There’s a lot to love about the 1951 film adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ 1947 play A Streetcar Named Desire, not the least of which is newcomer Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski bellowing his way back into his wife Stella’s good graces after an ugly scene at a poker game.
If you think you’ve got the leather lungs to match Brando’s, the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis includes a Stella Shouting Contest, complete with a balcony and actress Maggie Conroy as Mrs. Kowalski herself.
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“It’s fun. It’s a bit of levity after four days of plays and panels,” says Carrie Houk, the festival’s executive artistic director.
So what are the judges looking for in determining a winner? “Just who is the most convincing? Who is the most Williams? Who portrays Stanley the best?” says Houk. She’s attended a similar contest at the New Orleans Tennessee Williams Festival. “People from every walk of life compete. Sometimes, professional actors will turn out. Sometimes, it’s the guy who drives the truck. Women. I’ve seen kids put on their tank tops. The judges have fun with it.”
The shouting contest is only one of the events in the festival’s packed schedule. Back for its second year in the city that the playwright once called home, the festival is a celebration of Williams’ work and influence. It kicks off Wednesday, May 3, with a “saucy stew of bawdy songs” in Bertha in Paradise at the Curtain Call Lounge at the Fox Theatre. On Thursday, a photography exhibition, featuring the work of Ride Hamilton, opens at the .ZACK.
Houk says the production of Small Craft Warnings, running May 4 through 14, is the centerpiece of the festival. The collection of monologues revealing isolation and loneliness is a later work of Williams’, and he portrayed the character of Doc in the piece. Houk says she believes the work has never been produced in St. Louis.
“It’s a play that really fits into our theme of ‘the other,’ which I think is appropriate for this time in our lives,” Houk says. “We’re living in a time where we need to look at the fact that we’re not all cut from the same cloth, but we’re all walking the same Earth. It’s time for us to discover each other’s specialness.”
Deseo is a Spanish-language play (performed with English supertitles) by Raquel Carrió. The work, a loose interpretation of Streetcar, examines and expounds upon the themes of that classic work through a Latin American lens.
Also not to be missed is an exhibition at Saint Louis University Museum of Art featuring paintings by Williams. Tennessee Williams: The Playwright and the Painter shows 18 canvases owned in Key West by Williams’ friend David Wolkowsky. The show will be open through July 30.
Visit the festival’s website to learn more about other productions, panel discussions, readings, tours, and more, as well as to purchase tickets. The festival runs May 3-7.
