Rob Ruggiero last worked at UNC School of the Arts 14 years ago. The long wait between assignments appears to have been worth it.
The guest artist this fall at UNCSA's School of Drama is directing the Studio IV college seniors in a classic he has long wanted to do: Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire."
"Although it's set in the mid-1940s, it doesn't feel dated," he said. "It doesn't feel old. It feels exciting and moving at times and heartbreaking."
"Streetcar," a 1947 play, was adapted into a famous 1951 movie of the same name starring Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden.
Set in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the story revolves around Stella Kowalski (Kacie Brown), who is torn between her husband, Stanley (Christian Daly), and her sister, Blanche (Maddie Jo Landers).
"Stanley, who's caught up in his day-to-day existence and his physical needs, is fed up with Blanche's illusions," the media materials say. "Blanche cannot control her fantasies and becomes mentally unstable, while Stanley cannot control his primal instincts and becomes abusive. The family spirals out of control, with a pregnant Stella trying to hold it all together."
Ruggiero is recognized nationally for his direction of plays and musicals. He recently made his Broadway debut with "Looped," which starred Valerie Harper in a Tony-nominated performance. He directed Matthew Lombardo's new play "High," starring Kathleen Turner, in a shared production done by TheaterWorks of Hartford, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and The Repertory Theater of St. Louis.
For "Streetcar," Ruggiero promised a hyper-realistic production on a beautiful two-story set at Thrust Theatre.
"You don't realize how brilliant it is until you work on it," Ruggiero said. "The challenge is to not get overwhelmed by that brilliance and to remember to just tell the story."
Another challenge: Usually, "Streetcar" actors can draw on experiences from lives that are at least as long as those of the play's characters. The actors in the UNCSA production don't have the luxury. But Ruggiero believes they can prepare convincing portrayals.
"Young people today encounter more life, more pain, more edge, more sexuality than I did as a younger person," he said. "They're a little worldlier to start off with.
"I keep connecting them with the play and the circumstances of the play, and try to get them to tap into whatever resources they do have. Or maybe they have some resources they don't know they have."
For Landers, her best resources emerged when she started approaching her role like any other part and looked past this "huge idea of what this play is and what people expect of this role."
"If I didn't let go of that, I couldn't do my own work," she said.
Brown, playing Stella, has discovered "there's so much more to her than I initially thought."
"Stella is sort of like the element of water," Brown said, referring to her character's moving back and forth between Stanley and Blanche.
"They fight over her," Brown said. "She's the battlefield. I am just understanding what makes her that way, where she comes from."
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