Streetcar Named Desire Costumes

The play A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the most notable plays of the late 1940s to early 1950s and is still prevalent in the theater community today. It originally opened on Broadway in a 1947 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, today more commonly known as the Barrymore Theatre, preforming for a little over a thousand patrons. The original Stanley was played by Marlon Brando, who would reprise this role in the movie adaptation. At the Barrymore Theatre, the set was quite complex with a full stairway and banister, a pallor with a 4-chair dinning set and all the dressings of a then modern, but lower-class apartment. The costumes were quite normal street clothes for that time-period except for Blanche 's extravagant wardrobe. For this time-period, the makeup and hair was quite common. Since Blanche was dressed to impress and find a husband she wore a full face of makeup. Since was not yet born in 1947, I am unsure what the sound and lighting designs were like.

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For 10 out of 12, all the wireless microphones that ran through the house system was probably difficult since not every show uses mics but for A Streetcar Named Desire there is no need for mics all off stage comments and sound effects can be done behind the set or by sound effects. For this show, there would be quite a few sound effects. Street noise of cars passing by is needed since they are in the heart of New Orleans. During Taming the Shrew, the sound engineer had the sound of cars run through each speaker to make it sound like the car is passing by and giving the Doppler effect. I would like to see that effect during this show as well. The Varsouviana polka which Blanche hears several times in the play, would be heard through one of the speakers near the upstage to give a distant