Visit 'Desire' street today

Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" explores the clash between working class middle-America values and old-school Southern gentility. Audiences at tonight's performance of "Streetcar" will witness this clash on the Ruth N. Halls Theatre stage. The play runs at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and next week Monday, March 31 through Friday, April 5. \nThe story is classic. A faded southern belle, Blanche, is destitute, and so must move in with her sister. Blanche, used to genteel plantation life, is uncomfortable in the rough working-class New Orleans neighborhood where her sister, Stella, and Stella's husband, Stanley, live. Stanley, a Polish auto-parts salesman, is immediately suspicious of Blanche's delicate manners; he believes that Blanche has cheated Stella out of her share of their parents' inheritance. As time wears on, tensions rise until the tragic end.\nDirector Bruce Burgan wants to stay true to the original text. \n"What directors strive to do is to get it right; to tell the story clearly, powerfully, and imaginatively," Burgan said. "At IU, my target audience is always the undergraduate population. Part of intention as a teacher of theatre on the university level is to make certain theatre is always part of my students lives -- on some real and recurring level." \nBurgan continues his dedication to theatre at the IU community by directing the department's Midsummer Theatre Program, an intensive summer program for high school students.\nFirst-year MFA student Allison Batty takes on the role of Stella. \n"Of course, people think of the movie when they think of Streetcar so they tend to see the characters as those actors portrayed them. The trick is being aware of that and making the character your own," Batty said. "These characters are full of passion, fears, dreams and desires. They want what everyone in life wants ... to be loved and to find happiness." \nBatty's character, Stella, finds love with a man her sister Blanche thinks is below her class. \nAll actors bring something of themselves to the stage, especially when they're portraying characters as vibrant as those in "Streetcar." \n"I have a sense of what it feels like to get older, I bring a sense of life experience, and my age running against me instead of for me," said Carmen Meyers, a second-year MFA student, who plays Blanche. "She's this woman who's been sheltered most of her life, and now she has nothing. She's in this horrible section of New Orleans where it's dirty and loud, and she's a little lost." \nBlanche's change of location provides her with new scenery, but Stanley's scheming keeps her from making a totally fresh start. \nWilliams' plays are the most performed of any American playwright,according to the Tennessee Williams archives. His work deals with issues close to the American psyche, such as class, wealth, and identity. \n"I think not only is the writing beautiful, it's poetry, the language is really rich," Meyers said. "The play has polar attitudes all over the place, you have to go to some deep dark places, you see a beautiful side of everyone and a dark side of everyone." \nTickets for the play are available at the IU Auditorium box office for $15 for the general public, $13 for students and senior citizens. Groups of 20 or more receive 20 percent discount. IU or high school groups of 15 or more receive 25 percent discount per ticket.