Barrington Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and Producing Director Richard M. Parison, Jr., presents Tennessee Williams' masterwork, A Streetcar Named Desire, as part of the theater's 15th Anniversary Season. Directed by Julianne Boyd, Streetcar stars three-time Tony Award nominee Marin Mazzie as Blanche DuBois and Christopher Innvar as Stanley Kowalski, and will play on the Mainstage through August 29th, 2009, with a Press Opening take took place tonight, Sunday, August 9 at 5pm.
There may be no other play with quite the same punch as
Tennessee Williams' American classic, A Streetcar Named Desire. It is so powerful an exploration of fractured domesticity, sexual love and frustration that its two central characters, Stanley Kowalski and Blanche DuBois, are nothing less than American icons. A Streetcar Named Desire premiered in New York in 1947, thus cementing William's reputation as one of the greatest
American Playwrights, winning him a New York 's Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize. With its raw sexuality, A Streetcar Named Desire broke taboos on stage and screen.
Set against the steamy backdrop of New Orleans ' gritty French Quarter, Williams' drama tells the story Blanche DuBois, a faded Southern belle, driven to madness by her brutish brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski.
Marin Mazzie (Tony Award nominee for Best Actress in a Musical for performances in Kiss Me, Kate, Ragtime and Passion) stars as Blanche DuBois opposite
Christopher Innvar (BSC's Private Lives and Cyrano, B'way's 110 in the Shade, Threepenny Opera) as Stanley, with Kim Stauffer (DC's
Shakespeare Theatre Company member) as Stella, and
Kevin Carolan as Mitch (The Ritz and Dirty Blonde). Also in the cast are Emily Taplin Boyd (Nurse), Miles Hutton Jacoby (YoungCollector), John Juback (Steve), Jeffrey Kent (Doctor), Chavez Ravine (Mexican Woman/Blues Singer),
Jennifer Regan (Eunice), and
Thom Rivera (Pablo). The production is designed by
Brian Prather (Sets),
Scott Pinkney (Lights),
Elizabeth Flauto (Costumes), and Brad Berridge (Sound).
Renee Lutz is production stage manager.
A Streetcar Named Desire originally starred
Marlon Brando,
Jessica Tandy,
Kim Hunter, and
Karl Malden.
Brooks Atkinson wrote in The New York Times, "Out of poetic imagination and ordinary compassion, he has spun a poignant and luminous story." He went on to call the play "the most imaginative and perceptive play (Williams) has written." A Streetcar Named Desire was made into a film in 1951, earning Academy Awards for
Vivien Leigh, Malden and Hunter, in addition to 8 nominations. Several high-profile revivals of the play have been staged since the premiere, including the Lincoln Center production in 1973 starring
RoseMary Harris and
James Farentino and the 1992 revival at the
Ethel Barrymore Theatre starring
Jessica Lange and
Alec Baldwin.
Tennessee Williams (Playwright) is widely regarded as one of the most important and widely celebrated playwrights in American history. He wrote two Pulitzer Prize-winning plays: A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955). Other major works included The Glass Menagerie (1944), Summer and Smoke (1948), The Rose Tattoo (1957), Camino Real (1953), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1964). He was nominated four times for the Tony Award for Best Play, winning once for The Rose Tattoo. He authored numerous short stories, one-act plays, two works of fiction, many screenplays, and numerous lesser-known plays.
Performances for A Streetcar Named Desire will take place at Barrington Stage, 30 Union Street , Pittsfield . Showtimes are Tuesday and Wednesday at 7pm, Thursday through Saturday at 8pm, Wednesday and Friday matinees at 2pm, and Sunday at 5pm. Opening Night: Sunday, August 9 at 5pm. $15 mezz/$20 orchestra tickets are available for August 6 and August 7 previews. Pay What You Can Performance for 35 year olds and younger: Friday, August 14 at 8pm. As part of its 15th Anniversary Season, BSC will have 15 tickets available for every performance, excluding Saturday evening, $15. Tickets can be purchased ahead at the box office, by calling 413-236-8888 or visiting
www.barringtonstageco.org.
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