blackbirdonline journalSpring 2011  Vol. 10  No. 1
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DAVID ROBY

Unseen Character Suite

 
   
David Roby’s Notes on Unseen Character
 
  Eight Selections from Unseen Character
       Mr. Wingfield
       The Typing Instructor
       Wesley Cutrere
       Mrs. Duncan Fitzhugh
       Emily Meisenbach
       Ida Scott
       Malvolio the Magician
       The Merchant Marine
   

David Roby’s eighteen monologues from characters unseen in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams provide the particular pleasure of watching individuals limned with authority under the confines of a short scene.

They also introduce new avenues through which to explore Williams’s play, giving voice to a chorus that serves up an effective midrash commentary on the lives of the Wingfields and their gentleman caller. Eight of these monologues are published here.

As the Tennessee Williams Playwright in Residence at the University of the South/Sewanee, Roby has chosen to use his residency in part to pay homage to Williams on the centennial of his birth. Unseen Character thus works both as tribute and as stand-alone theatrical experience.

A brief biography of Williams along with some discussion of the evolution of The Glass Menagerie from stage production to screen accompanies this suite.  end


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