A recent Douglas College theatre studies graduate will be making his debut as a director this week with Tennessee Williams' own original debut as a playwright: The Glass Menagerie.

Since its premiere in Chicago in 1944, the play has become known as one of the great works of 20th century dramatic literature and the role of Amanda Wingfield considered a plum role for great actresses of a certain age ranging from Jessica Tandy to Joanne Woodward, Katharine Hepburn and, more recently here in Canada, Shirley Douglas.

"I've had this itch for directing for some time, so I figured I'd find a really good play and see if I have the chops for it," said Chris Lam. "For a first project as a director, it's seemed a good choice for me to get my feet wet."

The Glass Menagerie tells the sad tale of the Wingfield family, who are barely managing to scrape by in St. Louis just before the Second World War.

Amanda, a single mother who the term "faded southern belle" may as well have been coined for, lives with her two adult children in a tiny apartment and is so anxious about her family's survival that she frequently bullies her overly shy daughter, Laura, and berates her son Tom, the sole breadwinner, so harshly for his selfishness that he ultimately abandons them.

Many people know Williams' semi-autobiographical play well enough to have pre-conceived ideas about the characters, but Lam, 23, said he is hoping to bring a fresh take on it.

"I'm going more to the surrealist angle," he said. "It takes place as a rehearsal where it is years later, and Tom has written down the play and then he goes and rehearses it with actors. Basically it is a play within a play."

Perhaps the most daunting challenge facing a director with this particular play is finding a suitable Amanda, and Lam said he was fortunate to have found Nancy Ebert, who had already played the role five years ago in a production by the North Vancouver Community Players.

For her part, Ebert said she was equally thrilled to have the chance to step into the role a second time, especially since she had already learned Amanda's many lines.

"Amanda never stops talking," said the Royal City resident with a laugh. "When you're learning the lines, you've got this whole block of highlighted script, and then you turn the page and there's another huge highlighted block. But the lines are very easy to learn because the language is so beautiful."

She agreed that it was important to have a woman who has been around the block a few times play the part rather than, say, a twentysomething theatre student.

"They have to have somebody old to play Amanda, they can't have somebody who is 25," said the 61-year-old community theatre veteran, who was most recently seen on stage playing Nurse Ratched in the Vagabond Players production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at the Bernie Legge Theatre.

Despite her experience, Ebert said she was thrilled to work with a novice director for a change.

"One of the things that appealed to me was working with someone who had never really directed before and had a lot of stuff to bring from being fresh out of school, stuff I'd never experienced before," she said. "I thought it sounded like fun, and it's just a short run and very close to where I live, so those were all pluses."

The Glass Menagerie, also starring Stephen Fowler, Beth Garner and Tom Stevens, runs Aug. 25 to 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the Douglas College studio theatre, 700 Royal Ave. Admission is only $6.