I thought I knew the power of Streetcar before rehearsing it, but I've been wowed by the play’s
integration of poetic motifs, contrast of character and inner conflicts, as we
have rehearsed it over the past month.
Theater historians have long considered it one of America’s greatest
plays, but staging a new production of a classic always offers
revelations. With each scene, you will
experience Williams’ deft planting of ideas, themes and plot points. Much like our rehearsals of Shakespeare,
Shaw, and Schiller, we as a company assumed knew the power of these characters
but only in bringing the script to life could we appreciate the powerful vista
of a Williams’ authentic soul.
Streetcar’s themes
of vulnerability, misunderstanding, and passion don’t just neatly live with
Marlon Brando’s in an old black-and-white classic movie. From Blanche’s
tensile strength to Stanley’s sensitivity, we found that by bringing the page to the stage that our own presumptions were challenged.
Williams called the theater experience itself “evanescent” …
as life itself is … so delicate, so quickly gone. In th Long Center's Rollins Studio Theater, our actors and audience
experience the world that he created for a few hours and then it dissolves into
memory. I hope the actors, designers,
and behind the scenes crew who touch this production of Streetcar will remember it tenderly – I hope audiences will too.
