Reprising a theater classic

The love of Tennessee Williams is more than scholarly in the Josephson household.

Steve Josephson, the executive artistic director of Gallimaufry Performing Arts, was “blown away” the first time he saw his future wife Julie; she was performing as Blanche Dubois in Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” at the 1982 Edinburgh Festival.

Josephson is now directing his wife in Gallimaufry’s production of Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie.”

“It just absolutely seemed like the time,” Josephson said; both he and his wife have worked on numerous Williams plays, but hadn’t yet brought the staple of modern American stage to Laguna.

“It’s really nice to do a piece that reminds you about how really good things can be so simple,” Josephson said.

The play has no special effects, outrageous headdresses or bombastic scores: just an incredibly tight script where every word has weight and meaning.

Gallimaufry’s professional repertory company, The Promiscuous Assemblage (actually one of the definitions of “gallimaufry” in the Oxford English Dictionary), will perform the production on four dates in April.

The play, believed to be a semi-autobiographical depiction of Williams’ own family, is named for the collection of glass animals lovingly cared for by the play’s equally fragile heroine, Laura.

“She is so introverted that it’s hard to bring it out,” said Vanessa Ray, who plays the part. She said her castmates have helped her develop her character, which is notoriously difficult to perform.

The character wears a leg brace and is painfully shy.

Ray nearly missed out on the audition; she didn’t see several e-mails from Josephson, who finally called her to ask if she was interested.

“I was very happy that he called,” Ray said, visibly relieved.

Laura’s brother Tom (L. B. Fisher) is a paradoxical man who works to support Laura (Vanessa Ray) and their mother, Amanda (Julie Josephson), whose husband ran out on the family long ago.

Julie Gibson Josephson has performed from Laguna Beach to Paris, and was the managing director of the Michael Chekhov Acting Studio in New York.

She worked in television and is familiar locally as “Ouisa” in Gallimaufry’s production of “Six Degrees of Separation.”

She most recently recreated her role as “Latrelle” in the European premiere of Gallimaufry’s Sordid Lives at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival.

She said playing Laura was her dream role, but she never had the opportunity to play her; now, by playing Amanda, she is taking on another of the most coveted roles in modern American drama.

A faded Southern belle who now lives in the slums of St. Louis, Amanda regales her disinterested children with tales of her glimmering past, and is given some of the play’s best lines.

She is known for trying to display gentility in the most trying of circumstances, often to hysterical — or appalling — results.

The plot focuses on the efforts of Amanda, who attracted many suitors in her day, to find a suitable “gentleman caller” for Laura; she recruits her son in the process.

“You are the only young man that I know of who ignores the fact that the future becomes the present, the present becomes the past, and the past turns into everlasting regret if you don’t plan for it,” she tells her son.

Local resident Fisher, who plays Tom, starred as Peter Tork in “Daydream Believers: The Monkees Story,” Carl in the “Felicity” television series, and has had roles in “The Pretender,” “ER” and “Boston Public.”

He originally auditioned for Gallimaufry’s production of “Six Degrees of Separation.” When Fisher came back to audition for “The Glass Menagerie,” Steve Josephson said he was ecstatic.

He went so far as to break protocol and call Fisher the day after the audition to offer him the part.

“I didn’t want to waste any time,” he said.

Fisher, on the other hand, hadn’t acted in years before trying out for Josephson.

“After six years of not doing anything, my knees were knocking,” he said.

Literally.

Tom alternates between narrator and active player; he is alternately distant and intimate.

“It’s such a killer part,” Fisher said.

He has focused intently on getting every word and cadence correct.

“You have to say it exactly the way it’s written, because it’s so beautiful,” he said.

His character Tom eventually brings home what seems to be the perfect gentleman caller, a co-worker from the shoe factory where he works: Jim O’Conner, played by Matthew Sikes.

Past merges with present in the scenes that follow.

Sikes found out about the opportunity from Ray, his co-worker, who told him Josephson was having trouble casting the mysterious stranger.

He soon found himself in the role.

“It’s been great experience,” he said.

The play is but one element in Gallimaufry’s four-week-long “Family Festival.”

WHO: The Promiscuous Assemblage, Gallimaufry Performing Arts’ professional repertory company

WHAT: Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie”

WHEN: 8 p.m. April 4, 5, 11 and 12; 2 p.m. April 5 and 12

WHERE: Forum Theatre on the Festival of Arts grounds, 650 Laguna Canyon Road

HOW MUCH: $15 - $20 general admission reserved; $10 - $15 students and seniors

INFORMATION: www.gallimaufry.info or (949) 499-5060

Gallimaufry news

Gallimaufry Performing Arts will feature dance as a part of its upcoming “Family Festival,” as it presents two premieres by the Gallimaufry & Greene Dance Company and the only Southland appearance by the Emmy Award-winning Jump Rhythm Jazz Project from Chicago.

The festival will include a lecture/demonstration from Gallimaufry & Greene’s Choreographer and Artistic Director, Sean Greene, at 5 p.m. April 13 at the Forum Theatre on the Festival of Arts grounds, 650 Laguna Canyon Road.

The company’s full performance will take place at 8 p.m. April 24 at [seven-degrees], 891 Laguna Canyon Road.

Tickets for the lecture/demonstration are $10 to $15 for general admission and $5 to $10 for students and seniors.

The performance at [seven-degrees] will be $20 for general admission, $15 for seniors and $10 for students.

Jump Rhythm Jazz Project will be presented for a single performance at 4 p.m. April 20 at the Clubhouse Three Auditorium in Laguna Woods, 23822 Avenida Sevilla. Tickets are $15 to $20 for general admission and $10 to $15 for students and seniors.

For more information, visit www.gallimaufry.info or call (949) 499-5060.