Nisi Sturgis and Gregory Derelian in A Streetcar Named Desire. Photo by Gerry Goodstein.

“When A Streetcar Named Desire premiered at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York on December 3, 1947, Tennessee Williams was essentially known to the public for one other play, The Glass Menagerie, which had ended a 561-performance run at New York’s Playhouse Theater just 16 months earlier. The elegiac tone and coming-of-age crises of The Glass Menagerie did not prepare theatergoers for the searing adult drama of A Streetcar Named Desire, with its references to unspeakable aspects of sexuality. Indeed, one reviewer called it the product of an “almost desperately morbid turn of mind,” and another found it “not a play for the squeamish.” And yet, it was recognized as “an enormous advance over that minor-key and too wet-eyed work, The Glass Menagerie.” It fulfilled the promise of the earlier work and catapulted Williams to the front rank of American dramatists. A Streetcar Named Desire ran for 855 performances and became the first play ever to win all three major awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, and the Donaldson Award.”
–From Felicia Hardison Londré’s essay, “A streetcar running fifty years”
The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee Williams


“And so it was I entered the broken world
To trace the visionary company of love, its voice
An instant in the wind (I know not whither hurled)
But not for long to hold each desperate choice.”
–The epigraph Williams chose for Streetcar,
the fifth verse of Hart Crane’s 1932 poem,
“The Broken Tower.”


“…the play, more than any of Williams’ other works before or afterward, approaches tragedy and its dark ending is unmitigated.”
–From Arthur Miller’s introduction to the play, January 2004


“The theatre, to my mind, was given new life when the play was produced that first time, and though we have rarely lived up to that kind of excellence, it certainly remains there for all of us to strive for.”
–Horton Foote, reflecting back on the original production


“There are very few nearly perfect plays, Streetcar is one of them.”
–Robert E. Lee

“The search for the Great American Play can stop with A Streetcar Named Desire. It’s the genuine article. I know this to be true because even after all these years, the thing still takes my breath away.” –Dennis J. Reardon

“I believe A Streetcar Named Desire contains the finest dialogue ever written for an American play.”
–Alfred Uhry

“Tennessee Williams was the best, and A Streetcar Named Desire was his best.”
–Garson Kanin


My Journey With Tennessee

On the first day of rehearsal for this production, I spent some time speaking with the cast about my life-long experience with Tennessee Williams. Working on the play prior to rehearsal had provoked a desire to document, chronologically, my “journey” with the playwright, and I ended up being quite astonished at how profoundly he has influenced my life, from the time that I was child up to the present. It wasn’t until I made a concerted effort to remember each and every influence or episode that I realized how intricately entwined he is in my psyche and my life. It is too long a tale to regale you with, but it reached its pinnacle when, at the age of 25, I had the extraordinary opportunity to work with him for a year, just prior to his death in 1983.

I have had the great fortune to work with many extraordinary theatre artists during my time in the theatrical arena, but my brief association with Tennessee Williams is one of the most treasured experiences of my life. I had already placed him on a massive pedestal by the time I first spoke to him, and I remember being quite overwhelmed by the fact that I was actually speaking to the great playwright.

At the time, I was assistant to the late Nikos Psacharopoulos, who was then the Artistic Director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival, an acknowledged master director of Williams’ work and a friend to “Tom” as Nikos called him. One morning during our daily work session, Nikos asked me get Tennessee Williams on the phone. I remember being so taken aback by Nikos’ casual request; it was the equivalent, in my mind, of being asked to get God on the phone.

I remember that my heart was beating very fast and I felt as though I was on the brink of a thrillingly scary precipice as I made the call. The phone rang and a voice drawled, “Hello?” and I said, “Mr. Williams?” “Yesss…” he said, warily, and I said, “Mr. Psacharopoulos would like to speak with you if you have a moment.” “Nikos!” he bellowed, “put him on darlin’!” and that was my first conversation with Tennessee.

I remember listening to the call that ensued between Nikos and Tennessee with mounting excitement as I realized that if Williams accepted what Nikos was proposing, I might actually have the opportunity to work with the great writer myself. Nikos had become increasingly angry with the American theater’s treatment of Williams, and he was asking Tennessee’s permission to create an epic theatrical homage, that would encapsulate Williams’ entire canon in an eight and a half hour production. Nikos suggested that a team of five or six company artists would work with Tennessee to craft this piece, and he mentioned that I would be the liaison between that team and the playwright.

To make a long story short, Williams, who at first resisted, was broken down by Nikos’ persuasive powers, and we spent a year exploring Williams’ massive canon of plays, poetry, and short stories and created Tennessee Williams: A Celebration. Not only was I the liaison and organizer of the daunting mountain of drafts that came flying at me constantly, but I was eventually given the task of crafting two of the “collages” that linked various sections of the piece.

It culminated in June of 1982, with an extraordinary and unique one-time theatrical event, enhanced not only by the playwright’s participation during the writing process, but by his residency during the rehearsal period. An immense cast of prestigious actors tackled this daunting project, and it was truly one of the most thrilling experiences in my life.

Out of everything, the memory that most affects me is the day that we began rehearsal. The enormous cast stood for Mr. Williams as he entered the room, and one by one, he approached each actor. He took their hands as they introduced themselves, and then they would list the names, so many of them now literary icons, of the various characters they were playing. To hear the huge “roll call” of characters as he went down the line hit us all like a bolt of lightning…it made palpable in that moment in time, how profoundly that breathtaking writer has influenced the American theater, the American consciousness, and America’s culture.

He was a southern gentleman throughout the entire experience, and never did I fail to be elated when he addressed me, always with a “Bonnie, darlin’.” And, never have I failed to appreciate how brilliantly lucky I was to have had that brief touch with true genius.

“Streetcar is a cry of pain; forgetting that is to forget the play.”
–Arthur Miller

It is indeed a cry of pain, but it is also a testament to the indomitable spirit, strength, and sense of dignity that resides within even the most broken and fragile of souls.
–Bonnie J. Monte