Conservatory Theatre Company to Close Season with A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

Point Park University's Conservatory Theatre Company closes its 2014-2015 season with a production of Tennessee Williams' timeless steamy classic, A Streetcar Named Desire.

Directed by Martin Giles, A Streetcar Named Desire previews April 16, and runs April 17 - 26 in the Rauh Theatre at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, 222 Craft Ave. Performances will be at 8 p.m., Thursdays through Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets range from $18 to $20 and can be purchased by calling the Pittsburgh Playhouse box office at 412.392.8000, or at www.pittsburghplayhouse.com.

Considered one of the greatest American plays and winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1948, this iconic work explores a clash of cultures between Blanche, a fading Southern beauty, and Stanley, her brutish urban blue-collar brother-in-law. The play opened on Broadway in 1947, directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter. It has since been revived many times on Broadway and elsewhere, including a hugely successful 2009 production at London's West End directed by Point Park alum Rob Ashford and starring Rachel Weisz and Ruth Wilson. Kazan's famous 1951 film adaptation won four Academy Awards. Williams' play also has been adapted as an opera, ballet and for television.

The Conservatory Theatre Company production features scenic design by Gianni Downs, costumes by Michael Montgomery, lighting by Cat Wilson, and sound by Steve Shapiro. Sara Snow is stage manager.

Pittsburgh-based director and actor Martin Giles was a co-founder and long-time artistic director of the New Group Theater, where he directed more than 40 plays, including works of Ibsen, Beckett, Chekhov, Strindberg and Shaw. For PICT Classic Theatre, he has directed works of Beckett, Synge, Pinter, his own original musical Beautiful Dreamers (with songs of Stephen Foster), and, most recently, Martin McDonagh's A Skull in Connemara. He will direct How the Other Half Loves by Alan Ayckbourn for PICT this spring. He has, in the recent past, directed four plays for Quantum Theatre, including Andrew Bovell's When the Rain Stops Falling, Graham Greene's (adapted by Karla Boos) The End of the Affair, Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman and Jez Butterworth's Parlour Song. He teaches acting at Point Park, and has also taught acting at Carnegie-Mellon University and Ohio University.

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