We are bringing 1947 New Orleans to the Tabor Stage for our first production of Tennessee Williams’ ground-breaking, poetic drama A Streetcar Named Desire from February 1-18.
Streetcar is directed by Producing Artistic Director Dan McCleary (The Tempest, Ada and the Engine, The Glass Menagerie) and is generously sponsored by Nancy R. Copp and the Sims Family Charitable Trust.
Williams’ second Broadway play is set in post-WWII New Orleans as Blanche DuBois, a fading Southern belle with a harrowing past, moves in with her sister Stella and brother-in-law Stanley. As the delicate veneer of Blanche’s upper-class facade cracks, the play explores desire, deception, and the brutal clash between the seeming gentility of the Old South and the raw realities of the present. With its hauntingly beautiful dialogue and exploration of complex human relationships, Williams’ masterpiece has endured as a staple of American theatre since its premiere.
While most post-war plays and films during this period presented the heroic image of American victors happily reintegrating into home life, Williams explores the physiological trauma of both men and women who endured loss at home and abroad. His introduction of a “plastic theatre” (as he called it) endures the test of time as his elegant effort to get at a reality often unarticulated in art and life: a theatre of expression and the senses, activated by sense memory, music, touch, art, poetry, and the beauty humans create in an effort to co-habitate with their darkest realities.
Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams III in Columbus, MS in 1911. He studied in Missouri and visited Memphis, but he felt at home in New Orleans, where he sets Streetcar. Two years earlier, he had written The Glass Menagerie. He rapidly became one of the towering playwrights in America – and remains so. A Streetcar Named Desire was only the second play in history to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. As a sickly boy, Tom spent some early years in Clarksdale, MS, with his mother and his sister Rose. When his traveling salesman father moved the family to St. Louis, the children were ill-prepared for the cultural shock from rural to metropolitan. Rose retreated into her imagination, and Tom loathed the city. His relationships with his mother and sister remain thematic throughout his career. Tom’s poetic vision for American theatre was a defense of, as he said, “elegance, a love of the beautiful, a romantic attitude toward life” and “a violent protest against those things that defeat it.”
Williams had been working on Streetcar and his character of Blanche in a short one-act play years earlier titled Portrait of a Madonna. And even once he penned Streetcar, he worked his way through other titles before landing on the one we know today: The Primary Colors, Poker Night, The Moth, and Blanche’s Chair in the Moon among them — each giving hints of his new theatre of expressionism.
“Not unlike Shakespeare’s King Lear, Streetcar’s familial fierceness, imagination, and proximity to war can make its story cosmic – transcending its time and place,” says McCleary. “One of the luxuries of Lear, though, is its relative anonymity of time and place. It is distant, mythic, more a state of knowing than of place. With Streetcar, it is close to us physically, geographically, and in time, emotionally, psychologically. These are southern ghosts many of us know. Our production certainly will not strip it of its language or place. We will honor them. Like Shakespeare’s, Williams’ poetry has cosmic passage through our generations, and it haunts. Poetry and beauty, whether in harsh light or deep shadows, often enjoy the longest life.”
The cast of A Streetcar Named Desire features TSC veterans Lauren Gunn as Blanche DuBois, Michael Khanlarian as Mitch, and Nicolas Dureaux Picou as Stanley Kowalski, as well as TSC newcomer Eliza Pagelle as Stella Kowalski. The ensemble also returns to the TSC stage Marquis Dijon Archuleta, Carleigh Boyle, Elijah Eliakim Hernandez, Logan McCarty, Hadley Evans Nash, Cheleen Sugar-Ducksworth, and Allison Teegarden.
The design team includes Jeremy Allen Fisher (Lighting), Melanie Mulder (Props), Roger Hanna (Scenic), and Ali Flip (Costumes/Wigs/Makeup). The production stage manager is Jasmine Simmers, and the assistant stage manager is Irene Keeney.
A Streetcar Named Desire’s discounted ($22 tickets) Preview performance is Thursday, February 1 at 7:30 pm. Opening night is Friday, February 2 at 7:30 pm, with the price of tickets including a post-show reception with the actors. Subsequent performances are on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, and on Sundays at 3:00 pm through February 18.
A Streetcar Named Desire is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com. Streetcar is presented by special arrangement with the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.
Patron advisory: Per the playwright’s direction, this production includes occasional mature language as well as domestic/sexual violence (largely unseen) of 1947. The full script may be found online free of charge for review.
Artistic and Production Bios
Marquis Dijon Archuleta (Pablo/Sailor) TSC: most recently in The Importance of Being Earnest, The Tempest, and Cyrano de Bergerac; also Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar. Regional: Of Mice and Men (Crooks), The Shawshank Redemption (Red), Pentecost (Antonio), Romeo and Juliet (Lord Capulet), and Jesus Christ Superstar (Simon Peter).
Carleigh Boyle (Flores Woman) TSC: The Importance of Being Earnest (Music Hall Performer), The Tempest (Sebastian). Favorite roles include Fun Home (Medium Alison), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (Siobhan), The Rocky Horror Show (Riff Raff), Silent Sky (Henrietta Leavitt), Twelfth Night (Olivia), and The Wolves (#46).
Jeremy Allen Fisher (Production Manager/Lighting Designer) TSC Resident Lighting Designer 2014-present; and Opera Memphis Resident Lighting Designer 2013-present. Jeremy is a member of United Scenic Artists Local USA 829 and a graduate of Oklahoma City University. He has worked with Theatre Memphis, Youngblood Studios, Ballet Memphis, University of Memphis, Memphis’ Orpheum Theatre, Seattle Opera, Desoto Family Theatre, New Day Children’s Theatre, and New Ballet Ensemble. Some of his other credits include lighting Memphis’ Broad Avenue Water Tower, Wiseacre’s downtown Taproom, and several works at Saint Jude’s Research Hospital and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. Awards: 2017 TAC Individual Artist Award, and 11 Ostrander Award nominations with four wins for Lighting Design.
Ali Flip (Costume/Wigs/Makeup Designer) Design: Playhouse on the Square: Junie B.’s Essential Guide to School; University of Memphis: A Bright Room Called Day, Lest We Forget, Hamlet: Fall of the Sparrow; Luther College: The Giver, The Last Cyclist, Mnemonic Preposition(ing)s, Indeterminate; Ashland Productions: The Addams Family Musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. She holds an M.F.A. in Theater Costume Design from the University of Memphis and a B.A. in Theatre Technical Design from the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse.
Lauren Gunn (Blanche DuBois) TSC: The Importance of Being Earnest, The Tempest, Cyrano de Bergerac, Macbeth, Henry VI, Ada and the Engine, Romeo and Juliet, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley. Southern Arena Theatre: Boeing Boeing, I Hate Hamlet. New Stage Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Crimes of the Heart, A Christmas Carol, Cat in the Hat. Fish Tale Group Theatre: Voice of Freedom Summer. Unframed: Constellations, Gruesome Playground Injuries. Lauren is honored to continue serving military veterans at the Memphis V.A. Medical Center with the Feast of Crispian-South program. Lauren is a member and associate instructor with Dueling Arts International.
Roger Hanna (Scenic Designer) TSC: The Importance of Being Earnest, The Glass Menagerie, and The Tempest. Roger has designed sets for theater, opera, and dance in Japan, Israel, and across the U.S., including over 150 productions in NYC. Collaborators include Pulitzer Prize-winner Nilo Cruz, MacArthur “Genius” Susan Marshall, and 10-time Tony-winner Tommy Tune. Awards include a Lortel Award, two Drama Desk nominations, and a True West Award from the DCPA. As an educator, Roger taught and designed at major schools including Manhattan and Mannes Schools of Music, NYU, and Yale. He is currently the Head of Set Design at Colorado State University.
Elijah Eliakim Hernandez (Steve) TSC: The Importance of Being Earnest (Lane/Merriman), The Tempest (Caliban). Credits in Texas: Coriolanus, Dracula, All My Sons, She Stoops to Conquer, The Impostor, Camino Real, Sense & Sensibility, and Treasure Island.
Kristina Hinako (Production Assistant/Swing for Eunice/Flores Woman/Strange Woman/Neighbor Woman) TSC: The Importance of Being Earnest (Music Hall Performer), The Tempest (Miranda). Credits include: Treasure Island, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Blue Stockings, Men on Boats. She previously served as an Artist Educator at Kentucky Shakespeare Festival.
Irene Keeney (Assistant Stage Manager) TSC: The Importance of Being Earnest (Music Hall Performer), The Tempest, and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Other credits: Constellations, The White Plague, Mr. Burns: A Post Electric Play, Whose Wives are They Anyway, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Seagull, and The Importance of Being Earnest.
Michael Khanlarian (Mitch) is a founding member of TSC where roles include Macbeth, Lucky in Waiting for Godot, Roderigo in Othello, and most recently Prospero in The Tempest. Michael actively serves as an ensemble member of Playback Memphis and shares their expertise as a teaching-artist with various organizations in the city, including the Orpheum, Theatre Memphis, and TSC.
Logan McCarty (Collector/Strange Man) TSC: The Importance of Being Earnest (Algernon), The Tempest (Trinculo). Credits in Mississippi include Macbeth, Peter Pan, Quills, Much Ado About Nothing, Boeing Boeing, and Cabaret.
Dan McCleary (Director), a native of Memphis, last year directed TheTrouble Begins at Eight: Mark Twain featuring Pete Pranica and played the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac. For TSC, he also has directed/acted in As You Like It (playing Jaques), Ada and the Engine, Blue Roses of Tennessee Williams (playing Tennessee with his son, Collins), Julius Caesar, Waiting for Godot, The Glass Menagerie (playing old Tom), The Taming of the Shrew (playing Sly), Richard III (playing Richard), To Kill a Mockingbird, Much Ado About Nothing, Ernest Hemingway in Key West, Flannery O’Connor’s Georgia Gothic, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, The Tempest, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the all-female Julius Caesar, Othello, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), Themes from a Midsummer Night with IRIS Orchestra, Classical Creations in Quarantine, and Shakespeare’s Election of Coriolanus. Dan is a published poet, and the creator/director/actor of the plays Speak What We Feel: Shakespeare’s Radical Response to a Radical Time; Unto the Breach; Quintessence: Shakespeare in Performance; and Classical Creations in Quarantine. Memphis Magazine has named him among the “Who’s Who in Memphis” for six years. Dan presented his TEDx Talk “Shakespeare in Kindergarten, or Let Fall Rome” in Memphis in 2020, and the Germantown Arts Alliance honored him with its 2009 Distinguished Arts and Humanities Medal for Performing Arts.
Melanie Mulder (Properties Designer) TSC credits: The Importance of Being Earnest, Ada and the Engine; The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Additional credits: The Color Purple, Jelly’s Last Jam, A Song for Coretta, Ruined, In the Heights, and Once on this Island at Hattiloo Theatre. Melanie has served as Props Designer on productions for the Nashville Shakespeare Festival (TN), Seaside Music Theatre (FL), Vineyard Theatre, Pearl Theatre, the New School for Drama and The Signature Theatre (all NYC), Williamstown Theatre Festival (MA), Lake George Opera (NY), and Northern Stage (VT). Melanie is a native Memphian and received her B.F.A. in theatre from The University of Memphis.
Hadley Evans Nash (Strange Woman/ensemble) TSC: The Importance of Being Earnest (Music Hall Performer), The Tempest (Alonsa). Credits include The Importance of Being Earnest, Love’s Labor’s Lost, and Butts in Seats: Musical Settings of Shakespeare. Directing credits: King Lear, Cymbeline, And Through the Woods, My Dance with Lisa, and The Tempest. Hadley is the Artistic Director and Founder of Brick by Brick Players.
Eliza Pagelle (Stella Kowalski) is an actor/musician from Greenville, South Carolina, with a passion for heightened language and risk-taking art. Select New York/regional credits include Distance Theater: The Seagull (Nina); The Warehouse Theatre: Picnic (Millie); Fordham University: Indecent (Vera/Accordion); Texas Shakespeare Festival: Romeo and Juliet (Juliet/MD), The Comedy of Errors (Luciana), and The Taming of the Shrew (Bianca). Training: The Juilliard School of Music, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and a B.A. in Theatre Performance & Music from Fordham University.
Nicolas Dureaux Picou (Stanley Kowalski) Recently with TSC: The Importance of Being Earnest (Rev. Chasuble), The Tempest (Antonio), Cyrano de Bergerac (Christian), Macbeth (Banquo/Porter/Seyton), Romeo and Juliet (Romeo), and Ada and the Engine (Lords Lovelace and Byron). Nic also recently appeared in New Moon Theatre’s production of Small Mouth Sounds (Ned). Offstage, Nic is proud to serve area high school students as a teaching-artist for the Romeo and Juliet Project and the Macbeth Initiative. Nearest to his heart is Nic’s work with justice-involved youth, for whom he facilitates poetry and Shakespeare classes as part of TSC’s Juvenile Justice program.
Jasmine Simmers (Stage Manager) TSC: The Tempest and the Macbeth Initiative. Jasmineis a graduate of the University of Memphis (B.F.A. in Theatre Design and Technology). Stage Management credits: Hamlet: Fall of the Sparrow, La Bohème, The Rocky Horror Show, Back When Mike Was Kate, Le Nozze di Figaro, Inherit the Wind, Shaming Jane Doe, and Spitfire Grill. Jasmine has worked with Playhouse on the Square, the University of Memphis, B Street Theatre in Sacramento, and as a counselor and stage manager with Stagedoor Manor in Loch Sheldrake, NY.
Cheleen Sugar-Ducksworth (Neighbor Woman) TSC: The Importance of Being Earnest (Music Hall Performer), The Tempest. Credits include El Paso Playhouse: It’s A Wonderful Life;Sweet Tea Shakespeare: Man of Mode, Venice Preserv’d, The School for Scandal, The Roaring Girl, Macbeth, Merry Wives of Windsor, Richard III. Also, she was featured in The Container, Phantasmagoria: Let Us Seek Death, and Selene and the Dream Eater with Burning Coal Theatre.
Allison Teegarden (Eunice) TSC: The Importance of Being Earnest (Cecily), The Tempest (Ariel). Ashland New Plays Festival: The Hunt for Benedetto Montone, Last Drive to Dodge; Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Greenshow: Today is the Day – Devised Commedia Dell’arte; Southern Oregon University: Dead Man’s Cell Phone, A Vampire Story, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Hay Fever. Other Credits: My Mind is on Fire (Oregon Screams Horror Film Festival Winner). Allison is the recipient of the regional Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Irene Ryan and Voice and Speech Trainers Association award, and a national Mark Twain Comedic Acting award.
Box Office
Seating Section One tickets are $42 (Students $22/Seniors $37). Seating Sections Two and Three are $32 (Students $22/Seniors $27). The Preview performance on February 1 is $22 for all tickets.
Tickets may be purchased online here or by calling the TSC Box Office at (901) 759-0604, which is open Monday-Friday from 9:00 am – 4:00 pm, and one hour prior to curtain. TSC is located at 7950 Trinity Road, Memphis, TN 38018-6297. No refunds/exchanges. The house opens 30 minutes prior to curtain. Credit Card charges require a $1 per-ticket fee. Free Tabor Stage parking and covered drop-off at the front door are available at TSC.
The cast and schedule are subject to change with notice.
Season 16 Sponsors and Partners
TSC’s generous sponsors of its season, productions, and Education and Outreach Program include FedEx, International Paper, Arts Midwest, ARTSmemphis, Tennessee Arts Commission, Independent Bank, Evans Petree PC, First Horizon Foundation through an ArtsFirst grant, AutoZone, Nancy R. Copp, Kathryn and Jim Gilliland, Anne and Mike Keeney, Pat and Ernest Kelly, Dorothy O. Kirsch, J. Walker Sims and the Sims Family Charitable Trust, the Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund, the family of Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor, the Dunbar Abston Fund for Sustainable Excellence, and the Jack Jones Children’s Literacy Fund.
TSC’s season is funded under a Grant Contract with the State of Tennessee; and is being supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number SLFRP5534, awarded to the State of Tennessee by the U.S. Department of Treasury.
TSC’s programming and outreach partners include Bartlett Performing Arts Center, Benjamin Hooks Public Library Friends, Cities of Bartlett and Collierville and Memphis, Davies Manor, Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Memphis Juvenile Justice System, Memphis V.A. Medical Center, Overton Park Shell, Overton Square, Shelby County Election Commission, Shelby County Schools, St. George’s Episcopal Church, University of Memphis’ Department of Theatre & Dance, Wiseacre Brewery, WKNO Radio (91.1 FM Memphis), and Woodlawn.
