Posted by Mary Wimberley on 2009-02-16

Samford University Theatre will present Tennessee Williams' poignant masterpiece, The Glass Menagerie, Feb. 26-March 1.

Samford Theatre department head Dr. Don Sandley directs the play, assisted by Jason Barnes, a freelance associate production manager for the Cottesloe at the National Theatre in London, England.

Set in the 1930s in a small tenement apartment in St. Louis, the play's Wingfield family awaits the visit of a gentleman caller in hopes of changing their lives for the better.

Sevy Foster, a senior theatre major from Benton, Ark., plays Amanda Wingfield, the mother who tries to live vicariously through her children.

Shara Lewis, a junior musical theatre major from Melbourne, Fla., plays Laura, Amanda's sensitive daughter who spends much of her time with her glass collection.

Quincy Price, a sophomore musical theatre major from Sharpsburg, Ga., is cast as Tom, Amanda's son who aspires to be a writer but feels burdened by his family.

Ben Barlow, a sophomore theatre major from Atlanta, Ga., plays Jim, a workmate of Tom's and Laura's "gentleman caller."

Sandley notes that the role of Tom was once played by the late Dr. Thomas E. Corts, Samford president emeritus who died suddenly on February 4. Corts, then a student at Georgetown College in Kentucky, was directed by longtime Samford theatre department chair Harold Hunt.

Hunt, who was director of theatre at the Kentucky school in the early 1960s, also directed the young Corts in a production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town.

The Glass Menagerie will be presented in Harrison Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 26-28, and at 2:30 p.m. on March 1.

Admission is $12 adult, $9 senior adult (55-plus), and $6 student/child. For reservations, go to www.samfordartstickets.com or call (205) 726-2853.

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.