Harriet Harris and Randy Harrison Set for Guthrie's Glass Menagerie
Tony Award winner Harriet Harris and Randy Harrison of TV's Queer as Folk will play Amanda and Tom Wingfield in the Guthrie Theater's forthcoming production of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. The revival, directed by Joe Dowling, will begin previews on January 20, 2007, and run through March 25 at the Guthrie's McGuire Proscenium Stage in Minneapolis. Rounding out the cast are Jonas Goslow, Tracey Maloney and Bill McCallum.
Harris was a Guthrie company member in the 1980s, playing such roles as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Elmire in Tartuffe. Her Broadway credits include Four Baboons Adoring the Sun, The Man Who Came to Dinner and Thoroughly Modern Millie, for which she was awarded the 2002 Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She is well known for her recurring roles as Felicia Tilman on Desperate Housewives and Bebe Glazer on Frasier.
In a story revealed through memory and haunted by an absent father, The Glass Menagerie glimpses the Wingfield family's struggle to hold its ground in 1939 St. Louis. Amanda, the matriarch, is trying to maintain her dignity and provide for the future in the midst of the Great Depression. Her son, Tom, became the reluctant breadwinner after his father ran out on the family while his frail sister, Laura, has retreated to a homebound life where she finds comfort caring for her collection of little glass animals. The arrival of Jim, a "gentleman caller," at the Wingfield residence could be a sign of hope or a disturbance that will shatter their fragile home.
This production marks the Guthrie's fourth staging of the play, and the first play by Tennessee Williams at the theater since The Night of the Iguana in 2003. Led by Dowling since 1995, the Guthrie recently moved to a new three-theater home on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.
