Three from Bloomfield in reading of ‘Streetcar Named Desire’

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Nutley Little Theatre presented a reading of “A Streetcar Named Desire” on Sunday, March 11.
At the Little Theatre, readings alternate with stage productions with the readings being presented one time while stagings have a number of performances. The readings, which are free to the public, typically occur in October, January, March and May.

This past weekend, three Bloomfield residents were cast in the well-known Tennessee Williams play about the brutal confrontation between Blanche DuBois, a floundering southern belle, and Stanley Kowalski, her contemptuous brother-in-law.

Alexande Oleksij, the Little Theatre president, said in an email that readings are an opportunity for an actor to keep in shape without having to devote a lot of time for rehearsals. The Bloomfield residents who took advantage of this economy were Stephen Crooks and his wife, Ginny; and Marie Blado. Crooks read the part of Mitch, Kowalski’s friend who temporarily becomes enamored of Blanche; Ginny read Stella, Kowalski’s wife and sister to Blanche; and Blado read Eunice, Stella’s friend living upstairs.

Blado has been with the Nutley theater since the ‘80s. She first performed there in another Williams play, “Suddenly Last Summer.”
“I love acting,” she said following a rehearsal on Saturday. “I tried it professionally and it wasn’t for me.”

She had been in “Whose Life Is It Anyway,” in a Montclair community theater before moving over to Nutley.
Local theater has played an important part in the Crooks’ lives, too. They met 34 years ago doing local theater on Long Island.
“We ran in the same circles,” Ginny said. “But I moved down south. We found each other again five years ago.”
Her future husband, who said acting ran in his family, had moved to NJ by then.

“I told Ginny that this place was crazy for community theater,” Crooks said of NJ. “I’m a commercial artist and do theater on the side.”
Ginny said that when she discovered the Little Theatre, she dragged her husband along. “It was my first time acting in 25 years,” he said.
The challenge of reading a play, they both said, was to convey the characters without any physical interaction.
“There’s a lot of physical things going on in this play,” Blado agreed.

All agreed having a good stage director, the person reading the playwright’s explanations between spoken parts, provides the reader and the audience with the dramatic environment and the character’s actions.
Blacio said she developed her character from watching the movie, but Crooks did not do this. “Williams creates such richly created characters,” he said. “Just reading it gives you what you need.”

“I need the visual,” Blado said.
“I once auditioned for Stella,” Ginny said. “I didn’t get the part. And I once auditioned for Blanche. ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ was the first serious play I ever read. I was 16.”

Ginny said she was a Catholic-school girl and Stanley’s sexual assault of Blanche in their climatic scene affected her.
“My little Catholic-school’s mind was blown,” she said. “It was the first time I knew a play could talk about this.”
Oleksij said there have been several times when a readers’ theater presentation has gone on to be done as a mainstage presentation at the Little Theatre.

“Off the top of my head, the only one I can think of is ‘Book of Days,’” she said “However, one of the ideas being readers’ theater is to do a play we might not normally do, because of cast size, or the sets, or the content.”

Penny Paul, theater publicist, said in an email that the Little Theatre presents four Readers’ Theater presentations annually.
“We find that focusing on the words themselves brings an enhanced appreciation of these works of literature,” she said.

Regional southern accents are heard in “A Streetcar Named Desire” and if delivered provide local color. But according to Ginny, they also provide an insight into the characters. Crooks said he “did not obsess” about Mitch’s accent. But Ginny, whose Stella spoke with an accent, said that while the play is set in the melting pot of New Orleans where accents may vary from person to person, Stella and Blanche are from Alabama.
“They should sound differently,” she said.

At the rehearsal on Saturday, they did wonderfully.
Nutley Little Theatre is an all-volunteer organization. Anyone interested in more information, the theater has a Facebook page and website. The theater is located at 47 Erie Place, Nutley. Telephone 973-667-0374.