory? Note: You may wish to contrive a distraction during the exercise, such as dropping a book, to interrupt the stream of the students’ memory.
Arrange students in small collaborative groups and ask each group to initiate an open-ended Memory Scan Discussion about the processes of the mind. Have the students share their ideas in a large group discussion.
Give students background information on the use of memory in American drama and on the playwright, Tennessee Williams. Tell the students that post-World War II many American playwrights began to tap into the power of memory as a narrative device. Influenced by the forces that were shaping American society, especially the psychoanalytic concepts of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, these playwrights used the concept of memory to fuel non-linear plots and intense character development.
Share with students that The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is one of the seminal pieces of American theatre. Have students read Tennessee Williams Biography for more details on his life and work.
Divide students into play reading groups for an oral reading of The Glass Menagerie. Delegate one member of the group to be the Director. The Director will assign roles for the oral reading of the play and realign the assignments to have different voices project the characterizations.
Have students examine Williams’s stage set description. Discuss and clarify the meaning of “linear” and “non-linear.” Encourage students to differentiate the “non-real” and “actual” properties of the set as described by Williams in his Scene I set description.
Have students respond to one of the following Essay Topics: The Glass Menagerie. Provide students with feedback on their essays and allow time for peer editing.
Conduct a follow-up discussion on the way Williams used memory as a narrative and dramatic device. Compare students’ responses about their own memories to the way Williams uses Tom’s memory in the play.
Divide students into pairs to write original scripts. Ask each student to return to the memory they recalled from the beginning of the lesson to develop original scripts. Ask students to emulate a script that demonstrates Williams’s non-linear memory structure in a play. Students can use the Memory Play Script Guidelines for support when writing their scripts.
Ask students to select one or more of the scripts to be dramatized for the class. Assign groups to act out each script and evaluate the performances with the Rubric: Memory Play Script.
Assess students with a quick write. Ask students to respond to the following questions: How did your use of memory in your play differ from those you saw performed? In what ways was it similar? Were you surprised about the way you remembered the events you included in your play? If so, how? How has writing the play affected the way you feel about the memory you used to write it?
Distribute the Vocabulary: The Memory Play in American Drama. Have the students research the forces that contributed to changes in the American economic, political, sociological, philosophical and cultural landscapes in the last half of the 19th and in the 20th century.
Divide students into collaborative groups and have them select a topic from the Topic Suggestions list. Encourage students to draw from past work in history, literature, art, science, music classes, etc. to build an overview of the time period. Also, encourage students to divide their topic into subtopics, and have each member of the group research and analyze one of the segments. Have students present their findings to the class.
As a culminating experience, show students video clips of a performance of The Glass Menagerie.
Original Writer
Jayne Karsten
Adaptation
Amy Heathcott
Editor
JoDee Scissors
Updated
November 20, 2021
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