June 8, 2009

Fortune Theatre’s stage production of
A Streetcar Named Desire
takes to the International Stage  

The Fortune Theatre has accepted the invitation to travel to the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival, Massachusetts USA

The invitation is the first occasion in nearly two decades that a New Zealand theatre has been invited to take its work overseas.

In May of 2008, the Fortune Theatre began rehearsals for a Tennessee Williams play, A Streetcar Named Desire.

The American director Jef Hall-Flavin returned to the Fortune (after a successful season of The Clean House in 2007) to direct the piece. Months of preparation went into the show from early casting to set and costume design. The Fortune considered it one of the finest productions of the year – this view was also shared by the critics:

"Inspired production of Williams’ Classic" – "Jef Hall-Flavin’s production was inspired and made inventive use of a visually exciting set in which the lighting, sound and general technical skills were of the highest quality". Otago Daily Times 

"Gibson a riveting Blanche in faithful production"– www.theatreview.org.nz 

"Absorbing emotionally powerful drama – a theatrical tour de force" The Star

"A HEART’S DESIRE" Don’t miss this chance to see some seriously powerful theatre." The Listener

The play was an artistic and box office success – seen by more than 2,500 Dunedin theatergoers.

For Janice Marthen (Fortune Theatre CEO Theatre Manager) and Jef Hall-Flavin it was the beginning of a beautiful, outlandish dream – to have the original cast perform, as the centerpiece, at the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival.

No mean task. The Fortune Theatre is one of seven professional theatres in this country and a non-profit organisation.

"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers" – Blanche Dubois

In early May of 2009 it all fell into place with funding secured in America for the Fortune’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire to travel to take the show to Massachusetts, USA.

The festival will run 24th – 27th – September 2009 in "A four day orgy of all things Williams" (Boston Phoenix)

Production director Jef Hall-Flavin is a Minnesota-based director with a multi-disciplinary international career as a director, educator, producer and artistic administrator.  Recent directing projects include A Streetcar Named Desire and The Clean House, both of which he staged in New Zealand; and Midsummer Night’s Dream at Park Square Theatre in his home town of St. Paul, Minnesota. Jef is the Festival Director for the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, where he directed World Premieres of Tennessee Williams one-act plays, The Parade (2006) and Green Eyes (2008).

Hall-Flavin said of the Fortune’s 2008 production of Streetcar, "It takes an incredible amount of work to present plays of this scale on stage.  What a gift to have a theatre in Dunedin that cares about the great plays of our time.  I’m grateful for the opportunity to help do what I can to lead this team of hardworking artists".

Janice Marthen has been long forging new paths for the Fortune on the international circuit, both in programming and in theatrical talent, and it was this vision that bought Jef Hall-Flavin here.  She says, "It is extraordinary our work is being acknowledged on an international stage.  Dunedin can be very very proud of its professional theatre and its first class production standards." 

The Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival is an annual event in honor of one of America’s greatest playwrights, and a member of the literary canon, Tennessee Williams. In the 1940’s, (he continued to write into the early 80’s) Williams wrote powerful stories of lyrical intensity, loneliness and hypnotic violence. He lived and wrote among the artists and prostitutes and the working poor of the French Quarter of New Orleans. He wrote what he knew.

Works include: The Glass Menagerie (1944) The Rose Tattoo (1950), Suddenly Last Summer (1958), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) Sweet Bird of Youth (1959)

The Festival and individual actors are seeking further funding to support and enable the cast of seven actors and creative team to travel to the United States. Additional funding would mean a much longer extract of the production could be presented.

Any Dunedin benefactor in a position to assist with support for this possibility should contact the theatre’s fundraising team via kennedy@earthlight.co.nz or 03 455 3377