To Mitch... or not to Mitch...

I haven't had too many inquiries regarding Harold 'Mitch' Mitchell... Just 3 or 4, but all but one have asked the same questions or expressed the same issues:  

'I want Stanley, but may not be (fill in the blank with one of these) physically right/attractive enough/ a good enough actor... so I am going to try for Mitch...'  

Ok, guys... Just so you understand - Mitch is a wonderful character.  A sensitive, gentle, loving man, who is drawn to Blanche.  Perhaps he sees what is under all the protective pretense that she armors herself with (which I think he does) and falls for her.  He truly cares for Blanche by the point in the play where she talks of her 'young husband'.  She opens up to him and expresses something that could actually lie at the root of much of her emotional trauma.  

The actor who is cast as Mitch will indeed be a strong and talented performer.  He will have a powerful onstage chemistry with the actress playing Blanche and will be an important emotional anchor for the production.  I really feel that the connection that Blanche and Mitch develop is just as powerful as that of Stella and Stanley, but as their relationship is condemned and manipulated from the start by Stanley, it is doomed.  Mitch is not a 'consolation' role, as many of the actors who have contacted me feel he is.  The actor playing Mitch, must be just as emotionally powerful as the actor playing Stanley.  It will be a challenge, but to be honest, Mitch is one of my favorite characters in the play. 

Some general Mitch background... He lives with his dying mother.  Perhaps this is why he is so sensitive.  He is a gentleman, well raised, with integrity and a sense of what is right.  As far as age, he should fall in the playing range of 30's.  Physically... well, we can't get around the scriptual description.  Let's just say  'Sweaty, clumsy, big guy, enjoys working out and moral sensitive women...'  And, perhaps even a walk on the beach.  Mitch and Blanche are initially drawn together out of a need of companionship.  But, while she is with him, the tiny expressions of trust are soon overshadowing Blanche's need to continue with her facade and we see a little of the inner workings of her soul.  

I have to wonder -- if the two of them had been left to their own devices and developed a relationship away from Stanley, if he would have become that chivalric hero she always wanted and needed.  Perhaps, she would have finally found that person who could love her... and she could have dropped the false facade, let go of all the pretensions and learned to love herself.  


If only...