A Streetcar Named Desire: Feb. 27—March 7

TACOMA, Wash. – A Streetcar Named Desire—one of the great American classics that take on questions of power and privilege in ways that still resonate today—will be performed at the University of Puget Sound.

The Tennessee Williams story that won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and four Academy Awards for the 1951 film adaptation, starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh, will be staged from Feb. 27 to March 7. The performance will feature a student cast and live jazz combo under Assistant Professor Jess K. Smith ‘05.

The production in Norton Clapp Theatre, Jones Hall, will run for two weekends, with Friday evening performances at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 27 and March 6, and Saturday matinee and evening performances at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 28 and March 7. The ticket information is below.

The classic American play features iconic characters that “defy simple definitions,” said director Jess K. Smith.

“Instead, each character is a series of beautiful contradictions. Blanche DuBois is both frail and fierce, a victim and a villain, proudly independent and cripplingly dependent, confident and insecure, the seducer and the modest southern belle, hilarious and tragic. In other words, she is remarkably human.”

A Streetcar Named Desire's story follows Blanche DuBois as she attempts to find refuge from her haunting past in her reunion with her sister, who lives modestly in a cramped apartment in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Stella’s dominant, intolerant husband, Stanley, does not take well to the pretentious newcomer. The conflicts that ensue reveal secrets that prove devastating to Blanche and her emerging relationship with Stanley’s friend Mitch.

“By encountering characters like Blanche, Stella, Stanley, and Mitch, we as artists and audience have to wrestle past that nagging desire for everything and everyone to fit neatly into a box, and instead truly see the complex nature of the world,” Smith said.

“Each character is desperately committed to maintaining their own narrative, and the play’s conflicts emerge when those carefully constructed narratives are challenged. The last moments of the play leave each character questioning how she or he will go on, now that something has challenged their understanding of the world. I think there is great value in this question, especially at this moment in history.”

Smith says she was thrilled to allow young actors to take on great roles and challenging scene work. The play, which in part reflects the troubled life of the revered American playwright, will be performed on an intimate, minimalistic stage, designed by Kurt Walls, with colorful period costumes designed by Mishka Navarre. Williams’ poetic writing and imaginative landscape will come to life in lighting designed by Patty Mathieu, underscored with the help of a live jazz combo of Puget Sound students evoking the sound of New Orleans’ French Quarter in the 1940s.

FOR TICKETS: order online at tickets.pugetsound.edu, or call Wheelock Information Center to purchase with a credit card at 253.879.3100. Admission is $11 for the general public; $7 for seniors (55+), students, military, and Puget Sound faculty, staff, and students. The remaining tickets will be available at the door.

For directions and a map of the University of Puget Sound campus:pugetsound.edu/directions.

For accessibility information, please contact accessibility@pugetsound.edu or 253.879.3236, or visit pugetsound.edu/accessibility.

Press photos of Jess K. Smith can be downloaded from pugetsound.edu/pressphotos.
Photos on page: Top right: Publicity photo of 1951 staging, with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh; Above left: Director Jess K. Smith; Above right: Marlon Brando 1948 (Library of Congress photo)

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