BLANCHE & STELLA
By A.A. Brenner
Directed by Colm Summers
Columbia University School of the Arts
Lenfest Center for the Arts · New York
May 12–14, 2022
Lincoln Center · May 18, 2022
Queens Theatre · May 20, 2022
Breaking the Binary Theatre · October 14–16, 2023
ABOUT
A.A. Brenner’s Blanche & Stella is a queer, Disabled response to Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire that recenters the relationship between its two women while removing the cis white man from the center of the story. Here, Blanche DuBois and Stella Kowalski are not biological sisters but childhood best friends who call themselves sisters; after a catastrophic breakup, Blanche arrives unexpectedly at Stella’s home in Washington, D.C., and the two must reckon with friendship, disability, desire, dependency and what happens when the people we love are not quite who we believed them to be.
CREATIVE + PRODUCTION TEAM
CAST
COLUMBIA WORKSHOP
Playwright
A.A. Brenner
Director
Colm Summers
Assistant Director
Emma Densen
Stage Manager
Amy Rauchwerger
Producer
Jessica Hirschhorn
Dramaturg
Anisa Rose Threlkeld
Assistant Dramaturg / Producer
Kelleen Moriarty
COLUMBIA WORKSHOP
BLANCHE DUBOIS
McLean Peterson
STELLA KOWALSKI
Carey Blackburn
ARMAN SULTAN
Rakesh Palisetty
GENTLEMAN CALLER
A.A. Brenner
COLUMBIA NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL
Set / Props Designer
Karen Loewy Movilla
Lighting Designer
Betsy Chester
Sound Designer
Liam Bellman-Sharpe
Costume Designer
Karen Boyer
Projection Designer
Caroline Trewet
Intimacy & Fight Coordinator
Leana Gardella
I directed the workshop production of Blanche & Stella as part of the 2022 Columbia University New Plays Festival.
The production was A.A. Brenner’s MFA thesis and played at the Lenfest Center for the Arts on May 12 and May 14, 2022.
The festival placed the work alongside new plays by Jay Stull, Paola Alexandra Soto, Johnny G. Lloyd, Julián Mesri and Zizi Majid.
FROM COLUMBIA TO LINCOLN CENTER + QUEENS THEATRE
The Lenfest workshop became the beginning of a concentrated developmental run across New York.
On May 18, 2022, I directed an excerpt from Blanche & Stella at Lincoln Center as part of a conversation on Disabled artistry featuring A.A. Brenner, Ryan J. Haddad, Ben Raanan and Gregg Mozgala.
The presentation featured:
BLANCHE
McLean Peterson
STELLA
Carey Blackburn.
Two days later, on May 20, Queens Theatre presented a reading as part of its Apothetae x New American Voices Reading Series at the Forward Festival of the Arts.
That reading featured:
BLANCHE DUBOIS
McLean Peterson
STELLA KOWALSKI
Carey Blackburn
ARMAN ASHIQ
Rakesh Palisetty
THE GENTLEMAN CALLER
A.A. Brenner.
BREAKING THE BINARY
The play returned to development with me in October 2023 through Breaking the Binary Theatre’s New Works Program.
Breaking the Binary hosted a three-day workshop from October 14–16, culminating in an invited presentation.
Director
Colm Summers
Dramaturg
Anisa Threlkeld
Stage Manager
Jude Brandt
CAST
McLean Peterson
Rachel Sachnoff
Jamen Nanthakumar
Reed Northrup
The Breaking the Binary workshop represents a genuine continuation of the project rather than a separate one-off reading: I had first directed the play at Columbia and then returned to it more than a year later with a new developmental company.
A.A. BRENNER
A.A. Brenner is a playwright and dramaturg whose work centers queer, Jewish and Disabled lives while challenging conventional theatrical form.
Blanche & Stella was an Honorable Mention for the 2022 Leah Ryan Playwriting Prize and a 2023 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference semifinalist.
The play had previously been named a finalist for the 2021 Columbia@Roundabout New Play Reading Series.
Brenner describes the piece as:
“a modernized, queer, Disabled new play inspired by Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire.”
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
MAY 12–14, 2022
Columbia University New Plays Festival
Lenfest Center for the Arts
Workshop Production
Directed by Colm Summers
MAY 18, 2022
Lincoln Center
Excerpt / Disabled Artistry presentation
Directed by Colm Summers
MAY 20, 2022
Queens Theatre
Forward Festival of the Arts
Apothetae x New American Voices Reading Series
Directed by Colm Summers
2022
Honorable Mention — Leah Ryan Playwriting Prize
2023
Semifinalist — Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference
OCTOBER 14–16, 2023
Breaking the Binary Theatre
New Works Program
Workshop
Directed by Colm Summers.
RECOGNITION
FINALIST
2021 Columbia@Roundabout New Play Reading Series
HONORABLE MENTION
2022 Leah Ryan Playwriting Prize
SEMIFINALIST
2023 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference