170 NEW LOCAL THEATRE GROUP TO RIDE A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 31, 2007
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Dr. Elyce Helford, 615-898-5910

NEW LOCAL THEATRE GROUP TO RIDE A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
Center Players, Including MTSU Personnel, Celebrate Tennessee Williams’ Classic

(MURFREESBORO) – The Center Players will perform their inaugural presentation, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Thursday through Sunday Nov. 8-11 and Thursday through Saturday Nov. 15-17 at the Murfreesboro/Rutherford County Center for the Arts, 110 West College Street in Murfreesboro.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of Williams’ classic Southern Gothic tale of lust, mendacity, repression and insanity. It tells the tale of fading Southern belle Blanche DuBois’ visit to her sister, Stella, and Blanche’s encounter with Stella’s crude, in-your-face husband, Stanley Kowalski.
Blanche will be portrayed by Dr. Elyce Helford, director of Women’s Studies and professor of English at MTSU. Helford admits playing this character will give her a chance to stretch her acting talent.
“It is so different from my outspoken, northern, Chicago, Jewish, feminist background,” Helford says.
Helford says she sees Blanche as a woman who is so invested in the standards of being a Southern belle, dealing with people indirectly instead of being honest and forthright, that she can not make progress in her life.
“I see her as somebody who’s very trapped, and that’s the way I play her,” Helford says. “She’s not evil, but she’s frustrated.”
Other people with MTSU connections who are involved in the production include director Donna Seage, an alumna with a master’s degree in education and theatre instructor at Siegel High School; Todd Seage, a former employee who portrays Stanley; Malinda Morgan, stage manager and undergraduate student; E. Roy Lee, an alumnus who portrays Steve and serves as assistant director; and Jesse Canady, a student who is assisting with publicity.
On the first night of Streetcar, about 30 minutes prior to the Nov. 8 performance, Dr. Robert Bray, an MTSU English professor and Tennessee Williams scholar, will deliver a talk titled “Laying the Tracks for His Streetcar: The Evolution of a Great American Play.” This discussion of Williams and his Pulitzer Prize-winning work will be videotaped and will be available for viewing in the lobby of the theatre on other evenings.
“As Williams developed an outline for Streetcar, he considered setting it in places as diverse as Chicago and Macon, Ga., but eventually settled on New Orleans, which he called his ‘spiritual home,” Bray says. “The drama’s conclusion was particularly troublesome for the author to write, and I have discovered a version of the play with a happy ending.”
Bray says the discussion will focus on how the play evolved to its present form and will consider the 1951 film adaptation, for which Vivien Leigh (Blanche), Kim Hunter (Stella), and Karl Malden (Mitch) won Academy Awards and in which Marlon Brando delivered his iconic performance as Stanley.
The Center Players, the newest of many local theatre groups, is “invested in doing a combination of family favorites and other more thought-provoking productions,” says Helford.
“The group features a number of people who have been involved in local community theatre,” Helford notes.
However, she points out, Center Players is an open group that also invites people who have no theatre experience to participate both onstage and backstage.
“The idea is to get as many people in the community as possible in theatre at the Center for the Arts,” Helford says.
She stresses that no participant in Streetcar will be paid. All proceeds will go directly to the center.
“The goal there is to make it as high-functioning as possible and to deliver the best quality theatre possible so that people will buy season tickets, and they will see community theatre as something that is very positive and effective in the Murfreesboro area,” Helford says.
Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. For more information, contact the Murfreesboro/Rutherford County Center for the Arts at 615-904-ARTS (2787) or http://www.boroarts.org. To learn more about the Center Players, go to their MySpace page at http://www.myspace/centerplayers or send an e-mail to centerplayers@comcast.net.

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ATTENTION, MEDIA: For photos of the Center Players as their characters in A Streetcar Named Desire, contact Gina Logue in the MTSU Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.