Boy-Girl Romance to Receive Its 21st Century Premiere

U of Ideas of General Interest -- June 2000
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Contact: Melissa Mitchell, Arts Editor, (217) 333-5491; [email protected]

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

'Forgotten' boy-girl romance to receive its 21st century premiere

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- If the "Jeopardy!" category were "Tennessee Williams plays" and contestants had to respond to the answer "title that refers to a building's top level," the obvious correct response would be "What is 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'?"

But, according to University of Illinois theater scholar Allean Hale, there would be a second correct response: "Stairs to the Roof." That play, produced only once, in 1947 at the Pasadena Playhouse, has just been published for the first time as part of a New Directions series featuring unknown early plays by Williams. Hale edited the play and wrote the introduction.

Hale said "Stairs" was Williams' first long comedy and the last of his so-called apprentice plays, in which the playwright "copied an idea here and there" as he struggled to find his own voice.

" 'Stairs to the Roof' is a rare and different Tennessee Williams play; a boy-girl romance with an optimistic ending," Hale wrote in her introduction. Much of the play is set in a shirt factory in St. Louis and chronicles the daily frustrations of white-collar workers who find themselves stuck in dead-end jobs that stifle creativity. Williams' protagonist, Benjamin Murphy, finds release through frequent trips to the washroom, where he writes poetry, and through a romantic affair with a co-worker. He finds his ultimate escape hatch when he discovers an unused staircase that leads to the roof -- and a wide world beyond.

"A play for tomorrow" was the way Williams characterized "Stairs," which features a fantastic, sci-fi-style ending that predates the likes of "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Star Trek" by several decades. More than 50 years after its debut, today's audiences can still identify with Murphy and his colleagues, Hale said. "The play's basic question, whether man can control technology or technology controls man, is certainly a contemporary concern."

Scene designers Lee Boyer, Erin Burns and John Havlik at the UI's Krannert Center for the Performing Arts are preparing for the play's 21st century premiere on Nov. 3. The designers are collaborating with the play's director, UI theater professor Tom Mitchell, on the set design, which is being created entirely on computer. Scenic panels, which incorporate digital images of actual Deco-period buildings near the UI campus, are being created using Photoshop(r) software. And with a virtual model of the set available to him, the director will be able to do such things as block the play on his laptop computer.

Havlik said the design process is a first for Krannert Center, and fairly new ground for the theater world as a whole.

"What's different is that this sort of thing would take hours and hours to paint," Havlik said. "Instead, we will print large panels on a plotter in 45 minutes." In the end, he said, the biggest advantage of going digital is that "it allows more time for concept."

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