YEAR OF THE IGUANA to Explore Tennessee Williams' Life at Studio Theatre Long Island

Tennessee Williams was larger than life. So maybe it's only logical that two actors would play him in the new play Studio Theatre Long Island is presenting about his life.

Fans of Tennessee Williams' work such as "The Glass Menagerie" and "A Streetcar Named Desire" will find familiar characters and storylines in "Year of the Iguana," a new play by Long Island playwright Claude Solnik, at Studio Theatre Long Island, 141 S. Wellwood Ave., Lindenhurst, July 22 to Aug. 7.

They will also find two actors playing the playwright as a young man and a successful and then struggling playwright.

Edward Cress plays a young Tom (Tennessee Williams' real name), while Michael H. Carlin plays Tennessee as an older man and NICOLE INTRAVIA plays his sister Rose.

Lisa Meckes and James Bradley play Williams' parents, while Rosemary Kurtz plays a nurse who cares for Williams later in life.

"I wanted to show Tom Williams and Tennessee Williams," Solnik said. "They were one person, but the young man living with his family and the playwright years later were also very different people."

The play shows how forces seemed to be engaged in a war within Williams who sought to reconcile aspects of his life, and the incarnations of his family members, in a single soul.

"Tennessee Williams was a huge success and still someone who struggled," Solnik said. "He lived many of his stories, but was able to step out from them and tell them in a way that still resonates today."

David Dubin, who directed the production, is presenting the characters at once as realistic figures, but also as if they were living in a Williams play.

"Traditionally, when you see 'The Glass Menagerie,' it is a theatrical, fictionalized account of Tennessee Williams' life," Dubin said. "I want to do the opposite. I want to take Tennessee Williams' life and make it resemble 'The Glass Menagerie' and use the same style."

Studio Theatre Long Island originally presented the show as a staged reading. Based on the success of that event, it is mounting a full production.

"There will be a lot of posterized photographs of the real people,"Dubin added. "There will be the original poster of 'The Glass Menagerie' production in New York and 'A Streetcar Named Desire.'"

Dubin plans to present the play with numerous lighting effects, no walls and some presentational speeches "where the character speaks through the fourth wall," further involving the audience in this story about one of the nation's best known authors.

"I didn't realize there was a gentleman caller. He did work in a shoe factory," Dubin continued. "His mother did try to sell subscriptions to magazines and was rejected often by his neighbors."

In addition to staging Solnik's play about Williams' life in a way true to Williams' plays, Dubin cast actors who, he believes, resemble people on whom the characters are based.

"Nicole [Intravia] does resemble Rose," he said. "She's up to the challenge of playing before and after Rose."

Cress not only plays Tom Williams, but will play Frank Merlo, Williams' significant other as an older man.

"He'll be delivering the lines in The Shadows," Dubin said, noting a larger poster of Merlo will be lit. "But you won't see Frank Merlo."

Solnik's play looks at how Williams seeks to protect his sister Rose and what happens when the parents turn to medicine to tame and change her character and behavior. Rose's own personal tragedies in turn fuel Williams' work.

"He becomes successful because of what happened to her," Dubin said. "He's able to dramatize that. And he feels guilty about capitalizing on his sister's misfortune."

"Year of the Iguana" - A new play by Claude Solnik about Tennessee Williams @ Studio Theatre Long Island, 141 S. Wellwood Ave., Lindenhurst. July 22-Aug. 7 David Dubin directs James Bradley, Michael H. Carlin, Edward Cress, NICOLE INTRAVIA, Rosemary Kurtz and Lisa Meckes in this world premiere. $25. 631-226-8400. Tickets are available by clinking the Tix. link or going to studiotheatreli.com.

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