About the project

Domestic Violence Project
Dramatic Reading of A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams
Directed by Bryan Doerries
The Domestic Violence Project is a public health project that presents scenes from Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire as a catalyst for guided discussions about the impact of domestic violence on individuals, couples, children, caregivers, and communities. This unique participatory event is designed to generate open discussion among audiences to raise awareness, foster compassion, and inspire action with regard to the consequences of domestic violence as experienced by individuals, couples, children, and communities. This project premiered in Portland, Maine in 2013 through a collaboration with the Maine Humanities Council, and has since been presented on university campuses and military installations throughout the country. Under our current Public Artist in Residence initiative, the project has been presented in public high schools, public housing developments, libraries, and community centers in partnership with the Mayor's Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence.
I was struck by the moment when Stella came back to Stanley, and they held each other. It’s so complicated. It’s never black and white.
About the play
-
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
The Domestic Violence Project presents scenes 3 and 4 from Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, depicting the infamous poker night and its aftermath in Williams’ iconic American play: Stanley and the boys are up late playing poker in small apartment where he lives with his wife, Stella. When Stella and her sister Blanche arrive home, a violent altercation ensues, and when the drunken Stanley becomes violent, his friends are forced to pin him down while Stella retreats to a neighbor’s home. Stanley’s breaks down and begs Stella to come back to him, which she does. The next day Blanche confronts Stella over Stanley’s behavior and, much to her surprise, learns that Stella does not wish to leave Stanley.
Highlights

A Streetcar Named Desire: Let’s Talk About Domestic Violence
Bangor Maine / 2013
The Domestic Violence Project was featured on bangordailynews.com

Explore Projects
-
IncarcerationPrometheus in Prison
Prometheus in Prison is an innovative public health project that presents readings of Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, an ancient Greek play about god who is imprisoned for stealing fire and giving it to humans, as a catalyst for powerful discussions about the challenges faced by individuals, families, and communities whose lives have been touched by the criminal justice system. For the past decade years, this groundbreaking project has been used to open up healing dialogue in a variety of settings, including prisons, detention centers, and public venues throughout the country and the world.
-
Racialized Police ViolenceAntigone in Ferguson
Antigone in Ferguson is a groundbreaking project that fuses dramatic readings by acclaimed actors of Sophocles’ Antigone with live choral music performed by a diverse choir, including activists, youth, teachers, police officers, and concerned citizens from St. Louis, Missouri and New York City, culminating in powerful, healing discussions about racialized violence, police brutality, systemic oppression, gender-based violence, health inequality, and social justice. Antigone in Ferguson was conceived in the wake of Michael Brown’s death in 2014, through a collaboration between Theater of War Productions and community members from Ferguson, MO, and premiered at Normandy High School, Michael Brown’s alma mater, in September of 2016.
-
Pandemic & Climate CrisisThe Oedipus Project
The Oedipus Project presents acclaimed actors reading scenes from Sophocles’ Oedipus the King as a catalyst for powerful, constructive, global conversations about the climate crisis, ecological disaster, environmental justice, and healing online conversations about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic upon diverse communities throughout the world. Sophocles’ ancient play, first performed in 429 BC, just after the first wave of a plague that killed nearly one-third of the Athenian population, is a story of arrogant leadership, ignored prophecy, intergenerational curses, and a pestilence and ecological collapse that ravages the archaic city of Thebes. Seen through this lens, Oedipus the King appears to have been a powerful tool for helping Athenians communalize trauma and loss, while interrogating their own complicit role in the suffering, not just of those around them but of generations to come.