The Director's Corner
Monday, March 9, 2009
Thoughts on a Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire is an American classic. It is challenging to perform and to produce. The characters of Blanche, Stella, Stanley, Mitch, and their neighbors and friends provide actors with stories that are amazingly complex, sometimes contradictory, and highly emotional. These are people on the brink. The text provides a director with a larger-than-life story and delicate, yet explosive and operatic, themes told in a sharply musical language. The world of the play provides designers with the challenge of creating another character in the piece - 1940's New Orleans - with a fragile balance of heightened realism and bold theatricalism intersecting in the lighting, sound, scenery, and costumes.
While Williams challenged us, the process of working to meet these challenges has been alternatively invigorating, painstaking, emotionally draining, and fun. The brave cast you see assembled tonight includes guest artist Pamela Wilterdink as Blanche Dubois, the local theatre "legends" of Tom and Amy Burd as Stanley and Stella Kowalski, Joe Toto as Mitch, and a crew of talented students. Mixing actors of various levels of experience has provided us with a rich and instructive working environment.
Tonight you will see the fruits of our labor. We hope to bring you to the world of 1940's New Orleans, to tell these stories with truth and gusto, to bring the music of Williams's text to life.
Enjoy,
Daniel-Raymond Nadon