San Francisco Playhouse to Present THE GLASS MENAGERIE This Spring

This spring, San Francisco Playhouse will stage Tennessee Williams' seminal masterpiece The Glass Menagerie, directed by in-demand Bay Area theatre artist Jeffrey Lo. In this captivating and visceral memory play, Tom longs to evade his monotonous day job and his mother Amanda. Recalling her debutante days, Amanda toils to find a match for her debilitatingly shy daughter Laura, who escapes the realities of her world through her collection of glass animal figurines. The Glass Menagerie will perform May 2 – June 15, 2024 (opening night: May 8, 2024) at San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post Street. For tickets ($30-$125) and more information, visit the button below or call the box office at 415-677-9596.

Based on Williams' life and family, The Glass Menagerie's premiered on Broadway in 1945 to critical acclaim, winning the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play. This stunning and poetic work has enthralled audiences around the world ever since, receiving seven revivals on Broadway. The Glass Menagerie thrust playwright Williams (who would go on to write A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and The Rose Tattoo) into the spotlight, beginning his trajectory to become one of the foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama. Los Angeles Times declared, “no point in mincing words: Tennessee Williams is the greatest playwright America has ever produced,” while The Hollywood Reporter lauded Williams' “unparalleled gift for soaring poetry tethered to penetrating emotional truth.”

San Francisco Playhouse has assembled a talented cast of actors to bring this play to life. San Francisco Playhouse Producing Director/Co-Founder Susi Damilano (she/her) will tread the boards at the Playhouse again as single mother Amanda Wingfield. She is a five-time recipient of the SFBATCC Excellence in Theatre Award for Principal Actress in a Play for the Playhouse productions of Bug, Six Degrees of Separation, and Reckless. Damilano has also performed leading roles in the Playhouse's Yoga Play, The Effect, The Roommate, Red Velvet, Tree, Bauer, Abigail's Party, Harper Regan, Coraline, Slasher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Landscape of the Body, First Person Shooter, Jesus Hopped the ‘A' Train, The Crucible, Kimberly Akimbo, Our Town, and The Smell of the Kill. Recently helming the Playhouse's The 39 Steps, Damilano directed the West Coast Premieres of Honey Brown Eyes (SFBATCC nomination), Dead Man's Cell Phone, Coronado, The Mystery Plays, and Roulette; and the World Premieres of On Clover Road by Steven Dietz, From Red to Black by Rhett Rossi, and Seven Days by Daniel Heath in the Sandbox Series. Other directing credits include Playhouse productions of Clue, Groundhog Day the Musical, Cabaret, Mary Poppins, Noises Off, She Loves Me, Stage Kiss, Company, Stupid f-ing Bird, Into the Woods, A Behanding in Spokane, Den of Thieves, and Wirehead (SFBATCC nomination).

Bay Area theatre veteran Jomar Tagatac (he/him) returns to the Playhouse stage as Tom Wingfield, an aspiring poet and Amanda's son. Most recently seen at the Playhouse as Harry in The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin, Tagatac's Playhouse performances also include Gordon Hirabayashi in Hold These Truths (presented in collaboration with Capital Stage), Marc in Art, Letter Writer #3 in Tiny Beautiful Things, Actor 1 in King of the Yees, and Daniel in You Mean to Do Me Harm. Tagatac has also performed with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Theater Mu, American Conservatory Theater, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Capital Stage, City Lights Theater Company, California Shakespeare Theater, and Magic Theatre. He received a SFBATCC Award for Principal Actor in a Play and a TBA Award for Outstanding Performance in a Featured Role.

Nicole Javier (she/her) makes her Playhouse debut as Laura Wingfield, Tom's quiet and shy sister who treasures her collection of glass miniatures. Javier has also acted with TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, La Jolla Playhouse, Aurora Theatre Company, San Jose Repertory Theatre, A Noise Within, Crowded Fire Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Shakespeare Orange County, Cornerstone Theatre Company, and Provincetown Playhouse.

Oakland Theater Project Co-Artistic Director William Thomas Hodgson (he/him) makes his Playhouse debut as Jim O'Connor, a nice man and potential suitor for Laura. He has appeared onstage at theatres including La Jolla Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Center Repertory Company, Shotgun Players, Oakland Theater Project, Mixed Blood Theatre, and Berkeley Playhouse. 

PRODUCTION TEAM:

The Glass Menagerie features scenic design by Christopher Fitzer, costume design by Sarah Niamh Nietfeld, lighting design by Wen-Ling Liao, properties design by Wallace Yan, and sound design by James Ard. Sarah Marie Selig is the stage manager with Ada May as assistant stage manager.

CREATIVE TEAM:

Tennessee Williams (Playwright) who wrote 39 full length plays and more than 70 one-acts, in addition to nearly a dozen screenplays as well as books of poetry and two novels, was one of America's most prolific and important playwrights. He explored passion with daring honesty and forged a poetic theatre of raw psychological insight that shattered conventional proprieties and transformed the American stage. The autobiographical The Glass Menagerie brought what Williams called “the catastrophe of success,” a success met and exceeded by A Streetcar Named Desire, one of the most influential works of modern American literature. An extraordinary series of masterpieces followed, including Vieux Carre, Sweet Bird of Youth, The Rose Tattoo, Orpheus Descending, Camino Real, The Night of the Iguana, Suddenly Last Sunmmer, and the classic Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Williams won Pulitzer Prizes for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and the Tony Award for The Rose Tattoo.

Jeffrey Lo (Director) is a Filipino-American playwright and director. He helmed San Francisco Playhouse's Chinglish, Hold These Truths, and The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin. He is the recipient of the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award, the Emerging Artist Laureate by Arts Council Silicon Valley and Theatre Bay Area Director's TITAN Award. His plays have been produced and workshopped at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The BindleStiff Studio, City Lights Theater Company, and Custom Made Theatre Company. Directing credits include Little Shop of Horrors, The Language Archive, and The Santaland Diaries at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley; Every Brilliant Thing and Red Bike at Center Repertory Company; Vietgone and The Great Leap at Capital Stage; Peter and the Starcatcher and Noises Off at Hillbarn Theatre; The Crucible, Yellow Face, and The Grapes of Wrath at Los Altos Stage Company; Uncle Vanya at the Pear Theatre (SFBATCC award for Best Production); and A Doll's House, Part 2 and Eurydice at Palo Alto Players (TBA Awards finalist for Best Direction). Lo has also worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, San Jose Repertory Theatre, and is a company member of Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company and San Francisco Playground. In addition to his work in theatre he works as an educator and advocate for issues of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and has served as a grant panelist for the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Silicon Valley Creates, and Theatre Bay Area. He is the Casting Director/Literary Manager at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, where he will also be helming the upcoming Tiger Style!.

SAN FRANCISCO PLAYHOUSE:

Founded by Bill English and Susi Damilano in 2003, San Francisco Playhouse has been described by The New York Times as “a company that stages some of the most consistently high-quality work around” and deemed “ever adventurous” by The Mercury News. Located in the heart of the Union Square Theater District, San Francisco Playhouse is the city's premier Off-Broadway company, an intimate alternative to the larger more traditional Union Square theater fare. The Playhouse provides audiences the opportunity to experience professional theater with top-notch actors and world-class design in a setting where they are close to the action. The company has received multiple awards for overall productions, acting, and design, including the SF Weekly Best Theatre Award and the Bay Guardian's Best Off-Broadway Theatre Award, as well as three consecutive San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for Best Entire Production in the Bay Area. KQED/NPR recently described the company as “one of the few theaters in the Bay Area that has a mission that actually shows up on stage. Artistic Director Bill English's commitment to empathy as a guiding philosophical and aesthetic force is admirable and by living that mission, fascinating things happen onstage.” The Playhouse is committed to providing a creative home and inspiring environment where actors, directors, writers, designers, and theater lovers converge to create and experience dramatic works that celebrate the human spirit.

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