Don't miss our next production:
Tennessee Williams'
A Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee Williams'
A Streetcar Named Desire
Photo courtesy of the Charles L. Franck Studio Collection at The Historic New Orleans Collection
"I don't believe in 'original sin.' I don't believe in 'guilt.' I don't believe in villains or heroes -- only right or wrong ways that individuals have taken, not by choice but by necessity or by still-uncomprehended influences in themselves, their circumstances, and their antecedants." Tennessee Williams, April, 1957
Penguin Modern Classics edition of the play "I can recall where I was sitting at that first Streetcar viewing -- in about the seventh or eighth row to the right of center. It took only a few minutes to realize that the play and production had thrown open doors to another theater world. This was not due to any invention in the play's structure, with its tangible, realistic story-telling line. Rather, it was the writing itself that left one excited and elevated." Arthur Miller, January 2004
Penguin Modern Classics edition of the play |
Tuesday - Saturday, March 5-9, 2019 8:00 pm at Centre Culturel Jacques Franck - St. Gilles Directed by Carrie Ellwanger with assistant director/producer, Robynn Colwell Black and white photos by Tibor Radvanyi
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A play from a bygone era that stands the test of time -- now more than ever
A note from Producer, Robynn Colwell
In Bob Bender's program note for the ATC's production of Streetcar back in 1994, he wrote that Tennessee Williams wanted to illustrate how "the hallowed things of the sensitive are cheapened and destroyed by contact with the brave new world whose brutish instinct can neither understand nor sustain what is fragile." And while this interpretation certainly holds as true today as it did in 1994, there's a whole new energy confronting the brutishness -- the brutality even -- of 2019.
Tennessee Williams may prove more of a visionary than anyone knew him to be back in 1947. If the MeToo movement has taught us anything, it is not so much that fragility is under threat as that a full half of the population formerly known as the "weaker sex" is in fact profoundly strong. The power of the movement is in its sweeping proclamation that women are no longer sitting still like good girls, politely holding their tongues, and putting up with the brutal influences of toxic masculinity for the sake of propriety. What a wonderful time to revisit Blanche DuBois, the quintessential "good girl" behaving badly! What a tremendous moment in history to ask what it means to be good anyway, to question why women need to "behave" and what that even means when men have played fast and loose for centuries with impunity.
And has there yet been such a glorious time to revisit and re-examine equality? When even a razor company believes that confronting men about toxic masculinity will sell more razors than images of women swooning over strong jawlines scraped clean of five o'clock shadow, we know we have entered a whole new era. It is one in which children of both sexes are being raised to claim their strength -- and to be unashamed of the fragility we share. Because fragility, after all, is not male or female. It is merely human.
The fiercely unapologetic voices of the MeToo movement are asking all of us, men and women, to have the courage to look one another, and ourselves, straight in the eye and re-assess what true equality means. In navigating the brave new world of 2019, it's the bravery that will serve us best. And it's this refreshingly bold brand of bravery that makes a journey on the Streetcar Named Desire for 2019 a profoundly exciting one.
A note from Producer, Robynn Colwell
In Bob Bender's program note for the ATC's production of Streetcar back in 1994, he wrote that Tennessee Williams wanted to illustrate how "the hallowed things of the sensitive are cheapened and destroyed by contact with the brave new world whose brutish instinct can neither understand nor sustain what is fragile." And while this interpretation certainly holds as true today as it did in 1994, there's a whole new energy confronting the brutishness -- the brutality even -- of 2019.
Tennessee Williams may prove more of a visionary than anyone knew him to be back in 1947. If the MeToo movement has taught us anything, it is not so much that fragility is under threat as that a full half of the population formerly known as the "weaker sex" is in fact profoundly strong. The power of the movement is in its sweeping proclamation that women are no longer sitting still like good girls, politely holding their tongues, and putting up with the brutal influences of toxic masculinity for the sake of propriety. What a wonderful time to revisit Blanche DuBois, the quintessential "good girl" behaving badly! What a tremendous moment in history to ask what it means to be good anyway, to question why women need to "behave" and what that even means when men have played fast and loose for centuries with impunity.
And has there yet been such a glorious time to revisit and re-examine equality? When even a razor company believes that confronting men about toxic masculinity will sell more razors than images of women swooning over strong jawlines scraped clean of five o'clock shadow, we know we have entered a whole new era. It is one in which children of both sexes are being raised to claim their strength -- and to be unashamed of the fragility we share. Because fragility, after all, is not male or female. It is merely human.
The fiercely unapologetic voices of the MeToo movement are asking all of us, men and women, to have the courage to look one another, and ourselves, straight in the eye and re-assess what true equality means. In navigating the brave new world of 2019, it's the bravery that will serve us best. And it's this refreshingly bold brand of bravery that makes a journey on the Streetcar Named Desire for 2019 a profoundly exciting one.