A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE Opens Tonight at The City Theatre

The City Theatre continues its summer season with the Tennessee Williams American classic, A Streetcar Named Desire, which revolutionized modern drama and is still an undisputed masterpiece from one of the great voices of the American theatre. Directed by Jeff Hinkle and starring Rachel McGinnis Meissner and Tim Brown, the production runs today, July 25 - August 18, 2013.

"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." - Blanche du Bois, A Streetcar Named Desire

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Streetcar is not only a landmark in American theatre, but a ground-breaking theatrical event! Immerse yourself in the steamy French Quarter of New Orleans as we discover the torrid and fragile life of Blanche Du Bois, southern school teacher and socialite who has come to the end of the line, and is forced to move in with her pregnant sister Stella and explosive husband Stanley. In the sultry decadent jungle of half-light, honky-tonks and fleeting sanity, Blanche desperately seeks refuge in a quiet world of memory and illusion. But Stanley is there to cut off her only escape and her fragile world slowly crumbles as she quickly learns brutal lessons of passion and deceit. Embodying the turmoil of a changing nation, Streetcar strips Williams' tortured characters of their illusions, leaving a wake of destruction in their path. Poetic and provocative, lyrical and lusty, the play is a haunting and uncompromising master work from one of the greatest writers in modern drama.

"If I got rid of my demons, I'd lose my angels." - Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier Williams was born in Mississippi, 1911, and into a family life full of tension. He decided to become a playwright after he was admitted to the University of Missouri and saw a production of Ibsen's Ghosts. He moved to New Orleans and changed his name from "Tom" to "Tennessee." In 1939, the young writer received a $1,000 Rockefeller Grant and, what many consider to be his best play, The Glass Menagerie was written and burst its way onto Broadway. With his dominating mother and fragile sister, Rose, many critics believed that Tennessee used his own relationships as inspiration for the play. Elia Kazan, who directed many of his greatest successes, said of Tennessee: "Everything in his life is in his plays, and everything in his plays is in his life." Williams followed up his first major critical success with several other hits including A Streetcar Named Desire, Summer and Smoke, A Rose Tattoo, and Camino Real. He received his first Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for Streetcar, and reached an even larger world-wide audience when The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire were made into major motion pictures. Later plays which were also made into movies include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, and Night of the Iguana. Yet, with the powerful impact he had, Williams struggled with depression throughout most of his life and lived with the constant fear of insanity. On February 24, 1983, Tennessee Williams choked to death on a bottle cap at his New York City residence. In addition to twenty-five full length plays, Williams produced dozens of short plays and screenplays, two novels, sixty short stories, over one-hundred poems and an autobiography. Among his many awards, he won two Pulitzer Prizes and four New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards.

The City Theatre has assembled an exciting cast for the show including the dynamic and talented Rachel McGinnis Meissner and Tim Brown who starred in CTC's 2010 Iden Payne nominated production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The cast also includes Laura Artesi, Clay Avery, Samantha Brewer, Matt Biery, Kate Trammell, Evan Shaw, and Austen Simien. The play is directed by guest director Jeff Hinkle, whose other productions with CTC include Othello, Hair, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Romeo and Juliet. The costume designer is Lindsay McKenna with set design by Kevin George. The City Theatre Company is an Austin-based not for profit arts organization and is sponsored in part by the Austin Creative Alliance and the Austin Cultural Arts Division. Founded in 2006, the company has been recognized by the Austin Critics Table Awards, the B. Iden Payne Awards and is twice voted "Best Theatre Company" by Austin-American Statesman's Austin 360. CTC is dedicated in providing quality theatre experience and entertainment for Austin artist's and its community.

General seating is $15. Guaranteed front/2nd row reservations are $25. Students $12. Thursday all seats $10. Group discounts are also available. For reservations, call 512-524-2870 or email info@citytheatreaustin.org.

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