Augustana College - Rockety I Yearbook (Rock Island, IL)

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Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire Like the blues characteristic of its New Orleans' setting, Augustana's production of A Street Car Named Desirejust kind of began. Ho curtain opened. The lighting didn't Change. The characters just started doing what they'd do on any other hot, lazy aftemoon .. reading, drinking. re- laxing. It is summertime, and as Goldie affirms, the living is easy. Everybody is more or less content with their present situation. Then Blanche Du- Bois shows up. The living isn't easy for Blanche. She's distraught. She had not imag- ined 632 Elysian Fields, her sister's home, to be a lower income hovel. To the audience it is apparent that Blanche is insecure and trying to hide something. She must assert that she is not a drunkard, hasn't been fired, and hasn't gained a pound in ten years. Blanche attempts to hide her ap- prehensions by creating an illusion. Even though her family's plantation. quently resorts to drinking and hot baths. mingle by the front door. Above, faced everyday with an ugly reziity, Blanche fre' Set in steamy New Orleans, much of the play's action occurs outside. To the n'ght, Stanley. Mitch. and Steve the Belle Reve, is lost, she tries to live her previous lifestyle. She dress- es and behaves like the rich south- ern aristocrat she no longer is. Blanche's illusion threatens the previously happy reality of Stella and her husband, Stanley Kowalski. Blanche places Stella on the defen- sive and Stanley on the offensive. She criticizes their home and their marriage. Blanche insists that Stella must leave Sunley: that she must escape from her base, sub-humah, ape-like husband. In the end, everybody seems to win. Blanche gets to live her illusion, albeit in a mental institution. Stanley and Stella get to return to their prior reality, the reality they had been so content with. Yet, it isn't an uplifting conclusion. In another sense every- body loses. Everybody but the audience! The Augustant Theater Department cre- ated a superb production of Tennes- see Wiliiams' A Street Car Named Desire. A 24 Streetcar Insecure, Blanche repeatedly tries to prom that she isn't aging and that she still retains he former beauty. Here she tries to seduce a young paper boyi

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v 0 .51 Above 123., Laura Rashke, '39, celebrating Augustana's Iiberalimtion in allowing coed housing. Above, Stephe Sprouse and Art Bergren, two ofthe tdare we say in cards responsible for the surrounding pictures of Erickson 2D. which won the floor personalization contest on campus. Dorm Life 25

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A constant tension grates between Stanley and Blanche who find themselves both attracted to and repelled by each other. In this scene, Stanley has mined Blanche's illusion by shouting, There isn't a goddam thlng but Imagination! And lies and conceit and trichI . Blanche faints and Slanley carries her to hls bed where he pre- sumably rapes her. Cast Goldie Charletta Young Eunice Hubbell Ann Townsend Myra Christine Schlenker Stella Kowalski Susan Stopoulos Stanley Kowalski Todd Frampton Mitch Brad Church Blanche Dubois Kimberly Esop Steve Hubbell David Bryson Paper Collector Jeff Wichmann Pablo Gonzales Fred Ricaurte Mexican Woman Lisa Evans Sailor Paul Seeman Nurse Jane Watson Doctor Leif Johnson Left, Stanley Is a physical being. and a brutal one. not only does he treat his wife Stella violently. but he also rapes her sister Blanche. Above. Pablo and Steve try to restraln Stanley after their card game erupts.