Blanche survives Katrina in one-man show

As Mark Sam Rosenthal watched the Hurricane Katrina saga from afar in New York, he couldn’t shake an image of the singular Tennessee Williams character, Blanche DuBois. He wondered how she would look standing in line to board a bus or how she would have dealt with the whole disaster. The outcome of those thoughts and images is the one-man show, written and performed by Rosenthal himself, called Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire. It captures the essence of Blanche DuBois and how she would handle being crammed in the Superdome, communicating with FEMA and conversing with other evacuees, all while assuming the role of a classic co-dependent.

The show has won the Village Voice Audience Award and FringeNYC’s Outstanding Solo Show at the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival.

“At the beginning of A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche arrives in New Orleans as kind of a refugee,” Rosenthal says. “This play is bringing Blanche full circle: After Katrina, she’d be a refugee again.” Rosenthal knew it would be too soon to start writing the play in the immediate aftermath of the storm, so he tucked the idea away for about a year. “The first draft I wrote in about a month,” he says. “Then I re-wrote it with my director, Todd Parmley. He helped me shape the story.” Although the rebirth of Blanche DuBois has sparked excitement and success, it also started a legal dispute about whether Tennessee Williams’ character can be replicated. “There hasn’t been a real lawsuit, just letters going back and forth to attorneys,” Rosenthal explains. “I feel official, like I’m a real artist now.” The Baton Rouge native and Episcopal High School graduate left Louisiana to attend Northwestern University in Chicago. After graduation he made his way to New York City, where he’s been for 10 years.

“I really want to do the show in New Orleans. It needs to go there,” he says. “If there’s an opportunity to do it in Baton Rouge, I would. It’s my response to what happened.”

It’s a response that laces humor and satire with truth, all served up whimsically light, thanks to that Blanche DuBois. ?blanchesurviveskatrina.com