Haunted heart

MSU revisits ‘Desire’ in old New Orleans

Posted

Michigan State University head of acting Rob Roznowskisays he has always wanted to direct a Tennessee Williams play. He’sstarting with the big one: “A Streetcar Named Desire,” which opensFriday.

“This play is all about connecting the actor to thecharacter’s inner monologue,” Roznowski says. “Tennessee is the masterof that, and that’s the culmination of what I teach.”

Graduate student Emily Young is playing Stella as herthesis role, which she believes will help tackle her constant challengeof finding vulnerability in her acting. Young took her research one bigstep further by traveling to New Orleans in May to get betteracquainted with the city’s culture.

“The setting is like another character in the way thatWilliams writes it,” she said. She brought along Christina Traister andCurran Jacobs, who play her sister Blanche and husband, Stanley. “Itwas a great opportunity not only to get to know them better, but alsobuild our characters’ relationships.”

The theme of MSU’s theater season is “reinvention,” and Traister says that resonates throughout “Desire.”

“Blanche is desperately trying to reinvent herself,”Traister explained. “There are a ton of ghosts that represent peoplefrom Blanche’s past.

“In the beginning when she has a firmer grip on reality,the ghosts are white and opaque, but as she continues to lose her grip,it becomes harder to tell them apart (from real people).”

An assistant professor of acting and voice at MSU,Traister is taking on the role in MSU’s first experiment with casting afaculty member in a student production.

“It’s beneficial for the students to have someone like me— one of their main acting teachers — to teach and train them,” saidTraister, who spent 13 years in California focusing on Shakespeareanand classical theater. “They’re usually acting with other students anddon’t get the opportunity to work with someone with professionalexperience.”

“Desire” is out of her typical genre, but when plans for the show aligned, she knew she had to be a part of it.

“Tennessee Williams is great — I admire his poetry — buthe’s never been the love of my life,” she said. The vision ofRoznowski, who “totally adores” the writer, is what made her want totake on the role.

“I hope the audience falls in love with Williams’ poetryand imagery,” Traister said, “and also that they are able to go on thisjourney to see this woman’s final attempt to have a normal life.”

‘A Streetcar Named Desire’

Michigan State University

Pasant Theatre

Through Oct. 23

8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays

$15 adults; $10 students

(800) WHARTON

theatre.msu.edu

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here




Connect with us