I know I promised to focus on both Blanche and Stella in this post, but I think Blanche is such a complex character, that she deserves the focus today. I will discuss Stella later in the week.
Blanche is one of those characters often played adequately, but rarely played honestly. First and foremost, Blanche is human and shares many of the same issues, stresses, unhappiness, and challenges of women today. Like Blanche, we are all struggling with issues from our past and as we try to start anew, we face so many challenges. We falter, we succeed, we stumble and sometimes we get right back up and continue on our path. But for some women, getting up and moving on gets more difficult every time they have to do it, making it easier to fall into despair and depression. Any other inherent emotional or personality issues will then be amplified.
The most common question thus far has involved dialect. Blanche should have a strong Mississippi dialect. As she spends time in New Orleans, some of the NOLA inflection will layer itself on top of that, as it is very easy to pick up and top off any other regional accent. And, no... The Mississippi dialect is NOT the same as the NOLA dialect.
I feel it is important that any actress playing Blanche must call upon what is deep within herself and bring forth many levels of emotional experience. I do NOT want a copy of another artist's version of Blanche. What I term as 'photocopy' acting is entirely unacceptable to me. The actress who is cast as Blanche will be able to bring forth truth and honesty into her performance. I hope for an actress with experience in life, emotions, distress, unhappiness, despair, elation... a full spectrum of emotional experience. Of course, she must be able to display a solid theatrical background and the trappings that go along with that (clear and truthful dialect, diction and articulation, projection, motivated movement, levels, subtext, organic growth and all the other elements that make up a solid and believable performance.) I do not want her to be portrayed as any other Blanche I have seen - I do not want her stereotyped. Every movement, every word, every thought... there are reasons for everything she does. Not everything is done for selfish and narcissistic reasons. Her past has led her to this point. I do not see her as a solid manipulator. As I told one potential cast member:
"When we meet her at the start of the play, she has indeed suffered and is broken, but trying to get back on her feet. Trying to be strong through all of her suffering and doing it in the way she was taught a woman does it. I want her to have made some sort of self realization before coming into the play, as though she is getting a new start, I want her to be optimistic, yet fragile… I do want her to have a little more conscious power, as though she senses where she is heading , and struggling to keep everything in control as best she can. There is a level of despair in Blanche, that I want to clearly pull through, even when she is smiling and enjoying herself. Though the rape is probably the major point of climax in the play, it is not the only underlying theme. Mental illness, the struggle between past conventions vs. modern progression, and abuse on all levels… these are some of the things we will discuss when rehearsals go into character and table work..."
If you wish to call my approach ' method' then, by all means, do. That is how I was trained in Drama School and that is the approach I use when I take on a role myself. So many people today misunderstand the true meaning of 'method'... and attack those who use it. Stanisalvski's teachings are so very basic and necessary. Most actors who shun this technique, actually do not realize that much of what they do as an actor, has roots in method teachings. Because this play was written and developed during the height of popularity of this 'new style of acting', we will definitely be utilizing it in this production.
As far as character development, we will spend a bit of time in tablework, discussing character issues. I encourage anyone hoping to audition for this role to take a look at some of the analytical writings of STREETCAR and Blanche online. Many clues to symbolism and character workings can be found in them; however, be prepared - we will be starting fresh with our own take on the story, our own ideas and new thoughts. We will toss out all the old pre-conceived ideas and reevaluate for ourselves.
Something to think about - Who did Williams base his character of Blanche DuBois on? He did base many of the characters he wrote on people in his life. Perhaps his institutionalized sister... or even himself...
Now, I leave you with photos of some recent Blanche DuBois... some professional productions, some not.
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