Tennessee Williams!

My supper brillant thematic idea

2008-04-07T22:03:00.000-07:00

I fell like I pretty much already have a theme for the American author paper...why dose Tennessee Williams choose to focus so much on his negative, painful and dis functional childhood? His plays are full of strained family relationships. alcoholic, lust, love triangles, and abuse. Because Tennessee's own father was an alcoholic who deemed Tennessee worthless was an inspiration to him? Or his over bearing obsequious mother? Some of his characters almost seem to be the same people as his own family members just with diffrent names. So the question on the table is why?

Besides coming to this conclusion I have read only a little of sense 11 but plan to finish it soon. I'm on like page 168 but am dying to find out how it all ends so by my next post.....

So Stella's come home from the hospital with her baby(still no word if its a girl or a boy though) with no idea of Blanche and Stanley's affair. She and Eunice are packing Blanche up as she is leaving for a mystery trip somewhere. Meanwhile there is another poker game going on in the kitchen.

Where I am in a Nutshell

2008-04-07T21:37:00.000-07:00

So it seems like its been a while since I've done one of these babies but it hasn't really been that long at all I think I may have caught it...Senioritis! But I can and will do this. So I'm just about finished with Streetcar and I love it a lot more then Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. I read from page 1 to page 162 and scenes 1-10. With only one scene left I am getting very excited to see how the play ends.

So what happens? Well after Blanche arrives at her sisters 2 roomed New Orleans Apartment shocked by its rawness and expecting something more glamors for her little sister she grows more surprised when she meets Stella's husband the rough Stanley and learns Stella's expecting. After Stanley strikes Stella at the poker game a horrified Blanche realizes Stanley's one of those abusive drunks and Stella seems helpless to his lust for her. She promptly tries to convenience Stella that her and Stanley's relationship is not healthy and not loving. But Blanche is running from mistakes that are haunting her and hiding them from both her sister and simpleton summer love. Scene ten ends with Blanche and Stanley's affair while Stella is in labor. But by this point Blanches past has spilled out. All of it how she was fired from her job at the school, her affair with her 17 year old student, how she lost her and Stella's beautiful country home.

And all thats left..a mess of lies.

Streetcar Live On Stage!

2008-03-14T00:51:00.000-07:00

At my internship wich if you don't alredy know is at Marin Theater Company is doing A Streetcar Named Desire right now and I went there and saw a practice of it and it looks amazing! First here's the Streetcar cast
A Black Woman
Eunice Hubbell- Stella's friend and her and Stanley's neighbor
Pablo Gonzales- a friend of Stanley
Steve Hubbell-Stanley's friend and Eunice's husband
Stanley Kowalski- the main man in the show Stella's husband and her baby's daddy
Blanche DuBois- Stella's selfish and pampered older sister, and the leading lady
Stella Kowalski-Stanley's wife Blanches sister the other leading lady
Mexican Woman
A Young Collector
Harold Mitchel(aka Mitch)-Stanley's friend and Blanches love interest and sweet mamas boy
Nurse
Doctor

Streetcar and Cat...

2008-03-13T23:30:00.000-07:00

For me at least it didn't take much reading to pick up on the first similarity between Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire the issue of drinking. The two leading men in both Tennessee's plays are alcoholics. I'm not very far along in Streetcar so I think I'll find way more similarities. One thing but I have also spotted a few difference between the two men. Stanley is and good looking but a complete womanizer but Brick is weak and doest seem to really care about his wife. I also picked up on that both books mettition gay relationships. Tennessee William's was gay which is why I'm wondering if there is a connection between him and his characters too.

I've read all of scene one and two pages 1-49. It starts of with Stella and Stanley. They leave and Blanche enters. In these two scenes I get introduced to the lead character's of Streetcar. I find out that Stella is pregnant and I learn that Blanche(Stella's older sister) who is a high school teacher(Mr.Wells I know you'll be exicted by this..shes an English teacher! Omigod!) And she is spending the summer with Stella and Stanley. It is also in these two scenes that Blanche admits to Stella that shes lost their beautiful country home the one that they grew up in.

The Cast

2008-03-13T23:02:00.000-07:00

First cause I know You care so much I wanna say that my break has been really fun and realxing!(ahhhh sleep!) And reading too!

I read all of act 2 pages 46-102. I should give a chacter list
Brick-Maggies husband
Maggie-Bricks wife
Big Daddy-Bricks father
Big Mama-Bricks mother
Mae-Goppers wife and Bricks sister in law
Gooper-Maes Husband Bricks older brother
Revrend Tooker-The local revrednd
Doctor Baugh(said Baw)- Big Daddys doctor
Lacey-a serveant
Sookey-a servent
a few kids

This scene starts with everyone in it but ends with Brick and Big Daddy. They talk about Bricks drinking problem and his realtionship with his best friend Skipper who has died his death one of the reasons Brick has become an alcholic. It is rumored that Skiiper was in love with Brik and their reatioship may have hidden a hidden sexual side. Brick lets it slip to Big Daddy that his cancer is killing him.

What to pick?

2008-03-13T22:31:00.000-07:00

Even though I've kicked off this project with Tennessee's Cat On A Hot Tin Roof I know that I'm gonna read his famous play: A Streetcar Named Desire and I think my favorite lines will be his most famous line in all of his shows which is Stanley Kowalski's drunken "Stelllaaaaaa..." calling his wife back to him after he's hit her and shes brought to the upstairs apparent by her sister, Blanche. This was a line I heard of before but didn't know where it had come(and is part of a theater game that we play with Gina!) But I think I can use this to prove the honesty and realness of Tennessee's works. He writes with truth and takes inspiration mainly from his own dis functional family life as a kid.

I read all of act one from page 1 to page 45. This scene is between Maggie and Brick a husband and wife it introduces the setting a 65th birthday party for Bricks father fondly called Big Daddy. Who is slowly dying of cancer even though his family hasn't been able to bring themselves to break the news to him. They talk about a few things including Big Daddy's health.

I wanna do....a playwrite!

2008-03-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

I want to do a playwrite

Great American Proposal

I rember hearing a little about this project as a sophomore from the tiny upper division but I gave it no thought. Then at the start of this year the great American author project was brought up again only this time I gave a lot more thought since this time it was my project. As we talked about this project more and more I thought about it more and more too. I realized that as an actress I had an interest in doing a dramatist. The hard part was finding one who was American I thought of some of the best play I’ve read like The Diary Of Ann Frank which didn’t work and finally thanks to Mr. Wells came across one of the most Americas highest regarded playwrights Thomas Lanier Williams or as he is better know Tennessee Williams.

Tennessee was born on March 26, 1911 and died on February 25, 1983 (a month an a day before his 71st birthday) in Columbus, Mississippi. He is considered a Southern Gothic writer. Southern Gothic is a branch of the Gothic genre. As a kid Tennessee had a disease that paralyzed his legs form almost two years since he couldn’t run around and play he wrote stories and plays. Throught out his childhood his father became abusive towards his wife and kids. While mother encouraged him to write she was also over attentive and too protective. His family life was rumored to be a huge inspiration for his characters and plays. In fact The Glass Menagerie his first big hit was believed to be his life story in the from of a play set during Americas Depression. With a stressful strained mother daughter relationship as a parrot of the relationship between Tennessee’s mother and sister told by the quite son and topped by a reckless father who walked out on his family. Other famous Tennessee Williams plays include The Night Of The Iguana(1955), The Rose Tattoo(1952 dedicated to Frank Merlo his lover ), A Streetcar Named Desire (1948), and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1955).

Tennessee Williams themes, characters, and plots bring his plays into a sadly sometimes-common family life. The characters in most of his plays are flawed due to their depression family life. Traits in some of his most famous charters are based on his mother, his sister, and himself. The thesis for this paper could be why did Tensse Williams find his messed up family, which was probably a painful subject for him to be such an inspiration for his work.