[NoHo Arts District, CA] – The Streetcar Project is bringing its much-discussed and perpetually sold-out version of Tennessee Williams’ landmark American play, A Streetcar Named Desire, to Los Angeles this fall for six performances across two back-to-back engagements at two locations. OCTOBER 28-30 IN FROGTOWN | NOVEMBER 1-3 IN VENICE.
This is such a worthy project. A truly unique version of an iconic American play and as we at NoHo Arts love theatre and particularly new and interesting approaches to storytelling, we wondered how this all came to be. Director and co-creator Nick Westrate, co-creator and Blanche DuBois – Lucy Owen, Brad Koed who plays Stanley Kowalski, Mallory Portnoy who plays Stella DuBois and James Russell who plays Harold Mitchell were kind enough to answer a few questions we had…
Hello everyone! Thank you so much for taking the time to talk about your ‘Streetcar.’ Let’s get to it!
“When Samantha Simmonds-Ronceros of NoHo Arts District asked us to do this interview, we thought it’d be fun to answer the questions together. So, Nick Westrate (co-creator and director), Lucy Owen (co-creator and Blanche DuBois), Brad Koed (Stanley Kowalski) and Mallory Portnoy (Stella) hopped on a quick Zoom to answer her questions about their stripped-down production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire that hits Los Angels for six performances only: October 28th-November 3rd!”
This is a fascinating project, what inspired you to take this iconic play and shake it up in this way?
Lucy Owen: This production started as a reading in my living room and evolved out of necessity and an agreement that we would only use what’s available to us: if we’re in a barn with a fireplace we might build a fire, if we’re in a church, we’ll probably use the pews and pulpit. I don’t think we intended to “shake it up,” exactly but hope to discover and keep discovering this massive play in each new space, with each new audience.
How do the venues change the performance?
Mallory Portnoy: Each space offers us a different thematic gift that is present in the play. Blanche’s lost material possessions and vanity in a clothing store, the primal scream that lives inside all these characters on a stage in the woods, how prevalent sex is when a bed is the focal point of a room or the call to god in a church. We have also learned that it is important to fulfill the epic expression – no matter how big or how ugly – this play calls for, whether we are in a tiny room for twenty people or a giant warehouse for two hundred.
Casting is always the most important part of the process, how did you go about casting?
Nick Westrate: We are lucky enough to have been working theater actors in New York for…about 20 years now for Lucy and I at least, and we have an incredible community of artists there, a very deep bench. Our core group was invited to start working on the play by Lucy. Myself included. So, the most important part of casting, I guess, is great taste.
But as the project continues, people’s availability changes, and we get to add new members to the band. In LA, we are excited to have James Russell join the cast. We’ve all been big fans of his work in plays in New York for years. And we are now learning a lot by teaching a new person the rules of this strange game we play.
What do you hope the audience experiences? What would you hope they take away from the production?
Mallory: The best responses we have gotten from audiences are when they say they felt like they heard the play for the first time or that they felt like they were watching a new, contemporary play. The text is the star of our production and that allows people to truly experience the essence, heart, and soul of Tennessee Williams himself.
Brad Koed: Also, right now, in this age, we are overwhelmed by stimulus. We can fill every second with content with very little effort or participation. I think we underestimate the power of our imaginations and I hope the audience feels their imaginations recharged.
What were the hardest obstacles you encountered while creating this show?
Brad Koed: This play is famous for being a ‘behavior play’ because of the era in which it was first performed, and “the method.” But, without props or a set, we have nothing to relate to or hide behind or “behave” with.. One of the early challenges was establishing a set of rules we could use moment to moment to convey what the text required without any objects in space. We only have the language and each other to relate to. What we found is hopefully exciting, but it was a lot of trial and error. Many rehearsals were awkward and scary.
Mallory: We often call it “a high wire act” and it is indeed just that. Luckily we know the play so well at this point you could sort of drop us anywhere and we would be able to do it, but oftentimes we have to do the play for an audience having only been in a space for about 2 hrs. I don’t think we have ever felt truly prepared, which is incredibly scary and vulnerable, but also the fun of it: “can we pull this off?” So far, yes!
This is a play that has been produced a thousand times and I have seen such a variety of performances of these incredible characters. What did you discover about the play and the characters while you were developing the project?
Mallory: This play is about SISTERS, and no one ever really tells that story. People think it’s about Stanley and Blanche (or the stars who play Stanley and Blanche), but it’s really about Stella and Blanche. I will say that there are many Williams’ characters I would love to play, and Stella was never really on that list. But having spent so much time with her, I think she is one of the most incredible characters ever written. She has been put in an absolutely impossible position, and while less verbal than Blanche, she is a remarkably strong and intelligent woman. She has moved to the top of my list and I feel so incredibly privileged to get to keep returning to her with this project.
The women in this play are incredible characters, their relationship has always felt utterly real to me, how did that affect your choices in developing the production?
Lucy: We are in agreement! All these characters are fascinating and especially the women. We have placed the women, these sisters and their relationship at the center of our production – they are the heart of our play: the wild, messy, raw and beautiful heart.
Nick: And that is something we discovered, really. We didn’t set out with that as an intention. But by working on the play, the way Brad just mentioned, without all the behavior, just by focusing on the language, we were able to locate its heart.
New York is a natural for this project, what inspired you to move to Los Angeles next rather than any other city?
Lucy Owen: Mostly a hope that we would find an eager and hungry audience for our production. We’d like to do this play everywhere and Los Angeles has a large and vibrant creative community… and history! Streetcar, the play, was first performed in New York but Streetcar, the movie, was filmed (mostly) in LA!
Nick Westrate: Yes, and we had a lot of friends and audience members saying, “When are you coming to LA?!” And so finally we relented and started looking for interesting spaces to do it in. We found two really incredible venues: an airplane hanger overlooking the LA river, and an artist’s warehouse/workshop in Venice. Each has a very different layout and vibe and so we’ll be putting on two really different versions of the play while we are out here. And only a few hours to be in each space before we perform for an audience! It’ll be worth the drive from NoHo!
Art is a mirror for us all, what have you learned about yourself throughout this process?
Mallory: I have learned that where there’s a will there’s a way and this whole experience has shown me that artists have more power than we think we do. And I have learned that if I can do this insane thing we are doing, I can do anything.
Lastly, do you have any advice for other artists taking a similar journey?
Brad Koed: If something feels scary, you are doing it right. Embrace the fear. Eventually, you’ll realize it was the best part.
Thank you all so much! I for one am so thrilled that this new work is being brought to Los Angeles and produced in these great locations in very different parts of the City. I’m really looking forward to stepping into their worlds and experiencing their interpretations of one of the greatest modern plays ever written.
TICKETS:
https://www.thestreetcarproject.com/tickets
Here is also more information about the project and everything you need to know to attend.