the fifth worst earthquake in the known history of mankind and we committed ourself to reconstruct everything in four years so we still have to finish that task. and the second main task is to consolidate the revival of the chilean economy which after a poor performance is growing at 6%, creating jobs, we are very close to full employment, reducing poverty and the final thing is that we are engaged in a huge reform of the educational and the health sectors and we still have to finish that job. >> rose: can you maintain a 6% growth rate. >> we can, it's not easy, it needs a lot of commitment effort. we have been able to increase invest. the as a percentage of g.d.p. from 21% to 26% in the last three years and to promote innovation and entrepreneurship

and invest much more we are doubling in science and technology. so our new pillars are key. we want to keep growing at 6% and we need to grow at 6% because if we do that before the end of this decade chile might become the first-- hopefully not the only one-- latin american country able to defeat poverty. >> rose: your principle expert is -- >> copper. >> rose: copper, of course. with whom? >> china is by our far our most important trading partner. >> rose: and what do you buy from them? >> you name it. >> rose: everything? >> everything. and we are exporting them mining products also wood and timber and fish and fruits and many things also. so china has become by far our -- the largest trading partner. >> rose: and the relationship is good? >> it is good. we have had a diplomatic relation with china for the last 43 years. actually, chile was the first

country that established that with china and we have different systems, of course, but we get along very well. >> rose: is there any limit in what they will export to you or what you might not export to them? >> no. it's a free trade relationship. >> rose: does this mean china is chile's most important economic relationship? >> yes. and it's something very curious because one of the few countries with which china hooz a trade deficit with chile and one of the few that the u.s. has a trade surplus is china. >> rose: and how do you explain that? because they need all the copper you can give them? >> yes. yes. and we don't care if we have -- >> rose: you average out as a circle. >> yes. and with respect to the united states, what's the trading relationship? >> rose: we are exporting to the

u.s.a. lot of fish products, fruits, food also a lot of wood and timber and copper and we are importing to the u.s. many, many things. a lot of technological. >> rose: what's the relationship with the united states like? >> very good relationship. because not only trade. we have good relationships in investments, in terms of political dialogue, we chair with the u.s. the main values of democracy, human rights, respect and the same approach to the world. so we have had very good relationship with the u.s. >> rose: we have had one latin american president and say america doesn't appreciate us and it hasn't paid attention to us. >> well, there was a time where the american aid to latin america was very poor. and what we want --

>> rose: you don't need it? >> because with chile -- >> rose: or the u.s. doesn't have it to give? >> well, both. (laughs) the u.s. is not as rich as it used to be and latin america is not as poor as it used to be but we're looking for a partnership relationship. when we invited president obama to come to chile and he gave a speech for all the latin american countries the basic message was that from now on we will be partners and therefor we will collaborate but it would not be the kind of relationship that we used to have in the past with the al lines for progress which was basically all the latin american countries expecting aid from the u.s. now it's trade, investment. if. >> rose: but they also -- people who sit at this table from latin america will argue this ought to be latin american countries and america ought to be one of the strong relationships because of this hemisphere. >> yeah. >> rose: in terms of the economic relationship, in terms of the whole range of other things should make u.s. relationship with latin america

-- >> rose: europe has two world wars. they were able to create the european union here in this hemisphere in america without any whether or not wars. we haven't been able to create -- i remember pre'&qqgt obama once announced a free trade from alaska to -- that is still to come. >> rose: and why hasn't it come? >> well, part of that is that the u.s. navy has not had the political will to do it but at the same time we have so many different approaches in latin america. for instance, their countries do not want to do that. the other countries like, for instance, those that are members of the pacific alliance, mexico, colombia, peru and chile that have created this alliance which is very young, one-year-old, but it has been extremely successful. and we have invited the u.s. to be part of that and actually u.s. now is an observer member with canada, with japan, with china of the pacific alliance.

>> rose: chile's also had a military history with general pinochet and all that happened with him. how much of your budget is -- goes to defense? >> about 3% of our g.n.p. >> rose: 3%? significantly less than the united states. >> oh, definitely yes. >> rose: that's an advantage for you, isn't it? >> it is, because at the end of the day if you spend too much money in defense you are -- you will not be able to spend what is necessary in education, health, innovation, technology, science. so we spend about 3% of -- >> rose: those things really make a difference to the future. education, science, innovation, health? >> yea that latin american countries we have a stable democracy, we have a social market economy. the but we need to build the new pillars of development which is basically the dramatic proof to

improve capital and that requires a educational reform twice or three times as more as much in science and technology, we need to promote innovation and entrepreneurship. we need to produce poverty. those are the main four pillars with which we are committed and those four pillars explain why chile is doing so well. >> rose: if i look to latin america i see colombia, mexico, chile brazil was growing faster than it is now. it's had a decline but may be coming back. i also -- and they have all essentially centered on concerned governments, those that i just mentioned on the other hand you have ecuador. tell me about that. how do you explain? >> well, they have to eyes two approaches to philosophy with within latin america. on the one hand you have the alba countries, cuba, ecuador,

bolivia. on the other side you have the pacific alliance like mexico, colombia, chile, peru. and of course i think that our model is the right model for a country like chile and the results are provingen now because the pacific alliance country has grown much faster than the others. but each country has its right to choose its own way and we have learned to live with our differences so of course we have huge difference with cuba and venezuela in many aspects but we are part of latin america and we need to learn to live together. >> rose: what's going to happen in cuba? >>. >> who knows? we know both castro brothers are very old. >> rose: right. >> fidel is in his '80s and raul 79, i think. >> rose: >> yes. so they have had the power in cuba for the last 50 years. what will happen with cuba when

they will not be there. who knows? i hope that cuba will move in the direction of democracy freedom and respect with human rights and many other liberties. >> rose: do you see any evidence of that yet? >> rose: do you think raul castro recognizes he has to make the economy a little bit more of a market economy. >> i think they are moving slowly. >> rose: do you think the united states makes a mistake with the embargo. >> i think who suffers with the embargo is the cuban people rather than the cuban government. i'm not sure whether the embargo is the right way to approach this problem. >> rose: when you think about the united states, what's the view of the united states in latin america? >> i think there's a great admiration for the values that

are ininspired the american dream. democracy, freedom -- >> rose: the world's oldest democracy. >> innovation, entrepreneurship and i think there's a great admiration for that. of course the u.s. should pay more attention to latin america. i agree with that. but not the way that some countries would want it's not just a question of aid. aid should go only to very poor countries but we should move faster and get better results in terms of economic integration. there that's something that i don't see any reason why we cannot have a free trade as was mentioned by president bush. >> rose: what's the most controversial social issue in chile? >> educational reform. >> rose: really. why? >> there are different views. there are some people that think the education sector should be monopolize bid the private sector and we think that we

should have a mixed system with public and private school, with public and private university and people, students or parents have the right to choose whether they said the keys or whether they go for education. that's one big issue. the other big discussion is chile wlpl education should be free for everybody. >> rose: what's your snogs >> my position is it should be free for those people that need it and we should have a very good system for the rest. >> rose: what kind of system? >> a credit system. >> rose: so your children should have to pay for an education but somebody -- >> we guarantee scholarships for all the students belonging to the 60% of the poorest households in chile. and we guarantee a very good loan system with subsidized rate for the next 30%. sol only the richest 10% have to pay 100% of the education. i think that's a good system. it's fair and allows us to promote more equality of opportunities.

>> rose: what are the demonstrations in the street about? >> basically they ask for two things: free education for everybody-- which we are not able to afford that-- and many of them want to monopolize the whole educational system within the public sector and get rid of the private sector. that would be a tremendous trade not only to freedom but also to quality of education. >> rose: the miners. last time you were here we talked about the dramatic rescue of the miners. where does that story -- is it still part of the -- do people talk about it still >> yes, because it was so heroic so emotional. remember that for almost three weeks we didn't know whether they were dead or alive. we didn't know where they were. but i felt that my duty as president was to do whatever was necessary to look for them, find them and rescue them.

and finally we were able to accomplish that vision and that was something which extremely emotional for the whole country, for the whole world. >> rose: and they've been able to readjust? >> some of them yes but some of them not. >> rose: a traumatic experience. >> and some of them have not been able to recover 100% yet. >> there is this about the united states and n.s.a. as you know. revelation from snond about how the united states or n.s.a. spied on other governments. everybody knows a government spy. is anything new about this for you? were you upset? would you take the action that the president of brazil took when she canceled a trip? >> well, of course i think that the you should should not pie on friendly countries or countries in which we have a very good relationship. in the case of brazil, president

rousseff came to the conclusion that there was a very significant and permanent spying effort and therefore she was very disappointed with that and she canceled her trip to the u.s. we have asked and we have tried to do some research whether that same thing happened with chile. >> rose: and? >> we have not yet come to a conclusion. >> rose: and suppose it was as severe and it was in brazil, as penetrating as it was. >> it would be something unacceptable for us. >> rose: how would you express that unacceptability? >> well, first of all i would like to come to that conclusion but of course you cannot spy on other countries. >> if snond had wanted to live in chile would you allow him to come? >> i think he should come to the u.s. and face the judiciary -- >> rose: and have a fair trial? have a surface-to-air trial in the u.s. >> rose: you're a billionaire. and you've got a country that is

growing well economically yet at the same time there are alarming numbers about the number of poor in chile, in the united states, every where in the world and sometimes in places the growing disparity. >> it's true. in the u.s. there are 40 million people living below the poverty line even though it's one of the richest countries in the world. so in the case of chile -- >> rose: what is the moral thing to do and what -- >> i think that not only -- the moral argument is enough to deal with this, to address this problem. but on top of that to get rid of poverty is the best investment you can do in order to boast economic development and gain political stability. so what we're doing in chile, in chile in the '70s almost 40% of the population was living in poverty. that rate has come down to 14% right now. and our government is going down and down and down. how are we dealing with this?

with long-term measures creating good jobs for everybody want who wants to work and providing good education for any student that wants to be educated. those are the most powerful tools to defeat poverty and to defeat extreme inequality. in the short term we have created a program which is called family ethical income by which is determining the income the family needs to live with dignity and we transfer resources from the private sector but not unconditionally. we say we will help you to help yourself. so if you do your part we'll do ours. so it's a kind of strategic alliance between poor families and the government to overcome poverty. and it's working very well. because we're not promoteing -- so i say look, if you want to defeat poverty you need to --

keep your kids in school, you need to train yourself so you need to do your own effort. don't expect everything will come from the government because that's not the solution. >> rose: what's the biggest impediment for chile-- because you'll be gone in six months-- to maintain the economic growth rate it has today? >> first of all, it's not easy to grow at 6% a year. >> rose: few do. >> few do. it takes a lot of commitment, a lot of courage and you have to be taken all the time measures to innovate, to improve, to modernize the whole system so the worst danger is that when you think that growth happens by chance or falls from the sky. so i hope that whoever is the next government they will realize they need to keep improving the quality of education. keep increasing our investment

effort, keep trying to modernize the state and promoting entrepreneurship and innovation and science and technology. it's not that question of sitting there saying i have all the rights and no responsibilities. which is a big problem because people are very conscious of the rights but sometimes they are not as conscious with respect to their responsibilities. >> rose: tell me about the country's mood at the recent anniversary of the '73 coupe. >> well, in 1973 our democracy chroopsed. it was not a sudden death it was a long agony that started in the '60s because the leftest introduced violence into politics and they didn't respect our rule of law and finally all that process came to an end on

1973 with the coup d'etat. and then we had for 17 years a military government which, of course, did terrible things in terms of human rights but also some good things in terms of modernization and improving the capacity of the country to face the new challenge. but we recovered our democracy in 1988''89 and it was done in a very wise and sound way because normally transition from a military government to a democratic government takes place in t middle of economic crisis, political chaos, social violence. that one the case in chile. we reached an agreement on how to recover our democracy with just a natural way of living. >> rose: has full justice been done for the people who suffered under general pinochet? >> we have done as much justice as possible. we will never find 100% justice in this world. but the that effort the chilean

society has done in order to find the truth and to provide justice has been very remarkable. >> rose: should he have been in jail? >> well, he was -- he was -- he was taken to court in chile but he died before the end of the strike. >> rose: there's also this, which has gotten attention, too, the chilecon valley and the start of the chile program, tell me how they contribute to what you have been talking about in terms of science and research and in terms of an economic development with an eye to the future. >> we have to progress, one of them is called that we're basically trying to attack innovators or entrepreneurs from all over the world and we say come to chile to develop your idea, your project and we will give you a sum, a grant, it's about $40,000 plus all the

facilities for you to develop your idea, your project in chile. we have been able to attack more than one thousand entrepreneurs or innovators, good ideas from all over the world. that has been extremely successful. at the same time we are sending chile innovators to go to silicon valley or any place in order for them to be able to learn this atmosphere, this culture of innovation science, technologies. >> rose: it's an interesting thing. sometimes coming out of american arrogance and sometimes coming out of americans' confidence there is this idea that, you know, we have such -- that our economic future will always be bright because we are sort of have owned innovation but lots of people come forward-- and you're one of them-- to say innovation and those kinds of values can be learned and we can employ them in chile or other parts of the world.

>> well, innovation can be learned in part. in other part lives in your part. but the u.s. should not rely on things that the inknow separation -- capabilities are there forever. for instance, the u.s. has been growing less than the rest of the world for the last 20, 30 years. that's why losing participation in -- so i think the u.s. cannot rest on the fast strength. they have to be all the time siting the future strength. >> rose: and building on it. according to deutsche bank, chile has become the world's first major solar power producer to be self-sustaining or subsidy free. how did you do that? >> chile was very poor in terms of old sources of energy. basically fossil fuels: gas, oil

coal. but we are extremely rich in terms of the future sources of clean renewable energy. for instn&(q, in chile we have the deserts with the highest solar radiance in the world and they are in a plateau and therefore there's no dust and therefore the capacity to produce solar energy is incredible. that's why in chile we have been able to produce the cheapest or one of the cheapest solar energy in the world. it's becoming competitive. now, it doesn't need subsidies. we are not doing whats pan ya did. they subsidized everybody and then they couldn't afford it. we are saying look, we will help you to anticipate what the technology is pro doosing in terms of making these solar energy and the wind energy competitive and efficient. >> rose: and you believe you can do that? >> in the north of chile we have all the mines and all the deserts and therefore we need to

produce a huge amount of energy north to not only provide energy to the mines and the cities but also to desalinate water because we also need water to be able to undertake those investment projects and therefore solar energy is a reality in chile. right now we are age to produce solar energy without subsidies in a very competitive way. >> there is a presidential election coming up in november. who's going to win? >> who knows? >> rose: michelle bash lay is running? >> she's running. >> rose: who are you supporting? >> i'm supporting the candidate that represents my alliance which is a very talented and a very strong woman evelyn mat tae. so basically the front-runners are two women. michelle batch lay and evelyn mat tae.

the. >> rose: what's the difference in terms of the popularity today? >> today it's 10 but in politics one week can be an eternity. >> rose: there's also this. you could be back on the security council soon. >> yes, we hope that we will be back study -- starting january 1. >> rose: what influence do you ring? >> well, chile is a country has very strong values and very strong commitments with democracy, peace, human rights and therefore we've seen that we can make an important contribution to the security council. we think that sometimes we should be incorporated as permanent members of the security council because the security council has 15 members. >> rose: do you have any recommendations? (laughs) >> yes, five of them were the winners of the second world war which are the permanent u.s., france, england, china, and russia. i think that countries like brazil, germany, japan, india should be part of the security council as permanent members. >> rose: so that would bring it to nine.

>> yes. because i think that we should try to get rid of the veto power and establish maybe some quorum or supermajority to take the biggest decisions. >> rose: finally this about you. as i mentioned several times, a very, very wealthy man. went to harvard, got a ph.d. in like years, went back to chile, first time elected president and now that is over as a part of your life. on the other hand, you can run again once politics is in your blood it never goes away? >> it's a very curious thing because my wife always tells me she got married with an academic a university professor. then i became a businessman, a entrepreneur and then a politician and she asked me "what is next? and i said "look, i don't know." and i'm happy not knowing. but because -- something -- this

is something similar to what happened in the middle age with those cities that were sieged. those wanted to get out and those who were out wanted to get in something like that happened in politics because when you were you are president, you miss the rest of the world. what are is beyond politics. but many people that leave the office, the only thing they want is to come back. for instance, my three predecessors is, all of them have tried to come back to power and i say what happens? what goes through their minds that they want to come back? that's something we'll find out after march. >> rose: power is a powerful after trow rowe dees yak, henry kissinger once said. >> yes. >> rose: do you think you'll come back again?

>> i don't know. and i'm happy not knowing but i will think about hit in the future. >> rose: thank you for coming. >> thank you very much. >> rose: back in a moment. stay with us. >> i don't know anything more tragic than a young girl just putting herself at the mercy of that and i hope that mr. o'connor is not too good looking. >> as a matter of fact, he isn't. his face is covered with freckles, he's got a very large nose. >> he's not right down homely. >> i wouldn't say right down homely. medium homely. >> rose: "the glass menagerie" was tennessee williams' first success on broadway. it transformed a write interone of the great american playwrights. tells the story of a son who longs to escape from his stifling home where his mother worries about the future of his shy disabled sister whose only solace is her collection of glass animals. a new production arrives in new york after a run in boston ben brantley of the "new york times" says "it promises to be the most

revealing revival of the cornerstone classic for many a year to come." joining me now is the cast of "the glass menagerie," zachary quinto who plays tom, celia keenan-bulger who takes the role of his sister laura, brian jay smith is the gentleman caller jim and the great, great, great cherry jones as amanda wingfield. i am pleased to have them all at this table. congratulations. and you, my dear. >> sir. >> rose: it's so great to have you back. >> thank you very much. >> rose: tell me about this play because brantley is not alone in saying "oh, my god." >> well, we feel like we are walking in tall cotton, an expression you've heard before. >> rose: i know what that means. >> the it almost feels like we are serving a great cause. and i don't mean -- this is not hyperbole. we feel as though -- and we feel that way because we've been made to feel this way by our

audiences and the critics that we are reintroducing an american masterpiece to this country. i think people who are poets and have a great depth in high school are able to appreciate this play and it's lost on everybody else. it was lost on me, i will say that. >> rose: you were resistant? >> i was resistant. i think i had that southern chip on my shoulder where it just seemed like another southern freak show, you know? and depressing and it took a yorkshireman to convince me that it was a great play with tremendous humor and that it's ultimately about love. these are three people and eventually four people who love each other so deeply and that's what makes it such a great tragedy. if they don't love each other, who cares? then it's just boring and grating. but if they deeply love one

another, how hard-rending is that to see people torn asunder irrevocably forever more who loved each other deeply. >> rose: but it began with you changing your sense of amanda. is that how you got inside? >> my first question is after i had agreed to do it mainly because john tiffany is the most charming man this side of you. (laughter) he -- my first two questions were: how did she -- the worst thing that could possibly happen to a post-victorian woman, she has two children, she's moved to the hard cold mean north from mississippi and right before world war ii in a german catholic town, i might add, of st. louis, missouri, is abandoned. now how in the world did she feed and clothe and shelter those children? not because she was a southern belle. she was a scraper. >> rose: she was a scraper. >> she was a scraper. and trevor with tremendous

energy and she's left at this point with a son who is desperate to get out for all apparent reasons. and a daughter who is incapable of surviving on their own. so like every parent of a child who's disabled in some way, what will happen when i'm gone. >> rose: why does tom need to get out? >> i mean, for the obvious reasons of self-discovery i think, for realization of who he is independent of the responsibility that was inappropriately thrust upon him by his father, ultimately, who abandoned the family. >> rose: so he's got to take care of his sister. >> well, he's made to believe that he has to. (laughter) and that's the thing, the journey that he's never able to get out from underneath the weight of that and the weight of the decision he needs to make for himself it's a classic story

in terms of relateability. any adult child who pursued their own goals and dreams had to confront the limitations of what the family expected of them and tom certainly doesn't know where his dreams will take him but he knows he needs to find out. >> rose: this resonates with me. i grew up in a small town. it was this place on the railroad running straight north and the idea of where are those trains going and how do i get on them that i constantly thought about. how did you get inside the head of tennessee williams? >> well, there's no shortage of -- >> rose: his name was tom? >> of course. there's no shortage of literature about him or stories by him about his family and many versions of what ultimately became this play so there were a lot of points of entry for me

the biography of him, all of the notebooks and collections of tennessee's own writings and we were lucky that we were able to see that archive in harvard and spend the day with our notebooks in our hands and photo albums and manuscripts and the pencil scrawlings that is to the point of what cherry saying in terms of what we do as actors when it's at this level and i don't think any of us could have imagined how the would be received here in new york so far is we -- >> rose: it's so over the top you could never imagine that. >> the response? well, i've never been on broadway before so for me it makes perfect sense. (laughter) but for these guys who've done it before is like, no, no, no, it doesn't go this way. >> rose: you could say i never imagine if you go on stage in new york you just go crazy! >> who knew? but that we serve as conduits in so many ways for something larger than us, as tennessee did. i believe when someone is as gifted and talented and

accomplished as tennessee that that talent doesn't just leave the earth when they do and i think the joy we have every night is stepping into that corridor that he was somehow a part of that we are serving and that we are giving away, again, in a way that hasn't been done in a long time. and that's the most exciting thing i think for us. >> rose: so you tell me about laura. >> well, she's the older sister of tom and i think is someone who -- whose interior life is large but who has a very, very difficult time expressing herself and that in addition to growing up with this physical disability and the qagt of a very protective loving mother who sometimes loves too hard has

shut down a great love for her brother but who she also realizes has other things that he needs in his life and i think the weight of expectations and the weight of the disappointment that she bring to the family. >> rose: and then comes the gentleman caller. >> yes. are she gets to see him for one glorious moment in her life, i think, what true love is and that's -- we should all be so lucky to have a moment like that. >> rose: tell me who he is. >> well, it's funny because in the -- i think it's the reading version there's several versionss of the play and i think it's the reading version that tennessee gave these amazing paragraph-long descriptions of tom and laura. >> rose: what does he say about

the gentleman caller? >> "a nice ordinary young man." (laughter) that's all he says about him. and i think that, you know, john tiffany, our director, and i were very intrigued not by that statement but by the space around that statement. and the possibility irony of that statement. what is jim's relationship to just being a nice ordinary young man and how did the world think of you as just a nice ordinary young man. >> rose: let me talk about the director who's not here. many people say that film is a director's medium, theater is an actor's medium but directors -- okay, stop me there. directors play an important role in theater. what does john bring to this for all of you. >> i think he for me -- he represents the most collaborative director that i think i've ever worked with in film or theater or television.

there's such a spirit of let's all figure this out together and we are serving his vision that is the grain of it all. but he involved each of us and and all of his collaborators in such a way that everybody participates. it's not anybody just serving somebody else's vision. it's really all of us in there in the trenchings together figuring out how we can best serve one another, too. >> rose: look at this. this is where tom tells his mother that there will be a gentleman caller. >> i thought perhaps you wished for a gentleman caller. >> why do you say that? >> don't you remember asking me to fetch one? >> i remember suggesting it would be nice for your sister if you brought home some nice young man. i think i have made that profession more than once. >> yes, you have made it repeatedly. >> well? >> we are gonna have one. >> what?

>> you invited someone to come over? >> i asked him over to dinner. >> you didn't! >> i did! >> did he accept? >> he did! >> he did! i thought you would be pleased. >> definitely. >> oh, very definitely. >> rose: >> how soon? >> pretty soon. >> how soon? >> quite soon. snap >> how soon? >> very, very soon! >> you stop going on like that! >> he's coming tomorrow. >> tomorrow! oh, i can't do anything about tomorrow! why not? >> there won't be any time. >> time for what? >> time for preparations! the minute you asked him and he accepted -- >> you don't have to make any fuss. >> of course i have to make a fuss! i can't have a man coming into a place that's all sloppy. i certainly have to do some fast thinking by tomorrow night, too. >> i don't see why you have to

think at all! >> that's because you just don't know. you just don't know, that's all! the >> yes, please! (laughter) >> i love that scene so much. i could watch that scene a hundred times. >> rose: why do you love it so much? >> the two of them. because the beginning of the act is so fraught and very -- i mean, this playwright out of the gate is -- he does not waste time and there is such friction between the two of them for the first three scenes of the play, two, three scenes of the play. >> maybe four. >> four! and then we get to that. and it's like, oh, i see, this is like how this family functions. this is -- there's this and there's hardship and -- but the two of them together in that scene, it's magic. >> and the possibility of these two as a mother/son dynamic is so beautiful that the love --

you see the love and the chemistry that they have and the fun that they have and the ribbing and the -- you just want them -- you want them to be able to hold on to that so bad. >> rose: also they say it's a memory play. what does that mean? >> well, i think that's something we delved into is this is a conjuring of tom's fractured memories and it's all of the essentials are distilled to the props that are only the most necessary for us here in this production. so there is no plate of food in front of us when we sit down to dinner. things are -- represented in gesture and in impression physically in a way that does away with the traditional glass in front of you on the table naturalism that tennessee actually wrote to the idea of playing against this play in

particular that memories are not whole, memories are not crystaline, they're often murky and often bleed into one another and are borne out of one another so i think we tried to capture that in a way john and stephen, his movement collaborator who is an incredible and important influence in this production along with bob curley, and niko with the music and everybody else that contributed to the technical aspects of the play really tried to capture that in a theatrical manner and we asked ourselves and each other what does that mean when amanda comes out and says "i have a liquid refresh." but there is no lemonade. what does it mean to use the language instead of the lemonade. >> we joked when we came on to your set we felt at home. this is the most beautiful set you've ever seen for "the glass menagerie" but it's not unlike your set. we are floating on these hexagons literally in this black pool surrounded by blackness so that what happens on that stage

has to be-- and i like to think more often than not-- incredibly vivid. like hit in the dream or in memory. but it -- like you say, a glass only because it -- that word totemic, i think i read that word somewhere, that that's what we choose to use in a play. you don't remember your mother's cutlery, you remember the one piece of cutlery. >> and also by -- i think by stripping away so much ofs and e space so spare it allows the audience to enter the piece in a different way that i think williams says in one of the forwards, he says it's the theater's job and an actor's job to get as close to the emotional truth as possible and i think when you take all of those things away then the audiences will brick their emotional truth even if they don't have a reference point of the wingfields on -- into the

experience. >> and as a proud mother i would just like to say that these two in that gentleman caller scene, the play it is so delicious and then you get to this scene and it is the humor in the scene is extraordinary and the -- what you see in their rendering of it is a gentleman caller who in his own way is as fragile. he's been disappointed by life already at such an early age and as s as fragile in a way as laura and he needs her as much as she needs him so that when he walks away to betty, the girl with at the wabash station, it's just -- >> thanks, mother. >> you're welcome. >> (laughter) >> rose: let's talk about the role of tom as narrator and how tennessee uses that. >> well, narrator tom is the

haunted tom. tom that's been chasing -- the thing that i -- really resonates for me for tom the narrator is tennessee the writer so if you look at tennessee's writings, if you look at his plays, pieces of himself and his family show up throughout his body of work both his men and women aspects of his persona, aspects of his family but there's no clearer distillation than this play and this one character. so for me the idea of what tennessee was trying to capture in all of the amazing and beautiful works that he left behind but also the things he's trying to escape and he never did. and i think in many ways-- of course, none of us has ha v the pleasure of knowing him or being able to talk to about this-- but my sense and maybe i'm swayed but my sense is that he was always part of -- part of what he was always chasing was this play and this is his masterpiece because of that and tom the

narrator represents that and every night when he says to laura "blow out your candles" you know that what happened to his real sister rose and the journey she took in her life and how diverge yentd their paths were and how die metally opposed their experiences were is something that never left him and i think that's what tom the narrator represents. >> rose: you also said the play i love and the parts i love are the ones that make people feel less alone. and how does that apply here? >> well, there is a -- in the final moment of this production, of this great play every night that will -- charlie, the silence that we hear throughout this play when they're not laughing there is a kind of listening and feeling going on and there is a silent prolonged that i've never heard out of 30 some odd years in this business i never heard the silence before. that prolonged.

at the end of the play what i felt most strongly sunday matinee i felt a collective pain in that audience because everyone has had this cathartic time together with this play and with their own baggage and their own heart break and their own regret and their own joys. it's all there in this play and their families and so there's a -- it is a communion of souls in that audience. and i like to say that it is done in such an artistic way that in the end it's also uplifting because great art is. >> rose: let's take a look. this is the gentleman caller, brian, talking to laura. here it is. this magical thing. >> practically everybody has got some problem. you think it's yourself having problems, you see the only one who's disappointed but you just look around you a little and you will see a lot of people just as

disappointed as you are. laugh take me, for instance, oh, boy! when i left high school i sure thought i'd be -- a lot further along at this time than i am now. you remember that wonderful write up i had in the "torch"? >> yes! >> it said i was bound to succeed in anything that i went into. oh, holy jesus. (laughter) sglfrpl it's "pirates of pen sans." >> it's t ♪ better to live than die under the brave black flag ♪ (laughter)

>> i will never be in a musical. (laughter) >> off beautiful singing voice. >> so where is the gentleman caller going? what's his transformation here? >> well, she transforms him, i think. the light of adoration that she has for him. >> that will make you -- >> yeah, especially someone who's probably -- spends all day at the warehouse having a bunch of people saying "oh, yeah, look at you, you used to be big man on campus and here you are with your fingers full of ink and --" it's got to be awful. has to be awful to have people come back from college and say "what happened to you? what happened to you? you were really something else and look at you now." >> rose: so as we close here you mentioned -- we can't ask tennessee questions. but if you could what would each of you want to ask him about "the glass menagerie"? >> i just would like to go out and have two drinks with him.

(laughter) >> i feel the same way. i mean, we as a company have spent so many nights together talking about the play, talking about tennessee, communing with one another and i feel like just to have him as a fifth member of that -- the nights we had in cambridge around a table, i don't know, i just feel like he would steer the conversation and take good care of us. he'd answer all our questions. >> i wouldn't have a question, i'd just like to thank him. >> rose: for giving you a role that you could -- >> for the play. >> i'd ask him if he liked our production of it. (laughter) >> rose: if he didn't, he'd be the only one we know. thank you very much. >> thank you, charlie. >> rose: great to have each of you here. "the glass menagerie" will be at the booth theater now through

january 5, january 5. thank you for joining us. see you next time. captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org