Evening star., 1947-02-11

under the eyes OF the woman VINO,
the mother of Playwright Tennessee
Williams.
There is a test for any actress,
representing not flctional char
acter but one whom you know to be
sitting right there watching your
every move. The possibilities are
infinite, and none of them particu-
larly promising. But Miss Lord will
look back upon the experience with
pleasure.
"She is quite an interesting wom-
san," she says of the mother of the
playwright who wrote of his own
family in "The Glass Menagerie." !"
"I could not have been more pleased
than to discover that she found my
representation of her satisfying. An
aristocratic southern woman living
through the events Of so realistic a
play, we'll"
Miss Lord is too modest to even
think such a thing, but you would
have to be mighty obtuse not to
know what difficult task she faced
the night she faced Mrs. Williams
in that audience in st. Louis.
st. Louis, which makes a most I'M
pretty picture in the alley slum
setting of 1.-THE Glass Menagerie, !"
rather surprised Miss Lord by its
reaction to the play.
She had rather anticipated that
city might be sensitive to this sort
OF unretouched photograph of itself.
II it was really sensitive, she
found, it gave no sign of chagrin
or discomfort. 1t could not have
been more unfeazed by the plays
harsh facade than II the set had
represented, say, Brooklyn. 1t would
not surprise her to learn positively
that this was the way with, cities,
that they just thought Of unf1atter-
ing stage pictures as being snap
shots of somewhere elsa kind OF
Everycity.
So, among her other memories Of
s@The Glass Menagerie," she won't
forget that st. Louis Just kept a
straight face. Nor will she forget
that in registering this reaction,
audiences there liked the play quite
as much as those anywhere else.
Il n X X
Miss Lord, who was fully aware
of the problems Of taking role
which became so famous in the
hands of Laurette Taylor, is de-
lighted that audiences everywhere
find so much of comedy in it.
It's murky lighting might so easily
be the lighting of sordid tragedy
instead of merely that of wistful,
somewhat gloomy dream of young
mans past. She is happy that it
comes through as the dream and
she is quite impressed with the
imagination of Playwright Williams.
It is not easy to get precise emo
tional effects so far away from the
standard forms, and that Williams
can do Just what he wants (almost,
at least) makes her happy.
Miss Lord, one is quite sure, is no
revolutionary but she certainly
would like to see the total theater
much more unfettered as in "The
Glass Menagerie."
OF those fetters which exist, she
Is quite aware of the factor of to-
days high cost of living, which is
higher in the theater than outsiders
realize. In this connection, she re-
calls one of her greatest triumphs,
"They Knew What They Wanted"
. play by the late, great Sidney
Howard.
EFT Is hard to realize now" Miss
Lord recalls, that the cost of stag
ing that play was only $1,000. OF
course, it was a one-set affair and
the sets and costumes were almost
on the tawdry side, if you remem-
Der. But what the same set and
shabby costumes would cost today"
" X y X
Miss Lord who has been playing
'The Glass Menagerie" since last
September and has another month
or so to go, will really not be sorry
when its current run ends.
This long road trip has been an
interesting and enlivening expert
ence, she agrees, but the road gets
longer and longer as the months