Pointe Magazine: Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Feminist Reading of “A Streetcar Named Desire” Comes to Nashville

By Hannah Foster

30 October 2019

In December 1947, Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire rocked audiences with its brutal portrayal of a young southern widow’s tragic life. At the Broadway premiere, the theater fell utterly silent after the curtain closed, before the audience erupted into a 30-minute ovation.

Since its creation, Streetcar has won numerous awards and provided inspiration for a plethora of adaptations. Now, choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa‘s balletic version is making its U.S. company debut at Nashville Ballet November 1–3. As a female choreographer with an interest in telling women’s stories, Ochoa is championing a new era of narrative ballet, and she wants audiences familiar with Williams’ story to see the protagonist’s arc in a new light.

Streetcar was Ochoa’s first full-length work; it premiered at Scottish Ballet in 2012. “I chose this story and I couldn’t understand why no other company had chosen it, but as I was making the piece I understood,” she explains. “The characters are complex and very layered, and the story leans on secrecy and psychology.”

Read the full article in Pointe Magazine.