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In the introductory notes to Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, he describes the concept of a ‘plastic theater’ – a theater that is not simply a realistic rendering, but is open to the use of expressive devices in order to get closer to the truth of lived experience. In creating a contemporary fine press edition of Kingdom of Earth, a one act play by Williams, I am using the book form to capture the concept of a ‘plastic theater’.

The setting for Kingdom of Earth is a character in itself and carries throughout the play a tension full of apocalyptic foreboding. A storm is flooding a nearby river. A property owner upriver is expected to dynamite his levee if the river continues to rise, which will flood the Mississippi Delta farmhouse in which the action is taking place. The sound of the river pervades the play with a constant rising murmur while the three main characters enact a dark dance around one another that touches on issues of race, sexuality, and survival.

The size and structure of the book allows for an immersive experience, with abstract imagery evoking water, floods, and breached levees, surrounding and engulfing the viewer. The action of the play occurs in the center of page spreads, with imagery stretching out on either side. The imagery is created through the technique of paste paper making, a traditional handmade design process.

The only colors mentioned in the play are grey and red. Red is used to symbolize the main female character, Myrtle, and female sexuality, but also blood and death. On each text page throughout the edition, the color red is used as a rising tide of graphic imagery that creeps up the page as the play progresses, just as the flood water rises through the course of the play.

The text for Kingdom of Earth is from THE MAGIC TOWER and Other One-Acts, copyright ©1967 by the University of the South. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Images, design, and binding by Amy Borezo ©2017.
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This edition is printed on Reich Aveo paper made from 90% sugarcane stalks and 10% linen/hemp. Printing from photopolymer plates made by Boxcar Press on a Challenge 15mp letterpress. Text set in Futura and Deepdene, italics in Arno Pro. Editioned paste papers created by Amy Borezo. Over nine hundred handmade paste papers are being created for this edition. Printed and bound in Orange, MA.