Edward McCloud & Jennifer King Vanessa Manzo & Edward McCloud
Napa Valley Conservatory Theater celebrates the 100th birthday of
Tennessee Williams with a sizzling production of his masterwork
A Streetcar Named Desire
Directed by Sharon Winegar
Nov. 4-20, 2011
Two performances added, Wednesday, November 16 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, November 20 at 7 p.m.
Pulsing with heat and intense sensuality, this classic play from American dramatist Tennessee Williams probes the mental turmoil of fragile Blanche Dubois. After a devastating series of events sends her life into a downward spiral, Blanche’s efforts to regain equilibrium and grace are thrown into chaos upon arrival at her sister’s French Quarter row house. It is here she meets her brother-in-law, the sexually charged and volatile Stanley Kowalksi. The production runs from November 4-19 in the Studio Theater at Napa Valley College Performing Arts Center and stars Napa Valley College professor Jennifer King as Blanche, Edward McCloud as Stanley and Vanessa Manzo as Stella.
Director Sharon Winegar has a holistic approach to this intimate play. “I've provided Williams' atmospheric, albeit silent, Streetcar characters – miscellaneous sailors, prostitutes, vagrants and street vendors – the opportunity to speak Williams' words. As the audience arrives, actors will be presenting short vignettes from some of his plays. I'm staging these scenes outside the Performing Arts Center and in the lobby as audience members enter the Studio Theater. I hope to create a kind of "environmental theater," surrounding and engaging our patrons in the world of Tennessee Williams before they enter the specific world of A Streetcar Named Desire.”
Ms. Winegar, who directed the hilarious comedy, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) this past summer for Shakespeare Napa Valley, is exceptionally careful in choosing the perfect music for the show. Says Ms Wineger, “Although I've always loved Dixieland Jazz, lately I've really immersed myself in the music of Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Sidney Bechet, George Lewis, The Chocolate Dandies, and the brilliant, immortal Louis Armstrong. Selecting the music for this production is as complicated as the staging – finding just the right piece to suggest a mood, to propel the action or to build tension.”
Napa audiences will be thrilled to know that Jennifer King is returning to the stage to once again assay the role of Blanche, a character she had the opportunity to play in 1999 at Sonoma County Repertory Theater. “I was very young when I did Blanche the first time and it’s wonderful to come back to her with life experience,” says King.
The audiences are not the only ones who are happy to have Ms King back on the boards. Says Winegar of the actress: “I've had the pleasure of knowing and working with NVC theater professor Jennifer King since the mid-1990s, when she was my student in the MFA – Acting program at UC Davis. After graduation we stayed in touch. Then, in 2003, she brought me to Sonoma County Repertory Theater to direct her in a production of George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man. We've been ardent collaborators ever since. From Emma in Harold Pinter's Betrayal to Hannah Jelkes in Williams' The Night of the Iguana, Jennifer has delivered stellar performances in our work together. I'm delighted to have this opportunity to direct her as Blanche DuBois.”
A Streetcar Named Desire plays Nov. 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18 and 19 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 6, 13 and 19 at 2 p.m. in the Studio Theater at Napa Valley College Performing Arts Center. The NVC campus is located at 2277 Napa-Vallejo Hwy, Napa. Tickets are $20 general admission, $15 for students, seniors and military personnel. Tickets may be purchased online at www.napavalleytheater.org or by calling the NVC Box Office at 707-256-7500.