NICOLE COLBERT DANCE/THEATRE’S LAST STOP: DESIRE REIMAGINES CLASSIC PLAY FOR 2019 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS/NEW ORLEANS LITERARY FESTIVAL

Last Stop: Desire, Nicole Colbert’s evocative dance/theatre adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, returns to the 2019 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival in a new production this spring. Choreographed and directed by Colbert, Last Stop: Desire brings together dance, theatre, and music with Williams’ text to extend the play’s consideration of class, gender, family, and the individual’s relationship with the past and the present.

As in Williams’ original, worlds collide when Blanche visits her sister Stella and brother-in-law Stanley in New Orleans. Colbert heightens the tension by setting the story in a new era—the politically, socially, and sexually charged 1960s. Stella and Stanley have embraced the sexual revolution and, uninhibited by social mores, are finding comfort in making a home in the racially and socioeconomically mixed neighborhood in the French Quarter. Blanche, however, remains trapped by a conservative past and the values of the 1950s.

Colbert utilizes a movement vocabulary culled from ballet, modern, jazz, and European dance/theatre to embody this conflict, drawing on social dances and music from the 1950s and 1960s to underscore the clash of values and ideas that threatens Blanche’s identity and relationships.

Colbert says, “The play explores the tension in Blanche’s psyche—the lightness that covers the darkness and the desire that pushes through to ameliorate the pain of her past and threaten her role as a “lady” in society. While in the original, Blanche’s forced acceptance of the confinement of the mores of the past leads her to madness, I envision a new ending where Blanche who lets herself get swept up in the era and ascends, instead, to freedom.”

A multicultural and inter-generational cast includes Rachel Baird (Blanche), Victoria Dombroski, (Allen Grey/ensemble), Cesar Lozada (Mitch), Sandy Simona (Stella), and Efrén Sánchez (Stanley). 

Richard Bates (guitar and vocals) directs a live ensemble that includes Bill Devlin (bass), Greg Lambousy (drums), and Andrea Sperling (vocals).

Performances will be held Friday, March 29, 2019, at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. at The George and Joyce Wein Jazz and Heritage Center, 1125 N. Rampart St., New Orleans, Louisiana 70116.

____

 BIO 

Nicole Colbert trained extensively in modern, ballet (with the Corvino family and Mary Monroe) and jazz (with Lynn Simonson) in NYC, New Orleans and London. Her movement vocabulary draws on modern, ballet, jazz and structured improvisation with a classical sensibility to create dance/theatre works that are emotionally and visually oriented. Her work has been presented in extensively in New York City as well as in London, Denmark, and Russia and in festivals such as the Newburgh Illuminated Festival (Newburgh, N.Y.), The International Dance Festival on the Volga (Yaroslavl, Russia), Infringe Fest (New Orleans, LA), the Jazz Dance Festival (New Orleans, LA) and the Tennessee Williams/Literary Festival (New Orleans, LA) where she premiered Last Stop: Desire in March 2017. She is an Adjunct Professor in English at CUNY and a theatre critic for Offoffonline.com. She has been selected to be part of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Observership program class of 2018-19 where she had the opportunity to observe director/choreographer Bill Castellino at the York Theatre. nicolecolbertdance.com.

Excerpt from Last Stop: Desire performed at the Mint as part of the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, March 24, 2017- https://vimeo.com/manage/300219147/general

 

####

 

NICOLE COLBERT DANCE/THEATRE’S LAST STOP: DESIRE REIMAGINES CLASSIC PLAY FOR 2019 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS/NEW ORLEANS LITERARY FESTIVAL

 

(March 19, 2019 – New Orleans, LA) Last Stop: Desire, Nicole Colbert’s evocative dance/theatre adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, returns to the 2019 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival in a new production this spring. Choreographed and directed by Colbert, Last Stop: Desire brings together dance, theatre, and music with Williams’ text to extend the play’s consideration of class, gender, family, and the individual’s relationship with the past and the present.

 

As in Williams’ original, worlds collide when Blanche visits her sister Stella and brother-in-law Stanley in New Orleans. Colbert heightens the tension by setting the story in a new era—the politically, socially, and sexually charged 1960s. Stella and Stanley have embraced the sexual revolution and, uninhibited by social mores, are finding comfort in making a home in the racially and socioeconomically mixed neighborhood in the French Quarter. Blanche, however, remains trapped by a conservative past and the values of the 1950s.

 

Colbert utilizes a movement vocabulary culled from ballet, modern, jazz, and European dance/theatre to embody this conflict, drawing on social dances and music from the 1950s and 1960s to underscore the clash of values and ideas that threatens Blanche’s identity and relationships.

 

Colbert says, “The play explores the tension in Blanche’s psyche—the lightness that covers the darkness and the desire that pushes through to ameliorate the pain of her past and threaten her role as a “lady” in society. While in the original, Blanche’s forced acceptance of the confinement of the mores of the past leads her to madness, I envision a new ending where Blanche who lets herself get swept up in the era and ascends, instead, to freedom.”

 

A multicultural and inter-generational cast includes Rachel Baird (Blanche), Victoria Dombroski, (Allen Grey/ensemble), Cesar Lozada (Mitch), Sandy Simona (Stella), and Efrén Sánchez (Stanley). 

 

Richard Bates (guitar and vocals) directs a live ensemble that includes Bill Devlin (bass), Greg Lambousy (drums), and Andrea Sperling (vocals).

 

Performances will be held Friday, March 29, 2019, at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. at The George and Joyce Wein Jazz and Heritage Center, 1125 N. Rampart St., New Orleans, Louisiana 70116.

 

____

 

 BIO 

Nicole Colbert trained extensively in modern, ballet (with the Corvino family and Mary Monroe) and jazz (with Lynn Simonson) in NYC, New Orleans and London. Her movement vocabulary draws on modern, ballet, jazz and structured improvisation with a classical sensibility to create dance/theatre works that are emotionally and visually oriented. Her work has been presented in extensively in New York City as well as in London, Denmark, and Russia and in festivals such as the Newburgh Illuminated Festival (Newburgh, N.Y.), The International Dance Festival on the Volga (Yaroslavl, Russia), Infringe Fest (New Orleans, LA), the Jazz Dance Festival (New Orleans, LA) and the Tennessee Williams/Literary Festival (New Orleans, LA) where she premiered Last Stop: Desire in March 2017. She is an Adjunct Professor in English at CUNY and a theatre critic for Offoffonline.com. She has been selected to be part of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Observership program class of 2018-19 where she had the opportunity to observe director/choreographer Bill Castellino at the York Theatre. nicolecolbertdance.com.

Excerpt from Last Stop: Desire performed at the Mint as part of the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, March 24, 2017- https://vimeo.com/manage/300219147/general

 

 

####

 

Media Contact:
Christine Todd Press Relations
347-446-9395
nicolecolbertdance@gmail.com
https://www.nicolecolbertdance.com/last-stop-desire/