A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE Features First Genderqueer Actor As Blanche DuBois

The Coven & Precariat Productions, in association with Wolfpack Theatrics, present a history-making new production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, featuring a genderqueer/trans actor in the iconic role of Blanche DuBois.

A Streetcar Named Desire runs May 7 - 25 at MISTER ROGERS in Brooklyn. The limited run is directed by Kevin Hourigan and features Mx. Russell Peck as Blanche DuBois.

Set in the sultry and sweltering 1940's French Quarter of New Orleans, this immersive production invites audiences into the Kowalski apartment where young couple Stanley and Stella are joined for the summer by Stella's damaged, fading debutante sister, Blanche. In a play that famously pins the working class, alpha male Stanley Kowalski against the soft, privileged beauty Blanche DuBois, this production speaks to the divided state of the world today.

Peck was drawn to Tennessee Williams' writing and the character of Blanche DuBois ten years ago while studying at NYU. Peck shared what drew them to playing Blanche, "As a genderqueer/trans person, I have always identified very deeply with female characters. Blanche is a broken person, she has a painful past and is in a desperate and continual search for love and protection, which feels very queer to me. Blanche is a fighter. She has lost everything and continues to live her truth, even if that isn't how other people see things." Peck went on to say, "I think one of the reasons that Streetcar is still being done today, and the reason it is one of the most important plays in American drama, is that it spoke to issues and problems in the US in the 1940's and, unfortunately, the class and racial divisions that define the characters in the play are still plaguing our country today."

The cast features Julian Alexander (Blue Bloods/CBS), Max Carpenter (Come Back Little Sheeba/Huntington Theatre, Boston), David J. Cork (True Bible Tales with Rob Askins/The Flea), Isabel Ellison (The Children's Hour/West End, directed by Ian Rickson, starring Keira Knightley), Tony Macht (At Home with Amy Sedaris/tru TV), Yvonna Pearson (Black Panther Women/4th Street Theater), and Russell Peck (Gross Indecency/GayFestNYC).

The creative team includes scenic design by Choul Lee, lighting design by Kate McGee, sound design by Ian Scot, associate director David Kahawaii IV, stage management by Ryan Juda and producing intern Mary Sanders. Produced by Lisa Backwell, Ryan Guiterman, Joey Merlo and Brian Pollock.

A Streetcar Named Desire runs May 7 - 25. MISTER ROGERS, 231 Rogers Ave (between President & Union), Brooklyn, NY 11225. Subways: 2 to President Street, 3/4 to Nostrand Avenue, 2 block walk from subway. Performances are Tuesday - Saturday at 8:00 pm, with one matinee on Sunday, May 19 at 2:00 pm. Tickets are $30 for general admission, $35 for reserved seating and are available at http://precariatproductions.com/streetcar2019.

More info available at www.precariatproductions.com

Tennessee Williams (Playwright) won Pulitzer Prizes for his dramas, A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Other plays include The Glass Menagerie, Summer and Smoke, The Rose Tattoo, Camino Real, Suddenly Last Summer, Sweet Bird of Youth and Night of the Iguana. He also wrote a number of one-act plays, short stories, poems and two novels, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and Moishe and the Age of Reason.

Kevin Hourigan's (Director) credits include The Infinite Love Party at the Bushwick Starr and upcoming at ART, Imagine: Yemen at the Pershing Square Signature Center, Uncle Vanya at Brooklyn College, Farmed at Joe's Pub, Imagine Sisyphus Happy at Pace University, Cenerentola at Curtis Opera Theater; Talk to me about Shame at FringeNYC (Overall Excellence Award) and at the Syrena Theatre in Warsaw, Poland. Hourigan has directed workshops and readings of new work for writers including Craig Lucas, Naomi Wallace, Kia Corthron, Kara Lee Corthron, Brendan Pelsue, Mirando Rose Hall, Tegan McLeod, Keelay Gipson, among others. Hourigan is the recent recipient of an Individual Artist Commission from the New York State Council for the Arts. Hourigan was the inaugural Directing Fellow at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and served as Artistic Director of the Yale Cabaret 2016-2017 Season. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, where he directed numerous productions including Blood Wedding and The Merchant of Venice. MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama and a BFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts (ETW, PHTS).

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