Just over two years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the historical city of New Orleans, Venice Little Theatre opens its 2007-08 MainStage season with a production of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, famously named for a streetcar in that city. It will run from October 2 through October 21, 2007 with performances Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $23.00 and are on sale now at the theatre’s box office, by phone at 941-488-1115 or online at www.venicestage.com.

Hailed by critics as the best play of the 20th century, A Streetcar Named Desire was a winner of the Pulitzer Prize. It launched – as well as cemented – the careers of both the playwright and of Marlon Brando when it first opened on Broadway in 1947. The story goes that at the final curtain that night, the audience remained in stunned silence, then erupted into a 30-minute applause.

Williams set Streetcar in New Orleans very purposefully, as it was widely seen as a city of seething sexuality, passion and seduction; the play’s disturbing sexual messages were both more palatable and more apparent in that setting.

In the play, Blanche DuBois, an unemployed schoolteacher suffering delusions of grandeur, arrives at the cramped New Orleans apartment of her married sister, Stella Kowalski. Blanche disdains the working-class neighborhood as well as Stella’s husband, Stanley. And Stanley returns the disdain and resents Blanche’s presence. Fueled by alcohol and robust sexuality, the play moves powerfully toward an inevitably violent and emotional conclusion.

Directing the production is the theatre’s Artistic/Managing Director, Murray Chase. Costumes are by Nicholas Hartman and Scenic Designer is Steve Mitchell.

In the role of Blanche DuBois is Eve Caballero, who appeared in last season’s highly acclaimed Stage II production of Into the Woods. As Stanley, Chase has cast VLT newcomer Douglas Landin. Stella is played by Heather O’Dea, for whom this is a ‘return’. Her last role at VLT was in the 2002 MainStage production of Lend Me A Tenor.

Venice Little Theatre is located at 140 West Tampa Avenue, on the island in Venice. The Box Office is still on summer hours and is open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Saturday. It also opens for will call business one hour before all performances. Tickets may also be purchase by phone at 941-488-1115 or online at www.venicestage.com

by Tennessee Williams

OCTOBER 2-21, 2007

Tickets $23.00

A MainStage production

Directed by Murray Chase

Scenic Design by Steve Mitchell

Costume Design by Nicholas Hartman

Lighting Design by Chris McVicker

Sound Design by Dorian Boyd

Stage Manager Sandie Henderson

THE CAST

Blanche DuBois - Eve Caballero

Stanley Kowalski - Douglas Landin

Stella Kowalski - Heather O’Dea

Steve Hubbell - Eric Schneider

Eunice Hubbell - Sally Martin

Pablo Gonzalez - Daniel Potvin

Harold Mitchell (Mitch) - William Czarniak

Neighbor Woman - Sharon Fieser

Newspaper Collector - Patrick Mounce

Mexican Lady - Nancy Hoover

Nurse - Sunny Seabrook

Doctor - Ted DeVirgilis

Every year in the spring, the Tennessee Williams Festival (tennesseewilliams.net) holds a street spectacle in New Orleans’ French Quarter with young men tearing their T-shirts and yelling in their most anguished voices, "STELLA!"

When the Catholic Legion of Decency demanded changes in the overtly sexual scenes slated for the movie version, Williams wrote new dialogue but refused to take out the rape scene. The legion finally agreed, but only if Stanley was shown to be adequately punished for the act.

In Scene Seven, Blanche takes a bath and sings the ballad It’s Only A Paper Moon. This standard was written in 1933 by Harold Arlen, E. Harburg and Billy Rose. It was first recorded by Ella Fitzgerald in 1938 and has been performed since by just about anyone who can or thinks they can sing. The song sums up Blanche’s approach to life.

Williams wrote his play while he was living in an apartment from which he could hear the rattling of the streetcar named Desire running along Royal Street.

To get to their seedy apartment, Stella has to take the streetcar named Desire. Thus, the Desire streetcar became the most famous street railway in the world. Desire served the bar and nightclub section of the French Quarter along Bourbon Street, the shopping district along Royal Street and the residential districts today known as Bywater and Faubourg Marigny. The last Desire streetcar ran the line on May 30, 1948, to be replaced by a Bus Line also named Desire.