Virginia Stage Company Presents CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF Beginning This Month

Virginia Stage Company welcomes theatre lovers of Hampton Roads and all around as it opens the curtain on it's Forty-Fourth Season with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof written by Tennessee Williams at The Historic Wells Theater (108 East Tazewell Street, Norfolk VA) to be performed September 14th - October 2nd, 2022.

Virginia Stage Company joins the ranks of other performing arts organizations returning from the pandemic with a renewed vigor to connect world-class live theater with the passionate audiences of Hampton Roads. Khanisha Foster, a familiar artist to VSC Audiences, returns to bring the three year long awaited Williams play to life on the stage. Having directed such thought-provoking works at the Wells like The Bluest Eye and Disgraced; the beginning of this season promises to be unforgettable. Khanisha is joined by an incredible creative team made up of some of VSC's most memorable designers; scenic design by Josafath Reynoso (The Bluest Eye, Disgrace), costume design by Bryce Turgeon (The Legend of Georgia McBride, Dreamgirls), lighting design by David Castaneda (Parchman Hour, The Bluest Eye), and sound design by Steven Allegretto (Guys & Dolls, Dreamgirls).

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is one of Tennessee Williams' most famous works, and arguably his most controversial. Penned in the 1950s and revised in the 1970s to make it more 'digestable' to the mainstream, this Pulitzer Prize-Winning Drama paints a portrait of a family in crisis in the steamy Mississippi South. A birthday celebration brings secrets to the surface as everyone gathers at the family home. With Big Daddy's dwindling health, Brick's troubled past, and Maggie's desperation for love and money, will the truth ever be revealed? As Khanisha read this work, stories and histories from her own past bubbled up and led to a unique approach to this work that she has come to be known for. She states:

"What really led me to bring this living history into Cat was Strom Thurmond. He and a Black woman...had a love affair. She got pregnant. They didn't marry as they wanted to, but they had the child. For years Strom Thurmond would visit his daughter at college... and ask after her mother. Well, one year she told him that her mother had died. It was after this news that Strom Thurmond started to enact laws that devastated Black people. What does it mean to repress your feelings for someone you love so much that after they die you want to punish everyone that looks like them? Is like them? That's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. After that, our path for this play became clear."

Producing Artistic Director Tom Quaintance is thrilled with the team of artists that are working on this production.. "This cast can only be described as a force of nature...Big Daddy (Jeff King) and Big Mama (Marsha Estell) command the space in a way that's indescribable. Maggie (Anna Sundberg) and Brick (Greg Warren) have this electric interaction that made me miss live theatre more than I ever have." The fiery conviction of Williams' words will surely deliver a powerhouse experience of live theater that arts lovers in Hampton Roads will not want to miss.

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