ACT 2 SCENE 6/ Final Thoughts

Basically Alma meets a complete stranger in the park and after being slightly charmed by him and with an automatic connection the two decide to go to the Casino (a place Alma never wanted to be before.) One can assume they'll have an intimate relationship. "Oh, how the tables have turned!"

Alma salutes the angel statue as she leaves. I now understand why so much emphasis was put on it. Alma and the statue were sort of one in the same. Or they used to be. She appeared cold and made of stone, but she really wasn't.

The scene is short so it doesn't need much explanation but it holds a lot of weight. Alma and John have both now changed, the world is completely new. And however much we liked them as they were before, I think they both have a better chance of happiness now. Maybe fleeting, or incomplete but at least they know who they want to be and are both more well rounded. This play completely broke my heart but I think it holds a lot of truth about people and men and women and love and change. It was more about a story than an overall idea. I like that things only happened in 3 or 4 places because it kept things simple. I'd really like to see this done well. i think it'd really speak to me.

ACT 2 SCENE 5

• It's an hour later. John's office. Alma enters and they sort of small talk. there's obvious tension. But a new kind. A kind born of respect and quieted longing. John says he's become settled with his life. Alma talks about how she's changed-her doppelganger, the person inside her finally come out.


• John goes to check on her heart and she kisses him. He makes no response. She thinks now that they are both different they can finally be together. Finally meeting in the middle. He now believes in the soul and she is ready for passion. She tells him about her love. How she's loved him for as long as she's known him.


• Nellie enters disrupting the sadness. The overwhelming realization that nothing can happen between John and Alma. (Ahh! This hurts me so much.) John holds Nellie tight so that he won't see the sadness all over her face.


• Alma knows the two are going to marry. This is how John has settled with the world. Alma knows and everyone knows.


• And though she doesn't realize it Nellie has the meanness and audacity to force the dagger still further in Alma's chest by asking her to sing at the wedding. :(

ACT 2 SCENE 4

• Alma and Bassett are talking in the park. My mind goes, "Oh no, THAT woman is here. Something bad is about to happen." But at least Alma is back outdoors again.


• Nellie comes and talks to Alma. General catching up sort of talk. Alma is also surprised at how much Nellie has seemed to change. Nellie briefly mentions that John has missed her-been her by her icyness with him. (So now we find that it was Alma who refused to see John.)


• Also Nellie and John are sort of..together now. They wrapped Christmas presents together. Apparently John had spoken well of Alma, saying she was his inspiration to become the better person he now is. (And that person is with NELLIE? Why not be with Alma? :(((( )


• Alma runs away from all of this and before Nellie can give her some news she runs off. She really can't bear to hear about John. And especially not John and another woman. Nellie? Her student? WHY?

ACT 2 SCENE 3

I have so much to say about this scene!

• It's been a while since all the conflict of Scene 2 with John's father. It is to be assumed that some time has passed. Alma is in the rectory and her parents have just entered.


• Mr. Winemillers gives the details of the horrible outing with his wife as she publicly emabrrassed him. (I think most audience members will finde verything Mrs. Winemiller does at least marginally fun thus making her, though pretty unecessary otherwise, an excellent comic relief.)


• Mr. Winemiller complains that ALma is always moping around in her night gown, sitting around and staying indoors like she's ill.


• Alma doesn't see why she should change how's she acting. She still manages to finish her household duties and make dinner each night-what more could anyone ask for?

Totally feeling Alma at this point as I've felt similarly. After a harsh break up I lived in a perpetual black cloud and could not be taken out of it. Others would complain that I wasn't myself and I wasn't doing anything positive but I didn't care. I kept up the business of living-bathing, eating, keeping my grades up-I just did it all with no joy or purpose. I wasn't ready to go back to normal life again.

• Alma also doesn't plan to change anything. She is a new person. Indelibly marked by what happened/didn't happen between her and John.


• We also learn in this scene that John has grown up some and achieved sucess after the death of his father. They are having a parade for him outside and Alma faints at the sight of him. She says, "No, no, don't call anyone to help me. I want to die!"


• The lights fade out in the rectory and come up in John's office where he has his new "loving cup" (Whatever that is) that he was given for his achievements.


• Nellie enters. She has become a young woman overnight and John is surpised. She is coy, flirtatious and spirited. The two talk and flirt a bit when she mentions sweet candy she's been eating that make her mouth sweet-would he like a try?


• They kiss and Nellie really goes for it with passion, surprising and impressing John. (Why does John kiss her? Even though he's grown some he's still a sucker for women. Also, what is the age difference there? Weird.)


• After the kiss John sends Nellie off kindly. The way he speaks to her, he sounds more like a father or borther than a possible love interest. "Run along, Nellie."


• She leaves but promises to be back. Awkward budding romance?

ACT 2 SCENE 2

• They are at the Buchanan house. Alma and her father and John Sr. AND Jr. John Sr. was the one who got shot, but he isn't dead. John blames his father's shooting on Alma since she was the one who called him to make him go home and talk his son out of marrying Rosa.
• John forces Alma to look at the anatomy chart and explains to her who he thinks he is and what he thinks is important. FEEDING: feeding the mind with truth, the belly with food, and the loins with sex and love.
• Alma struggles against his force and this notion. She can't believe it is so simple as that. She said she used to love John with something more-her soul. But only used to, before he hurt her again and again.
• John admits he would have never made love to Alma in that casino because he is afraid of her soul just like she is afraid of his body. He felt that he wasn't good enough-isn't good enough for her.
• And all of this makes me so angry. Why couldn't these people just be up front with one another about their love and their intentions and their differences. JUST TALK HONESTLY. But that's the trouble with John. All his mystery, all his doubletalk.
• Alma's father calls her away to go sing for the injured doctor. John stumbles in after her and says gently, "Father?"

BUM BUM BUMMMM.

ACT 2 SCENE 1

• Roger and Alma in rectory together looking at pictures from one of Roger's mom's old trips. Alma is obviously bored when old Bassett hound bustles in.
• She tells Alma that Rosa and John are to be married! Alma is upset and sends Roger and Bassett away. What? Well, I guess we should have expected. Rosa seems to be good with the intimate relations.
• Oo..too good? Violent sex where John always starts bleeding... (What sort of characters are these Tennessee Williams? This whole play is about sex.)
• Lights up on John and Rosa in the doctor's office. Rosa is in hysterics. She doesn't think they will actually get married because her father will make her marry a Mexican man. (Also, how does Rosa feel about John taking Alma out and trying to take her up to an upper room?)
• Rosa's father, Gonzales staggers in from the party going on in the house waving a gun and money and talking nonsense.
• John leaves to escape it all-he goes to Alma and lays his head in her lap.
• John Sr. comes home to the awful party in his house-obviously very angry. He orders Rosa and Gonzales out of his office and when tensions rise a shot is fired. Is the doctor or Gonzales dead???

SO MUCH DRAMA!

ACT 1 SCENE 6/7

SCENE 6

• Alma tries to tell her parents to leave the rectory so that if maybe John does come that she can meet him herself. Mother is being annoying as usual and pulling up her skirt and spreading about Alma's business to the Reverend as he works on his sermon. He sort of insists on meeting John himself but Alma, being a woman, says she can do so herself while her father goes to his study and her mother goes upstairs.
• Alma says she doesn't judge John by all the gossip but I think she just really wants him to be a good guy since she likes him so much. (But the audience knows he isn't a great guy.)
• Reverend Winemiller refuses to retire quietely because he knows John is trouble. He wants to get a good look at him before he takes Alma anywhere.
• Alma is done with this, grabs her things, and heads off by herself-presumably to meet John. Woo! Paging Seargent Backbone here. Our dear sweet Alma is a-changing.

SCENE 7

• John and Alma are at a casino's restaurant. She's all worked up from the drive there and wants a pill that John won't let her have. John complains that they should have gone in the casino but Alma said it's no place for either of them: a minister's daughter and a doctor. It's odd to think these two people like each other because all they seem to do is bicker-sexual tension or no.
• Finally the two start talking softly to one another.
• Alma admits she never felt passionate about other men.
• They kiss and it takes Alma's breath away! But yet, John is still so worried over "intimate relations."
• He wants to take Alma to see a cockfight and then offers to take her up to a room above the casino. REALLY, JOHN? REALLY? Does he even KNOW her?
• Alma becomes anxious and angry and offended. She won't let John touch her and demands he call her a taxi. :(

ACT 1 SCENE 5

• When lights come up on the doctor's office John and Rosa are together. Rosa is drinking and helps John bandage a gash on his arm. How did he get this?



• Alma comes and John sends Rosa to the hall. She wants to speal to John Sr. but it's 2AM and John Jr. thinks he can help her just fine. He gives her some medecine to calm her and reassures her she'll get along just fine, quoting word for word what his father had said to Alma. "One day will come after another and one night will come after another..."



• John says he doesn't like meetings which is why he ran off from hers. He said he only likes meeting between 2 people. Nudge nudge, wink wink.



• To check on her heart John has to unbutton Alma's blouse. Ooo, steamy! ;p



• John says that Alma's condition is that she's lonesome. (Is that why she spends so much time with John's father? Is her heart condition just being easily excited and axious?)



• John once again tells Alma that he's fond of her, her emotional ways, all her feelings. He says he'll call on her some Saturday at 8.



• Rosa re-enters and John kisses her passionately and roughly. WHAT? WHAT? John is such a tease and a manwhore. He makes me angry. He needs to make up his mind.

Also I notice every time the lights go down they come up on the angel statue in the fountain. For what purpose?

Act 1 Scene 4

• They are having a meeting and it sounds so boring and official. They keep minutes and make votes? I thought it was just a fun little group to read poetry and stuff like a more civilized Dead Poet's Society.


• The people at the meetings are societal outcasts. Nerdy men, a librarian, a loudmouthed widow. When John comes he simply doesn't fit and everyone can tell. Alma is so pleased he has come but embarrassed by how boring they are compared to his wild life. He is dressed very finely and Alma has him sit next to her. Ha ha, this hurts Roger's feelings, the fine, Christian gentleman he is. He thought the meeting an opportunity for HIM to get to sit next to Alma.


• Mrs. Bassett is a complete loudmouth and she has opinions on everything and she needs to shutup. People barely get a sentence out before she has something to say about it.


• Pretty sure the love poem is foreshadowing. Alma's gonna tell John she loves him but he gonna up and leave her with some skank like Rosa. Shooooo, John John John.


• After Alma recites this John gets up suddenly and leaves, saying he has to go take care of a patient.


• All thr guests/Mrs. Basset thinks that Alma loves John. And she thinks he is probably "taking care" of Rosa Gonzales, in the biblical sense.


• Alma says they were just too boring for his taste. She runs off, ashamed at her temper and tongue and the meeting ends.

Act 1 scene 3

We gain a little further insight into just how much of a burden Mrs. Winemiller truly is. Not only has she stolen a hat but she also runs around like a child, disrupts Alma's phone call, and singsongily reveals to Nellie that Alma has a big 'ol crush on John-the same John that Nellie herself has become fond of. Alma doesn't disguise her frustration with her mother but Mrs. Winemiller says she had the right to tell Nellie about Alma's crush because it's true-she's seen Alma spying on John, peeking from the window.

Alma is embarassed by all this but we are beginning to see that she really does care for John. She calls him to complain that he's never taken her out riding and I suppose she's doing her own version of flirting, calling him awful and giggling on and on. She invites him to a little meeting at her house.

John agrees to come-I wonder if he will, though. We also learn that John has been traveling around with Rosa, even coming to Nellie's house. It all sounds sort of sordid and shady. Why was he there? Who is Rosa to him? If he likes Alma so much then why doesn't he pursue her?

It's a painful scene as Alma is constantly getting let down.

Summer and Smoke Act 1 scene 2

• Alma is with Dr. Bunchanan in his office. The script days they have a father-daughter type fondess between them but I don't find that very apparent in the conversation between the two.
  


• Roger Doremus is mentioned again. He has asked for Alma's hanf in marriage!! But he sounds kind of boring. He plays the horn and teaches Sunday School. Alma isn't really attracted to him. She respects him.
  


• John Sr. is so like his son: evasize, leading, vague/ He's also not afraid to ask Alma how important sex and passion is to her in marriage. He gets angry at her for being so, "God-damn touchy." I don't like how he talks to her. She wasn't doing anything wrong.



• Alma tells Dr. she doesn't know what to do. She fears that Roger is her last suitor at her age.



• John Sr. appears to know things that he isn't saying. That's one of my biggest pet peeves! Stop alluding to information you don't plan to expose.
  


• Apparently John has been spending some "special time" with Rosa Gonzales. He also gambles and drinks. A complete opposite of Roger?


• Even John's father has issues with him-but of course he loves his son.

Summer & Smoke Intro/Sc. 1

As this artist's rendition shows, the suggested stage for Summer and Smoke has the park in the middle with a doctor's office and a rectory one either side. I've begun to wonder if all Tennessee Williams sets are so elaborate and all-inclusive.

In the scene we meet Mr. and Mrs. Winemiller, Mr. being a Reverend and a seemingly patient and gentle man. Mrs. Winemiller without much explanation to it is reversed to a state of childhood in which she has to be constantly cared for/dealt with. Alma, their daughter is sort of a frail, shy, and conservative creature. She's older at heart than she is in years and she laughs lightly at the end of most of her lines to highlight her cheerful disposition and airy manner. It is also learned that Alma is a singer/singing instructor and most people don't like her because she seems fake or too proper. Alma has some sort of illness which John's father, Dr. John Buchanan Sr, attends to her for. John is apparently also going into the medical field and feels he'll do better than his father. John is confident, manly, and teasing. He likes to play with Alma's shy and skittish nature. Though at first I really disliked John for how he messed with Alma, they have an undeniable chemistry. They play around in a way as one moves and the other follows. A dance-a chase. At the end John admits his fondness for Alma but she can barely believe it.

Several smaller characters are introduced such as Rosa Gonzales, a beautiful woman who attracts John's attention; Nellie, Alma's singing student who is a precocious 16 year old with a scandalous mother; and Roger, a kind and sort of nerdy friend of Alma's.

This is all basically exposition and this first scene didn't make much sense to me.

ACT 2 SCENE 8/ Final Thoughts

HERE

ACT 2 SCENE 7

Tom goes more into describing Jim and his past and affect on Tom's life. He sounds like an alright guy. He's a former, though. A used to be sort of guy who's glory days are behind him. So either he'll be full of himself or he'll be defeated. I don't think Laura would care much for the former--nothing in common with a confident fellow. But I like him. He made life better for Tom at the warehouse and I like Tom, stubborn, full of dreams, distinctively alive. He's a poet too! I guess that's what his dream is, what Amanda means by his writing. And oh, oh, oh! This is the Jim that Laura had a crush on earlier. The "Blue Roses" guy. But oh..oh no he was engaged. Which probably means he's married now. Which means Amanda will be selling the hell out of Laura and Jim will politely agree but he can never truly love her. And oh, it's a tragedy! Or at least that's what I assume.

I'm a genius. When Jim first came in he was charmed by Amanda's antics. As the girl's were preparing Tom and Jim had a conversation wherein Tom told Jim his plan to leave the apartment, to strike out on his own and leave it all behind. Jim is amused by this but doesn't think it's a good idea. And with just enough motivation, sadly enough, Tom probably will go. Too long having lived under Amanda's watchful eye and worried brow he is completely fed up. Laura at finding out this Jim was her Jim was taken extremely ill. As they tried to sit down to dinner she almost fainted and had to lie down.

ACT 1 SCENE 6

The One Where Tom and Amanda Have a Serious Talk

• Tom and Amanda are out on the fire escape. Tom smoking, Amanda telling him he ought not to and musing at the moon and the revelry in the dance hall nearby. There's a bit of cat and mouse as Tom dangles the new info that he found a guy to meet Laura and Amanda bats at it, wanting all the details that Tom won't provide at first.
• When Tom reveals that the man will be coming the next day Amanda is in an absolute tizzy. Nothing is good enough: clothes, dishes, the apartment itself, to impress this man. Amanda goes on to question the character,salary, and attractiveness of James Delaney O'Connor. She deems him suitable. But sadly for the poor fellow he has no idea he's being lured into Amanda's spiderweb. Tom lacks the tact needed to hold a conversation long enough to fully explain to O'Connor the full scope of the implications of the dinner invite. Or at least he's too smart to scare a modern man away with the idea of marriage.
• Then Tom begins to talk about Laura, saying that though he and Amanda find her charming maybe others wouldn't-they'd find her strange. The way she plays with her little animals and listens to old records constantly. Laura's world is ghastly small. Amanda just cannot accept this. Tom knows it to be true and having said all he can he leaves. Amanda bring Laura out on the escape and tells her to wish for happiness, tears in her eyes. Her fears are showing. She knows the truth but denies it.

ACT 1 SCENE 4/5

video here