A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee Williams was born in 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi, where his grandfather was the Episcopal clergyman. When his father, a travelling salesman, moved with his family to St Louis some years later, both he and his sister found it impossible to settle down to city life. He entered college during the Depression and left after a couple of years to take a clerical job in a shoe company. He stayed there for two years, spending the evenings writing. He entered the University of Iowa in 1938 and completed his course, at the same time holding a large number of part-time jobs of great diversity. He received a Rockefeller fellowship in 1940 for his play Battle of Angels, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for A Streetcar Named Desire and in 1955 for Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. Tennessee Williams died in 1983.

Theatre includes: Battle of Angels; A Streetcar Named Desire; Cat On A Hot Tin Roof; Summer and Smoke; The Rose Tattoo; Camino Real; Baby Doll; The Glass Menagerie; Orpheus Descending; Suddenly Last Summer; The Night of the Iguana; Sweet Bird of Youth; The Two-Character Play.

Rebecca is Associate Director at the Almeida Theatre and was previously on the Almeida’s Resident Director Scheme supported by the Eranda Rothschild Foundation.

For the Almeida: A Streetcar Named Desire (also West End); Nine Lessons and Carols: stories for a long winter; The Duchess of Malfi; Three Sisters; Summer and Smoke (also West End, Olivier Award for Best Revival).

Theatre includes: Cabaret (West End, Olivier Awards for Best Director and Best Musical Revival, Critics’ Circle Award for Best Director); Sanctuary City (New York Theatre Workshop, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play); Steel (Sheffield Theatres).

Theatre includes: Amélie the Musical (West End/ The Other Palace/ Watermill Theatre/ UK tour, Olivier Award nomination for Best New Musical); The Windsors: Endgame; The Importance of Being Earnest (West End); The Winter’s Tale; Always Orange; Fall of the Kingdom, Rise of the Foot Soldier; Revolt, She SaidThe Ant and the Cicada (RSC); Valued Friends (Rose Theatre Kingston); Embrace (Birmingham Royal Ballet/ Sadler’s Wells); CinderELLA: A New Musical (Nuffield Southampton Theatres); The Taming of the Shrew (Sherman Theatre/ Tron Theatre); Blue Door (Theatre Royal Bath); The Weir (ETT); Steel (Sheffield Theatres); Julie (Northern Stage); The Double Dealer; Little Light (Orange Tree Theatre); Kindertransport; A Skull in Connemara; Time and the Conways (Nottingham Playhouse); The Open House (Theatre Royal Bath/ Print Room); The Shape of the Pain (China Plate Theatre); Go Between (Young Vic); Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre); Right Now (Theatre Royal Bath/ Bush Theatre/ Traverse Theatre); The Harvest (Theatre Royal Bath/ Soho Theatre); The Chronicles of Kalki (Gate Theatre).

Awards include Broadway World UK Award for Best Set Design of a New Production of a Play or Musical (Amélie the Musical).

Merle works internationally in a wide variety of styles and genres. She is also a lecturer at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design, Goldsmiths and Rose Bruford College.

Theatre includes: Cock (West End); The Glow; Ear for Eye; a profoundly affectionate passionate devotion to someone (-noun); X; The Mistress Contract (Royal Court); Under Milk Wood; Top Girls; Protest Song (Nation Theatre); Enemy of the People (Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis); Macbeth; The Shawl; Parallel Elektra (Young Vic); Arden of Faversham (RSC); Macbeth (National Theatre of Scotland/ Lincoln Center/ Broadway/ Japan tour); Green Snake (National Theatre of China); Glasgow Girls (National Theatre of Scotland/ National tour); 27; The Wheel (National Theatre of Scotland); Shun-Kin (Complicité); Diener Zweier Herren (Schlosstheater, Vienna); Der Verlorene (Sophiensaele, Berlin).

Opera includes: Aida (Royal Danish Opera); Until the Lions (Opéra National du Rhin); Maria Stuarda (Vereinigte Bühnen, Mönchengladbach/ Krefeld); Der Vetter Aus Dingsda (Oper Graz); Lunatics (Kunstfest Weimar).

Dance includes: The Barbarians In Love; Sun; Political Mother (Hofesh Schechter Company); Il Combattimento; Contagion (Shobana Jeyasingh Dance); 8 Minutes (Alexander Whitley Dance Company); Lovesong (Frantic Assembly); James Son Of James; The Bull; The Flowerbed (Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre).

Film includes: Morituri Te Salutant; Baby.

For the Almeida: A Streetcar Named Desire (also West End); Summer and Smoke (also West End); Dance Nation.

Theatre includes: Constellations (West End/ Broadway/ Royal Court); Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre/ US Tour/ Barbican); Henry V, Berberian Sound Studio (Donmar Warehouse); The Welkin; Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear – The Musical!; Protest Song (National Theatre); Britannicus (Lyric Hammersmith); The Song Project; Gundog; Road; Nuclear War; a profoundly affectionate, passionate devotion to someone (-noun); X; Linda (Royal Court); The Glass Menagerie; West Side Story (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); Nora: A Doll’s House (Young Vic/ Citizens Theatre); The Two Character Play (Hampstead Theatre); The Son (Kiln Theatre/ West End); Harm (Bush Theatre); Burgerz (Hackney Showroom); Imogen (Shakespeare’s Globe); Doctor Faustus; Love’s Sacrifice (RSC); The Weir; A Streetcar Named Desire (ETT); A Number (Nuffield Southampton Theatres/ Young Vic).

Dance includes: We Are As Gods (James Cousins Company); Enowate (Dickson Mbi Company); Clorinda Agonistes (Shobana Jeyasingh Dance); Opus 131 (Russell Maliphant Dance Company); Blak Whyte Gray (Blue Boy Entertainment); Clowns; Sun; Political Mother; In Your Rooms; Uprising (Hofesh Shechter Company); Don Quixote (Royal Danish Ballet); Untouchable (Royal Ballet); Grey Matter; Tomorrow; Frames (Rambert).

Opera includes: Orphée et Eurydice (Royal Opera House/ Teatro alla Scala); Fidelio; Nothing (Royal Danish Opera); Tosca (Opera North); Phaedra (Royal Opera House).

Peter Rice is a freelance Sound Designer for Theatre & Short Film. He is Course Leader for Sound Design & Production at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Sound Associate for NYX Electronic Drone Choir, Board Member of the Association of Sound Designers, and a founder member of Stage Sight. Peter also produces and presents the podcast ‘Conversations with Sound Designers’.

For the Almeida: The Tragedy of Macbeth; The Tragedy of King Richard II; Oil.

Theatre includes: Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train; Yellowman; It’s All Kicking Off Everywhere; Trade; Barbarians; Fireface (Young Vic); Gundog; Nuclear War (Royal Court); Deep Blue Sea; On The Shore Of The Wide World Theatre); A Streetcar Named Desire; Hamlet; Scuttlers; The Last Days of Troy; Blindsided; That Day We Sang; Cannibals; Orpheus Descending; Saturday Night/Sunday Morning; Black Roses (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); Masque Of Anarchy (Manchester International Festival); Miss Julie; Black Comedy (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Fruit Trilogy (Southbank Centre/ West Yorkshire Playhouse); Romeo and Juliet (Sheffield Theatres); The Funfair (HOME, Manchester).

Film includes: Fellow Creatures; Snapshots; Drown; Grin; Swansong; G.O.D.; Glue.

Angus recently composed the prologue for the West End production of Cabaret and has also released several albums including Vivarium, MMXIX and Cry Wolf.

For the Almeida: Three Sisters; Summer and Smoke.

Theatre includes: Cabaret (West End); Swive (Shakespeare’s Globe); 공·空·Zero: Restriction, Body and Time (ARKO Arts Theatre Seoul); Out Late (UK tour); The Mountaintop (New Vic Theatre); Kite (Soho Theatre); The Curing Room (Edinburgh Fringe); The Father (Trafalgar Studios); I am A Camera (Southwark Playhouse); Dream of Perfect Sleep (Finborough Theatre).

Dance includes: exisTence (Hessische Staatsballett); What the Moon Saw; From Above (2Faced Dance Company/ International tour); Vestige (The Place); Traces Imprinted (Ballet Cymru).

Film includes: When I’m Done Dying; Fighting For A City; Little; The Snail Man; Confection; Lost Boy; The Listener; Interlude.

Television includes: Gypsy’s Revenge; The Trials.

For the Almeida: A Streetcar Named Desire; Three Sisters; The Wild Duck; Machinal; The Writer; Summer and Smoke; The Twilight Zone; Mary Stuart (also West End); The Clinic; The Tragedy of Macbeth; The Duchess of Malfi; The Doctor; The Treatment; Hamlet; Oil; Uncle Vanya; Medea; Oresteia (also West End/Park Ave Armory, New York).

Theatre includes: Tambo & Bones (Theatre Royal Stratford East); School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Lyric Hammersmith); A Little Life (West End); Sons of the Prophet (Hampstead Theatre); The Wife of Willesden (Kiln Theatre/ BAM, New York/American Repertory Theatre); Girl on an Altar; Pass Over (Kiln Theatre); The Shark is Broken (West End/Toronto); All About Eve (West End); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (West End/ Broadway); The Inheritance; A View from the Bridge (Young Vic/ West End/ Broadway); The Jungle (Young Vic/West End/ St Ann’s Warehouse, New York/ San Francisco); Yerma (Young Vic/ Park Avenue Armory, New York); A Doll’s House (Young Vic/West End/ BAM, New York);  Life of Galileo; The Government Inspector; The Glass Menagerie (Young Vic);

Film includes: The Exception; Hamlet; Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere.

Television includes: The Read (BBC/Rural Media); Together (BAFTA for Best Single Drama); A Murder in the Family.

Jackie was Deputy Head of Costume at the Royal Court for 12 years under Dominic Cooke and Ian Rickson.

For the Almeida: A Streetcar Named Desire; The Clinic; Little Revolution.

Theatre includes: Posh; Jumpy; Clybourne Park (West End); The Low Road; Sucker Punch; Chicken Soup with Barley; The Pride (Royal Court); The Girlfriend Experience (Royal Court/ Young Vic); The Tempest; Hamlet; Romeo & Juliet; The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare’s Globe); Jerusalem; Amélie the Musical; Lady Windermere’s Fan; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; A Christmas Carol (West End); Faustus; That Damned Woman (Headlong tour); Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (UK tour/ West End); Dusty the Musical (UK tour); The Two Noble Kinsmen; Salome; The Duchess of Malfi; Troilus & Cressida; As You Like It; King John (RSC); The Jungle (Young Vic); Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Sheffield Theatres/ West End); Henry V (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Hairy Ape; High Society; The Crucible (The Old Vic); The Father (Theatre Royal Bath/ Kiln Theatre/ West End); Di and Viv and Rose (Hampstead Theatre/ West End); East is East (Trafalgar Studios/ UK tour).

For the Almeida: A Streetcar Named Desire (West End); Romeo and Juliet; The Duchess of Malfi; Machinal; Summer and Smoke.

Theatre includes: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Cabaret; Ghost Stories; Summer and Smoke; Killer Joe; The Spoils; Strictly Ballroom; (West End); Orfeus (Young Vic); Waitress; The King and I (West End/ UK tour); The Way of the World (Donmar Warehouse); Oslo (National Theatre/ West End); Oliver Twist (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Wild Party (The Other Palace); The Trial of Jane Fonda (Park Theatre); Romeo and Juliet; Hamlet; Twelfth Night; The Tempest; Macbeth; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, York); Private Peaceful; Holes; Lit; Coram Boy; The Madness of George III; The Memory of Water (Nottingham Playhouse); Richard II (The Vaults Theatre); The Be All and End All; Robin Hood (York Theatre Royal).

Film Includes: Black Dog; Tuesday; Tiny Dancer; Swing for the Fences; Amaranthine; The Mother, the Son, the Rat and the Gun; Damned; Protectors of the Dawn; My Mother; Work.

Rebecca has worked on over 30 productions as Head of Voice and Text at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. 

Theatre includes: Plaza Suite (West End); Clueless (Churchill Theatre); Kim’s Convenience (Park Theatre); All the Way (Oregon Shakespeare Festival/ American Repertory Theater/ Broadway); Spring Storm; Beyond the Horizon (Royal & Derngate, Northampton/ National Theatre); The Cocoanuts (Guthrie Theater); Oedipus (American Players Theatre); Julius Caesar; Murder for Two (Utah Shakespeare Festival); Cambodian Rock Band; August: Osage County; Long Day’s Journey Into Night; Roe; The Great Society (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). 

Rebecca is also co-author of The Vocal Arts Workbook, The Dramatic Text Workbook and Video, and The Shakespeare Workbook and Video. 

Tatenda Shamiso (he/him) is a theatre-maker, director, writer, and musician with origins from Zimbabwe, Belgium, the United States and Switzerland. He is also a scholarly researcher in Afrofuturism. Central to Tatenda’s work are themes of community, identity, and joy within diaspora. After travelling to New York with the Young Vic’s Communities of Resistance project, he recently wrote and starred in his solo show NO I.D., alongside writing, and directing Housewarming, both as part of Theatre Peckham’s Young, Gifted and Black 2022 season. Tatenda is also a recent Associate Artist and current guest lecturer in the Theatre and Performance Department at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Theatre includes:

As Director: Housewarming (Theatre Peckham).

As an Actor: NO I.D. (Theatre Peckham); Sundown Kiki (Young Vic); drop dead gorgeous (VAULT Festival/ Edinburgh Fringe).

Ruth’s work in UK and international theatre includes traditional set and costume design, site-specific and new writing. She also has a special interest in community and education projects.

For the Almeida:

As Associate Designer: A Streetcar Named Desire; The Writer.

Theatre includes:

As Designer: Sydney and the Old Girl (Park Theatre); The Permanent Way (The Vaults); The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru); Anna Karenina (East 15 Acting School); Sonny (ArtsEd); 46 Beacon (Trafalgar Studios); Macbeth (Caerphilly Castle); Blackbird (Tor Theatre); A Tale of Two Cities (Royal & Derngate Northampton); Play Strindberg (Theatre Royal Bath); Contractions (Chapter Arts Centre); Fijiland (Southwark Playhouse); Little Shop of Horrors; Salt, Root and Roe (Theatr Clwyd); Noah (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Road to Mecca (Arcola Theatre).

As Associate Designer: Two Palestinians Go Dogging (Royal Court); Blue/Orange (Royal & Derngate Northampton); The Comedy of Errors; The Hypocrite; The Shoemakers Holiday; Henry VI Trilogy; Romeo and Juliet; The Tempest; The Winter’s Tale; Pericles (RSC); Home, I’m Darling (National Theatre/ Theatr Clwyd); Anna Karenina; Crime and Punishment; A Streetcar Named Desire (Theatre Cocoon, Tokyo); Shakespeare in Love (Theatre Royal Bath); Mystery Plays (York Minster); Of Mice and Men (West Yorkshire Playhouse); London Road (National Theatre); Zorro (West End).

Film includes:

As Art Department Assistant: London Road.

Anna Wood recently graduated from the MMus course at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.

Theatre includes: The Toll; Moon Licks; Grimm Tales; Uncle Vanya (Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama); To Be Continued (Little Fish Theatre); Dance Nation (ALRA/ Rose Bruford College).

Anna would like to thank the Almeida Theatre and the Association of Sound Designers for their support.