By Susan Shinn
sshinn@salisburypost.com
Drama students at Salisbury High School are tackling Tennessee Williams’ intense play, “The Glass Menagerie.”
The production is being staged at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the school auditorium. Tickets are $5 at the door.
The play is directed by Debbie Hubbard. The four-member cast is comprised of senior Haily Weddington, who plays Amanda Wingfield; senior Jesse Mayorga as her son, Tom; sophomore Zoe Gonzalez as Laura, her daughter; and sophomore Jalen Wilkerson as Jim O’Connor, the gentleman caller.
The story centers around Amanda, a woman whose husband has abandoned the family.
She’s trying to make “plans and provisions” for Laura, and for her future.
So she asks Tom to bring home Jim, a colleague from work. The family doesn’t realize, however, that Jim is engaged.
“It’s pretty intense,” Weddington says. “I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s something completely different than anything I’ve ever done. Amanda has lots of problems, but she puts on a good front.”
“It’s a beautiful, tender story about troubled families,” Hubbard says. “Everybody can relate, and I had the actors who could do it.
“In high school theater, you need to do real theater, not fluff.”
Laura is painfully shy, Gonzalez says. “She’s happier when she’s with her brother than her mother. Jim is the first person who makes her happy. He brings out a completely different side of her and lifts her out of her normal life.”
Mayorga agrees that the play is “pretty intense.”
“I’m pretty happy with this as my last play as a senior,” he says. “This for me is the big shebang. It’s been a good learning experience and a chance for me to hone some new skills and really get into my character’s head.”
Wilkerson says that Jim is a “nice and friendly guy ó very energetic.”
Wilkerson says he himself is more laid back.
“I’ve had to do this nice, loud booming voice,” he says, adding that it’s his first play and he definitely wants to do more.
The crew includes Eugene Jones, sound operator; Imon Wilson, light board operator; Keisha Smith, props mistress; Tamara Oglesby, props assistant; Luis Orta-Bernachea, spolight operator.