Studio Theatre Long Island to Stage New Play About Tennessee & Rose Williams

When David Dubin decided to direct a new play about Tennessee Williams and his sister Rose at Studio Theatre Long Island, he didn't have to look far to find a style.

Dubin looked at Williams' own work to get a playbook for how to present the show. The result is a show that welcomes you into Williams' world, but not simply into the one he created for stage.

"Traditionally, when you see 'The Glass Menagerie,' it is a theatrical, fictionalized account of Tennessee Williams' life," Dubin said. "I want to do the opposite. I want to take Tennessee Williams' life and make it resemble 'The Glass Menagerie' and use the same style."

Fans of Tennessee Williams' work such as "The Glass Menagerie" and "A Streetcar Named Desire" will find familiar characters and storylines in "Year of the Iguana," a new play by Long Island playwright Claude Solnik, being presented at Studio Theatre Long Island, 141 S. Wellwood Ave., Lindenhurst, July 22 to Aug. 7.

Studio Theatre Long Island originally presented the show as a staged reading. Based on the success of that event, it is mounting a full production.

The play, which mixes lyricism and life, focuses on Williams and his sister Rose, who helped lay the groundwork for many of his most famous characters and stories.

With that in mind, Dubin said the idea of presenting Williams' life as if it were a Williams play seemed like a natural choice.

"There will be a lot of posterized photographs of the real people," he added. "There will be the original poster of 'The Glass Menagerie' production in New York and 'A Streetcar Named Desire.'"

Dubin plans to present the play with numerous lighting effects, no walls and some presentational speeches "where the character speaks through the fourth wall," further involving the audience in this story about one of the nation's best known authors.

"It will resemble 'The Glass Menagerie," Dubin continued. "But it will be the real thing this time. I want people to think of how it reminds them of 'The Glass Menagerie.' But this is the real thing."

Edward Cress plays a young Tom (Tennessee Williams' real name), while Michael H. Carlin plays Tennessee as an older man and Nicole Intravia plays his sister Rose. Lisa Meckes and James Bradley play Williams' parents, while Rosemary Kurtz plays a nurse who cares for Williams later in life.

"I didn't realize there was a gentleman caller. He did work in a shoe factory," Dubin said of Williams. "His mother did try to sell subscriptions to magazines and was rejected often by his neighbors."

Dubin continued to list elements of "The Glass Menagerie" that were autobiographical, pointing out how 'Year of the Iguana" reminds us that Williams was not only a poetic playwright, but also one who drew heavily on his life for his earlier work.

"Laura Wingfield has a physical deformity," he continued, before noting that Rose had her own flaws. "Rose did go to business school and lied to her parents. The mother was humiliated."

In addition to staging, done to present Solnik's play about Williams' life in a way true to Williams' plays, Dubin cast actors who, he believes, resemble people on whom the characters are based.

"Nicole [Intravia] does resemble Rose," he said, noting she will play both the young and older Rose. "She's up to the challenge of playing before and after Rose."

In addition to playing a young Tom Williams, Cress will play Frank Merlo, Williams' significant other as an older man.

"He'll be delivering the lines in the shadows," Dubin said, noting a larger poster of Merlo will be lit. "But you won't see Frank Merlo."

The production, he said, may be both true to Williams' life and the playwright's vision regarding the presentation of his own work.

"You're supposed to have a big picture of the father smiling at them and saying 'Hello' and "Good bye,'" Dubin said of production notes for 'The Glass Menagerie.' "He talks about his father falling in love with long distances.'"

Williams created one of theater's most famous fictional families, the Wingfields, in 'The Glass Menagerie." Even though much of it was based on real people, he pointedly omitted his father. In 'Year of the Iguana,' whose title is meant to be a variation of Williams' 'Night of the Iguana,' we see the father as someone very much alive, if erased from much of the work.

"He wrote him out of 'The Glass Menagerie,'" Dubin said. "The father is very much present in their lives, but distant as a metaphor."

Those familiar with the Wingfields, where no father is present, will see the full Williams family including that missing figure, Cornelius Coffin Williams, possibly helping to explain the other characters.

"It will be a surprise to see that the father is in the picture physically. The father was annoyed at being written out of 'The Glass Menagerie,'" Dubin said. "There's just a photograph of the father smiling at them, laughing as if he left them. That's why it's appropriate to have photos on the set. That is somewhat like what Tennessee Williams wanted for the original production of 'The Glass Menagerie.'"

Solnik's play looks at how Williams seeks to protect his sister Rose and what happens when the parents turn to medicine to tame and change her character and behavior. Rose's own personal tragedies in turn fuel Williams' work.

"He becomes successful because of what happened to her," Dubin said. "He's able to dramatize that. And he feels guilty about capitalizing on his sister's misfortune."

Dubin described the way Williams reacted to his own productions, sometimes enjoying them as much as anyone else in the audience.

"He had a high-pitched cackle that actually ruined numerous performances of his plays," Dubin said. "He would sit in the back and cackle. And people would get disturbed by it."

Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams, later taking the name Tennessee, in part out of deference to his family's Tennessee roots and because of his own Southern drawl.

"This play doesn't just look at Tennessee Williams," Solnik said. "I think sometimes you can look at the key relationship of a play, in order to understand it. This play looks at a brother who became famous writing about his sister. When she ran into problems, he wanted to help. But he was never able to."

Williams himself has become world renown, even having his own postage stamp. His work is taught in schools and continues to be performed regularly.

His death in 1983 was an international event, marking the end of the life of one of the nation's greatest playwrights. Dubin sees irony in the way one newscaster reported Williams' death, confusing the famous playwright's name with that of a singer.

"I remember the day Tennessee Williams died," Dubin said. "I remember the newscaster announcing, 'The world tonight lost Tennessee Ernie Williams.' Like Tennessee Ernie Ford. I thought about what a way to go out. To be mistaken for Tennessee Ernie Ford."

'Year of the Iguana' seeks to tell a powerful story based on the playwright's life in the form of a play. Williams continued mining his own life for drama, but, ironically, often fictionalized events from his life when describing his autobiography.

Solnik pointed out, that even though Williams became known as Tennessee, he went on to name a main character in "The Glass Menagerie" Tom, the name by which he had always been known.

"He gave his incorrect age for all of his life," Dubin said of Williams. "He was always a little fuzzy with the facts."

"Year of the Iguana" by Claude Solnik. David Dubin directs James Bradley, Michael H. Carlin, Edward Cress, Nicole Intravia, Rosemary Kurtz and Lisa Meckes in this play about Tennessee Williams and his sister Rose. $25. Studio Theatre Long Island, 141 S. Wellwood Ave., Lindenhurst. 631-226-8400. Tickets are available by clinking the Tix. link, going to studiotheatreli.com.

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