Oct. 19, 2011/For Immediate Release/Photo
attached
CLASSIC SOUTHERN DRAMA,
WINSTON-SALEM – A masterpiece commentary
on the fading Old South and the rising
industrial working class of the 1940s,
Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named
Desire plays at the University of
North Carolina School of the Arts
(UNCSA) Oct. 28-30 and Nov. 2-6.
Guest artist Rob Ruggiero directs the
performance by Studio IV, the Drama
senior class. Students of the UNCSA
School of Design and Production will
provide support for the production.
Performances will be in the Thrust
Theatre in Performance Place on the
UNCSA campus, 1533 South Main St.,
Winston-Salem. Shows are at 8 p.m. on
Oct. 28 & 29 and Nov. 2-5, and at 2 p.m.
on Oct. 30 & Nov. 5 & 6. Tickets are $15
for adults and $13 for seniors/students.
Call the UNCSA Box Office at 336-721-1945 for
reservations, or visit www.uncsa.edu/performances to
purchase tickets online.
Blanche (Maddie Jo Landers) struggles to understand Stella's (Kacie Brown) marriage to her abusive husband, Stanley (Christian Daly).
Photo by G. Allen Aycock
Set in the French Quarter of New Orleans, A Streetcar
Named Desire follows Stella Kowalski’s struggle to
balance her relationships with her working class
husband, Stanley, and her Southern belle sister,
Blanche. Stanley, ultimately grounded in the
reality of day-to-day existence and his physical needs,
is fed up with Blanche’s illusions and imagination.
Blanche cannot control her fantasies and becomes
mentally unstable, while Stanley cannot control his
primal instincts and becomes abusive. The family
spirals out of control, with a pregnant Stella trying to
hold it all together.
A Streetcar Named Desire
reflects aspects of the author’s real-life struggle
supporting an unstable family member in the early 20th
century South. Williams’ unstable sister, Rose, was
diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized.
The audience shares Williams’ pain as his brilliant
writing takes them on a touching, yet sometimes
disturbing, journey.
The original production, directed by Elia Kazan,
debuted at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City
on Dec. 3, 1947. The play won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize
for Drama, as well as the 1948 New York Drama Critics’
Circle Award for Best Play.
To see behind-the-scenes action and get sneak previews
before the opening night of Streetcar on Oct. 28,
“like” UNCSA Productions on Facebook and follow us on
Twitter at UNCSAPerforms.
The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is
the first state-supported, residential school of its
kind in the nation. Established as the North Carolina
School of the Arts by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963,
UNCSA opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of Arts and
Innovation”) in 1965 and became part of the University
of North Carolina system in 1972. More than 1,100
students from high school through graduate school train
for careers in the arts in five professional schools:
Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts
Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. For more
information, visit www.uncsa.edu.
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