UVA Wise presents A Streetcar Named Desire as a part of Pro-Art’s 45th Season
The UVA Wise Theater Department is at work on its fall production of the American stage classic A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. The production opens November 10 in the Gilliam Center for the Arts Black Box Theater on the UVA Wise campus. Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play holds a lens to institutional restrictions placed on women’s lives in postwar America and director Michael McNulty has worked tirelessly with the cast to bring the drama to life, believing that the play’s message endures nearly 75 years after its debut.
In this production, Blanche du Bois (played by Kara Dotten) relocates to the New Orleans home of her younger sister, Stella (Ashlyn Mullins), and brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski (Luke Sage), after losing her Mississippi home to creditors. Undermined by romantic illusions, Blanche is unable to cope with life’s harsh realities. Though she finds a glimmer of hope while connecting with Stanley’s gentlemanly friend, Mitch (Blane Sage), Blanche cannot face the truth of her own troubled past and ultimately loses her grip on reality.
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) transformed American theater by breaking away from the conventional using his psychological insight and bold honesty. Other works by Williams include The Glass Menagerie, Vieux Carre, Sweet Bird of Youth, Orpheus Descending, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. A Streetcar Named Desire, first directed by Elia Kazan, premiered at the Barrymore Theatre on Broadway in December 1947.
A Streetcar Named Desire will run Nov. 10-13 with performances beginning at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5 for the public or free with presentation of a UVA Wise I.D. Through partnership with the Pro-Art Association, Pro-Art season ticket holders are also free to attend. Tickets may be purchased in person before the shows or at etix.com (service fee applies). The Box Office opens one hour prior to the start of each performance. Masks are currently required on the UVA Wise campus.
Pro-Art’s mission is to promote the arts and expand accessibility to cultural experiences for residents and students in Wise, Lee, and Dickenson Counties and the City of Norton. For more information about planned performances or to purchase season tickets, please visit proartva.org.
The UVA Wise Theater Department is devoted to theater as a unified art form that blurs the lines between visual-art, story and music by fusing performance, design, and engineering in a single, meaningful experience. For more information about the program, please visit uvawise.edu/academics/majors-minors/theater.