Scottish Ballet Brings A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE to Harris Theater Tonight

The Harris Theater welcomes the Scottish Ballet as they perform for the first time in Chicago bringing their award-winning, high-profile production of A Streetcar Named Desire.

Based on the 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning American play by Tennessee Williams, Scottish Ballet's 2012 contemporary adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire, created in conjunction with the play's 65th anniversary year, is considered a treasure of contemporary dance.

This modern gem makes its Chicago debut tonight, May 7th at 7:30PM, with additional performances on Friday, May 8th at 7:30PM, and the final performance on Saturday May 9th at 7:30 PM. This presentation is made possible by The Harris Family Foundation, Caryn and King Harris Dance Residency Fund through Imagine: The Campaign for Harris Theater.

The sultry performance is covered in two jaw-dropping acts that hold true to the spirit of the original play. The year is 1935, and the lifestyle of the landed gentry is in a steep decline. The impressionable and distraught Blanche DuBois leaves her family's decaying Southern mansion, after dealing with the death and betrayal of her husband, and heads to New Orleans to escape her life. With the scene shift comes a heavily addicted Blanche with her sister, Stella, and Stella's temperamental husband, Stanley Kowalski, in the sizzling heat of desperation. Blanche and Stanley quickly find themselves in constant turmoil in this suspenseful take on greed, passion, and treachery as only dance can inspire.

Created in collaboration with international dance star and award-winning choreographer, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, alongside theater and film director, Nancy Meckler, this critically acclaimed story will delight in its cross-disciplinary style and one-of-a-kind take on an American classic. Since its debut in 2012, the ballet has captivated audiences in the US and UK, receiving superlative reviews as well as Critics' Circle (Best Dance Production) and South Bank (Best Classical Choreography) awards.

In adapting such an iconic play into movement, preserving the plot and characters is crucial. The story's vignettes are woven together through the use of music composed by Peter Salem, sets designed by Niki Turner that convey the claustrophobic quality of the Kowalski's apartment, and costumes, also by Turner, that bring 1930s New Orleans to life.

Tickets for A Streetcar Named Desire are $10-$95, now available at HarrisTheaterChicago.org or by calling the Harris Theater Box Office at 312.334.7777.

Community Engagement

As a presenter of artists and ensembles at the height of their fields, the Harris Theater has the opportunity to provide unique pre-professional experiences for Chicago's most gifted young artists and students. Through partnerships with schools and arts training programs, the Theater has connected students with renowned artists including Wendy Whelan, Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony, Wu Han, Anne-Marie McDermott, Orion Quartet, Hamburg Ballet, and Sphinx Virtuosi.

As part of Scottish Ballet's engagement at the Harris, Artistic Director Christopher Hampson will conduct a master class for the Theater's arts education partners. This ballet technique class will give students the opportunity to work with the director of a major international ballet company before seeing the company perform onstage at the Harris Theater.

Harris Theater will distribute over 50 tickets through its Access Tickets Program to students from Curie Metro High School, Chicago Academy for the Arts and The Chicago High School for the Arts to attend performances in this engagement. The Theater will provide its partners with a resource packet, designed by Scottish Ballet for students and educators, to explore the themes of A Streetcar Named Desire before seeing the performance.

About the Access Tickets Program - Founded in 2009, the Access Tickets Program engages health and human service agencies, K-12 schools, and arts organizations to provide access to the performing arts for Chicago residents of all ages and communities. To date, the Theater has provided more than 8,000 underwritten performance tickets through the Access Tickets Program, reaching 25 diverse Chicago neighborhoods. Visit engage.harristheaterchicago.org to learn more.

About Scottish Ballet - The Scottish Ballet is Scotland's National Dance Company, and presents a wide range of high-quality dance to audiences across Scotland, the United Kingdom, and abroad with strong classical technique at the root of all its work. These performances include new versions of classic titles as well as seminal modern works from 20th century choreographers, signature pieces by living choreographers, and new commissions. Founded by Peter Darrell and Elizabeth West as Western Theatre Ballet in Bristol in 1957, the company moved to Glasgow in 1969 and was renamed Scottish Ballet. The company currently employs 36 full-time dancers. In June 2009, it moved to new purpose-built national headquarters at the Tramway International Arts Center in Glasgow following an impressive fundraising campaign and building project.

The company regularly tours large-scale venues in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness while periodically undertakes small-scale touring across Scotland. Strategic partnerships have been formed with the leading venues in the capital cities of the UK's other nations, i.e. Belfast, Cardiff and London. The company has an established relationship with Edinburgh International Festival and continues to pursue opportunities abroad.

About Harris Theater for Music and Dance - The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance is a 1500-seat state-of-the art performance venue located in Chicago's Millennium Park. Opened in November 2003, the nonprofit Harris Theater was the first multi-use performance venue built in downtown Chicago since 1929. Harris Theater serves as a unique national model of collaboration between the philanthropic community and performing arts organizations in music and dance. More than a decade later, the theater features the most diverse offerings of any venue in Chicago, hosting local, national, and internationally renowned artists and ensembles.

The Harris Theater's primary mission is to partner with an array of Chicago's music and dance performing arts organizations to help them build the resources and infrastructure necessary to achieve artistic growth and long-term organizational sustainability. The Harris Theater's original group of 12 resident companies has grown to include 35 diverse and exceptionally talented performing arts organizations, including internationally acclaimed Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Music of the Baroque, Chicago Opera Theater, Chicago Symphony Orchestra's MusicNow, and collaborations with Lyric Opera of Chicago, National Museum of Mexican Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and Columbia College Chicago. Through these partnerships, the Theater has earned national recognition as a distinctive model for collaboration, performance, and artistic advancement.

The Theater supports its mission by providing partner organizations with subsidized rental, technical expertise, and marketing support, allowing the organizations to focus on what they do best-bringing the finest in music and dance performances to the public. The Theater offers professional development opportunities, including the innovate Learning Lab, endorsed with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Harris Theater is also dedicated to presenting internationally acclaimed music and dance organizations to enhance its reputation as well as to help build audiences for the Theater's resident companies. Through the Harris Theater Presentsseries, the Theater has achieved widespread recognition as a vital cultural anchor in Chicago. Daniel Barenboim, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Renee Fleming, the Hamburg Ballet, Lang Lang, the New York City Ballet, the Paris Ope?ra Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, Stephen Sondheim, and many others have graced the Harris' Elizabeth Morse Genius Stage through this series.

The Harris Theater maintains a commitment to community engagement for children, teens and adults. Programs advance access to, and understanding of, the performing arts. They include the Family Series and the lunchtime Eat to the Beat series. Collaborating withcommunity arts centers andhealth and human service agencies, the Theater has provided more than 7,000 complimentary tickets through its Access Tickets Program. Through the Teen Arts Project, the theater partners with public and private schools to provide behind-the-scenes access to visiting world-class artists through master classes, artist discussions, and other enrichment activities.

To learn more about the Harris Theater, visit HarrisTheaterChicago.org. Call the Marketing Department at 312.334.2419 to request a brochure or additional information. The Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Chicago's state-of-the art 1,525-seat performance venue, can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.