"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" Opens in University Theatre April 20

The CSU Dominguez Hills Department of Theatre Arts is pleased to announce its last play of the 2006-07 season. Tennessee Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” will open in the University Theatre on April 20 and continue through April 28. Performances are on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. There also will be a matinee performance at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 29.

The CSUDH production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” is staged by guest director Elizabeth Borrud, who has assembled a multicultural cast of experienced actors, students and members of the community. Leading the lineup in the role of Big Daddy will be CSUDH Professor of Theatre Arts Peter Rodney. Jonathan Stanley, an acting student at Harbor College, plays Brick. Also in the cast are CSUDH students Denise Groce as Big Mama and Stephani Esparza as Maggie, supported by Eric Barnett, Brandy Harris, and Dueal Andrews.

“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” is best remembered by the 1958 film version starring Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor. The plot tells the story of a southern family on the brink of a crisis while gathered to celebrate the 65th birthday of their tycoon patriarch, “Big Daddy.” Favorite son Brick Pollitt is drinking away his pain at having lost his best friend and missing out on a professional football career, while his wife, Maggie, who escaped poverty by marrying into money, finds herself lonely in an unfulfilling marriage. To top it off, Brick's brother, Gooper, and his wife and children have come home to lay claim to the family estate. The drama unfolds as each subplot reveals family secrets and intrigue.

The production is Esparza’s first show at CSUDH. A junior majoring in liberal arts, she hopes to become a middle school drama teacher. While meeting the challenges of playing the unfortunate Maggie, she has discovered the universality of Williams’ story.

“One of the key messages in the play is the importance of communication,” she says. “A lot of the characters talk and talk, yet they find great difficulty in saying what's really bothering them. It’s very difficult to admit your flaws to the ones you love, and I think Williams captures this idea in his writing.”

In his portrayal of Brick, Stanley empathizes with his character’s disgust at the world around him. He underscores the difficulty that the protagonist has with a society that is bent on preserving a way of life whose time has passed.

“Many of the wars that have been fought have been fought over change, because of one man, group or tribe, trying to preserve a way of life that has become extinct,” he says. “In the story, the Pollitts fight over their wealth, and Brick doesn’t care about it at all. Human beings were measured in the South at that time by what they owned, and I connect it to today’s obsession with technology in the name of progress. We’re replacing people with mechanical things and losing touch with what it means to be human, because we’re caught up in this age of technology.”

Stanley notes that despite Brick’s harsh behavior toward others, it is important to show that he is possessed of a deep longing for acceptance.

“In their own way, the family does come to accept him,” he says. “It takes a lot of time and it’s very subtle, but they do, and he sort of makes peace with it at the end of the play, realizing that ultimately, everybody understands you, just not in the way you want them to.

In confronting the task of presenting a story from the deep South with a multicultural cast to a diverse audience, Borrud underscores the efforts made to bypass issues of race in favor of bringing “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” to life.

“I wanted to focus on the issues of the family and not the socioeconomic issues or any issues related to race,” she says. “I decided early on that I was going to cut all of the servants’ parts and any lines that were demeaning or offensive,” she says. “Our production is about love, lies, greed, fathers and sons, husbands and wives, and the elements of life that affect all of us.”

Borrud has directed two shows “Grease” and “Much Ado About Nothing,” at CSUDH, as well as taught several acting and public speaking classes as an adjunct faculty member. She received her undergraduate degree in theatre arts from CSU Long Beach, and her Master of Fine Arts from the University of South Carolina.

“I'm very drawn to the Cal State universities,” Borrud says. “I've been teaching in the system for eight years at various campuses, and I find the students to be very motivated and very hard working. The faculty in the theatre arts department are creative, kind, and very dedicated to the students. I enjoy working with them as a professor and as a director, and they always make me feel very welcome here.”

For further information, contact the theatre arts department at (310) 243-3588, or the box office at (310) 243-3589. Tickets are $12 to the general public, and $10 for students and seniors. Special rates are available for groups of 10 or more. Online ticket purchases may be made by going to www.zaptix.com, and following the link to "California Events."

The University Theatre is located off Tamcliff Avenue and East Victoria Street on the CSU Dominguez Hills campus. The campus is located off Avalon Boulevard between the 91 and 405 freeways, east of the 110 Freeway from 190th Street, which becomes East Victoria Street. Parking permits are $3 and are available from the yellow dispensing machines at the perimeters of the parking lots.

- Joanie Harmon-Whetmore

Photos above: Brick (Jonathan Stanley) and Maggie (Stephani Esparza) hash out their differences in a scene from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

Big Daddy (Peter Rodney) addresses his assembled family in Tennessee Williams's drama.