Thesis production of 'Streetcar' leaves nothing to be desired

"Don't come expecting the movie," declares Dave Popoli '02 of "A Streetcar Named Desire," his senior thesis production. "I'm not going to give you the movie."

How refreshing to find a student director who not only remains unintimidated by the iconic movie preceding his production, but who also promises to present a fresh interpretation of the Tennessee Williams classic.

One way in which Popoli has added a new flair to his production is by combining two different versions of the play's text. When Elia Kazan, the director of the 1947 movie, decided to direct a movie version of the play, he asked Tennessee Williams to rewrite certain scenes in the script, including the beginning and ending of the play. When faced with choosing between the available versions of the script, Popoli decided instead to fuse the two different texts together.

"The original beginning scene of the play leads in with a sailor arriving in New Orleans, and it really depicts how transitive and unique New Orleans is," says Popoli. "And this depiction of New Orleans is crucial to the play. I think the original scene just frames the play better."

Also, Kazan's movie left out the homosexual themes in Williams's original text, mostly because of cinematic censorship issues at the time. The movie version only reveals that Blanche's husband had an extramarital affair, ignoring the original play's frequent references that the affair was with another man.

"It's important that he wasn't just having a heterosexual affair," remarks Sasha Kopf '02. "Especially in the 1940's. That was such a big deal then."

Kopf and Popoli share this performance of "A Streetcar Named Desire" as their respective senior thesis productions. Popoli directs the show and plays the role of Stanley, while Kopf tackles the part of Stella and doubles as the show's costume designer.

The two actors have quite a theatrical history together at Princeton. In the past few years, they've both performed with Theatre~Intime in the shows "Mad Forest" and "J.B.," and also worked on an original two-person play entitled "Out of Focus."

True to the concept of a creative senior thesis, Kopf explains how the show has been quite a learning experience for her, especially in her struggle with the role of Stella.

"In a lot of ways, the way I present myself to people is like Stella, but that's not what I'm really like," she said. "The major challenge has been trying to separate which character traits are natural to me and which are foreign to me."

Both performers acknowledge the obstacles presented by a small performance space like the Wilson Blackbox Theater.

"It's a challenge to perform in this space," notes Kopf. "But this play deals so much with claustrophobia, it really makes it work even better. The play makes a big issue of people always running into one another."

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Popoli also remarks on how the performance space actually facilitated the show's rehearsal progress.

"Dominion has a large role in this play," he says. "A lot of 'whose place is whose' and then who invades it."

In fact, Tom Jackson '03, the show's set designer, found his inspiration for the set in a painting entitled "Portrait of George Dyer Crouching" by Francis Bacon, which depicts a man trapped in a small space, hunched over in an animalistic crouch.

With this set, Jackson creates a conceptual area for Blanche's fantasy world. Popoli remarked that "Blanche is constantly haunted by the past – it's a phantom that she can't escape."

So Jackson established a fairly vacant area in the set into which Blanche gazes when her mind drifts to her fantasy world. Popoli stressed the importance of the fact that only Blanche engages with this space. "It is an area that is solely hers," he noted.

Just off to the side of this creative set sits the six-piece jazz band which will play live music throughout the show, enhancing the show's New Orleans's' flair and contributing to the performance's overall entertainment.

So don't write off seeing this show just because you've seen the movie. Popoli and Kopf's senior thesis production promises to bring innovation to this ageless classic. And though the movie will reside on Blockbuster's shelves for years, this original performance will only exist for the next two weekends.