TV and film star Patricia Clarkson, a recent Academy Award nominee, heads the cast as the fragile Blanche Du Bois with Adam Rothenberg as Stanley Kowalski, Amy Ryan as Stella Kowalski and Noah Emmerich as Harold Mitchell (Mitch). The company at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theatre also includes Amy McWilliams as Eunice Hubbell, Michael John Casey as Steve Hubbell, Cynthia Benjamin as a Mexican Woman, Tony Simione as Pablo Gonzalez, Joshua Skidmore as a Young Collector, Catherine Weidner as the Nurse and Robert Michael McClure as the Doctor. Tony Award winner Garry Hynes — of The Beauty Queen of Leenane fame — directs.
A Streetcar Named Desire premiered on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in Dec. 1947, playing 855 performances before closing in Dec. 1949. Directed by Elia Kazan, the original company boasted Jessica Tandy as Blanche, Marlon Brando as Stanley and Kim Hunter as Stella. The most recent Broadway revival — in 1992, also at the Barrymore — featured Alec Baldwin (Stanley), Jessica Lange (Blanche) and Amy Madigan (Stella).
"Tennessee Williams Explored" will continue with A Distant Country Called Youth, June 11-13; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, June 12-July 4; and The Glass Menagerie, July 17-Aug. 8.
Patricia Clarkson, a favorite of independent films who was recently seen in her Academy Award-nominated role in "Pieces of April," has appeared on Broadway in The House of Blue Leaves and Eastern Standard. Her many other screen credits include "Six Feet Under," "The Station Agent," "Far from Heaven," "Wonderland," "The Green Mile" and "Simply Irresistible."
Adam Rothenberg has appeared on stage in productions of Antigone, Dracula, The Sure Thing, The Lobster Day, Seascape with Sharks and Dancer and Specter. He was seen in the Manhattan Source productions of Center of Gravity, The Beautiful One and Close Encounters and the Women's Project's mounting of Birdy. Rothenberg's screen credits include "A.U.S.A.," "Hack," "Coyote Beach" and "Modern Young Man." Amy Ryan was Tony-nominated for her performance in the 2000 revival of Uncle Vanya; her other Broadway credits include The Women and The Sisters Rosensweig. On screen she has been seen in "I'll Fly Away," "A Will of Their Own," "Roberta," "You Can Count On Me" and "The Wire."
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is located at 2700 F. Street, NW in Washington, D.C. Tickets for "Tennessee Williams Explored" are now on sale. For more information about the Center’s many productions, go to www.kennedy-center.org.
