Actors and spouses Stacy Stoltz and Matt Hawkins, who play Stella and Stanley Kowalski in Writers’ Theatre’s A Streetcar Named Desire, give readers a look at their experience backstage.
We’re having an awesome summer working at Writers’. Backstage is “always a powder keg” as Stella would say. Sometimes it’s quiet – people playing scrabble or reading – but that generally leads to numerous ridiculous conversations going at once and then one person starts singing an old song and eventually half the room joins in. It’s fun. We like it a lot.
Danny McCarthy (Mitch) and Matt Hawkins (Stanley). The boys of Streetcar. They like each other.
Jennifer Engstrom (Eunice), Natasha Lowe (Blanche), Stacy Stoltz (Stella). We like to take our time getting ready for the show – chatting and laughing. We like each other a lot.
Jane Millet, our wardrobe supervisor, takes such good care of everyone backstage – we all love her. Here she is helping Rosario Vargas (The Mexican Woman) get ready to go onstage.
Rosario Vargas, Loren Lazerine (Steve), and Ryan Hallahan (The Young Collector) reading on the couch in the green room. There’s a lot of reading backstage.
Derek Hasenstab who plays the Doctor – hides behind his copy of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He also spends time learning about music theory…
Jenn and Matt both reading Tennessee Williams’ Memoirs.
Much of the cast has read or is in the process of reading Tennessee Williams’ memoirs and his biography and many of his plays. David Cromer has turned us into big fans of this amazing playwright.
Okay. So David Cromer also got us into the 5 Hour Energy. We are off the stuff now…but we took this photo with the idea that Esteban would send the shot to the people at 5 Hour Energy and tell them that “OUR STREETCAR RUNS ON 5 HOUR!” We thought we might get some free samples. I think he’s still sending the letter so maybe we will get back on the stuff!
The Streetcar warm up of choice is 4 Square. The boys are pretty competitive…but they have a great time and get a good warm up. Becky Pechter, our Production Assistant, has been known to join in. Stacy plays until she feels the urge to go in and do her hair and gossip with the girls. The boys come in when “Coach” (David Castellanos) gives the 15 minute call. The boys come into the green room all hyped up and sweaty and they usually infect everyone backstage with their energy. It’s a great way to start the play.
So there’s a little behind the scenes look at our production. We hope you get a chance to come out and see us!
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