By Staff
Dec. 30, 2001
The Meridian Little Theatre is gearing up for its third production of the season, "A Streetcar Named Desire."
Tryouts for Tennessee Williams' award-winning drama will be at the Meridian Little Theatre Jan. 7 and Jan. 8 at 7 p.m. "A Streetcar Named Desire," has received the Pulitzer Prize on Broadway and the movie won five academy awards. It is slated for the Meridian Little Theatre stage Feb. 28-March 6.
Taking his title from the streetcar that once ran through the French Quarter in New Orleans, the playwright tells the story of the "delicate" Blanche who arrives suddenly on the doorstep of her young sister, Stella, and Stelly's lusty, boisterous husband, Stanley Kowalski.
Blanche's arrival brings nothing but clashes and confusion. Her genteel flurry of petty pretenses, and her talk about her nerves, and of lost plantations, are causes for mounting irritation to the realistic Stanley. Soon she has put Stella and Stanley outwardly at odds with one another, and sets out to conquer Stanley's friend, Mitch, who thinks he would like to marry her.
Through hot summer days, the tension grows. Stanley, brutally determined to get rid of Blance, unearths the truth about her unsavory past. A tragic early marriage, ending in disaster, had driven her to more and more men, to drink, and to taking refuge in a dream world.
When Stanley relentlessly tears apart her last pretense of gentility and gives her secret away to Mitch, the one man who might conceivably have saved her, the tension and terror that have panicked her are broken and she is led away, a lost victim of self-destruction.
Actresses auditioning for the sensitive, panic-stricken Blanche Du Bois should be 30 years or older, and know that the part is long and tremendously demanding.
The role has added luster to the careers of many actresses: Vivian Leigh won an academy award for her portrayal; Jessica Lange received the Golden Globe; and 2002 will bring Kim Cattrall to Broadway as Blanche.
Stanley Kowalski is Blanche's rough-neck brother-in-law. He is an honest animal who needs no motivation for anything he does other than what he wants.
Stella, Blanche's sister, is gentle, young woman of around 25. She is philosophical, earthy and is entirely happy in a simple lusty existence with Stanley.
Mitch is one of Stanley's more refined friends. He has a commanding combination of bumpkin innocence and integrity. Karl Mauldin won an Oscar in the movie version of this role.
Other roles in "Streetcar" consist of Eunice and Steve Hubbell, loud mouth but good hearted neighbors in the French Quarter. An African-American middle aged woman who is another neighbor. Parts are also open for a doctor and his nurse, and Pablo, another loud-mouth, poker-playing friend of Stanley's.