1. CW The Opening of the play Sunday, 13 January 2019
Learning Outcomes
To be able to evaluate the connotations and literary significance of the stage directions in the opening scene

2. And so it was I entered the broken world
In literature, an epigraph is a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at the beginning of a document or component. The epigraph may serve as a preface, as a summary, as a counter-example, or to link the work to a wider literary canon, either to invite comparison or to enlist a conventional context.
And so it was I entered the broken world
To trace the visionary company of love, its voice
An instant in the wind (I know not whither hurled)
But not for long to hold each desperate choice
"The Broken Tower" by Hart Crane
Tennessee Williams Interviewed on Hart Crane
The epigraph certainly keys into themes and ideas that are present within the play that follows.
What ideas and / or themes can you identify?

3. A Streetcar Named Desire
Why do people name things like transport? What is the naming process indicative of?
Why ‘A’ not ‘The’?
A Streetcar Named Desire
What differentiates a ‘streetcar’ from other types of transport?
What kind of a feeling is desire?

4. The Role of Stage Directions
Why are stage directions important?
To whom are they important?
Who reads stage directions?
Should they be written in a particular style?

5. Exploring the Opening Stage Direction
Select a part from each slide containing the opening stage direction that particularly engages your interest. Share quotations with your partner, challenging them to explain their view on the significance of the quotation. Discuss and annotate slides with class observations.

9. “As far as the actual physical set-up on the stage, it’s important that we can see the upstairs, the downstairs, the interior, and the exterior. The play’s action takes spectacular advantage of the flexibility this offers.”
In what possible ways might the staging mentioned above affect an audience member’s understanding of the action?

10. A critic’s view…
“Williams’ stage directions have an almost poetic quality that implies they have been designed to do more than just instruct actors.” To what extent do you agree with this view.

11. Let’s read our introduction to these two key characters
Let’s read our introduction to these two key characters. How does Williams give us clues as to which version of Southern life is embodied by these two characters?
STANLEY KOWALSKI
BLANCHE DUBOIS

12. Key descriptors from Stanley’s introduction.
Key descriptors from Blanche’s introduction.
“roughly dressed”
“blue denim work clothes”
“bowling jacket”
“red-stained package from a butcher’s”
“bellowing”
“heaves”
“valise”
“shocked disbelief”
“incongruous”
“daintily dressed”
“White”
“fluffy bodice”
“pearl”
“delicate beauty must avoid a strong light”
“that suggests a moth”
“as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party”