1. A Streetcar Named Desire
Plastic Theatre
A Streetcar Named Desire

2. What is Plastic Theatre?
In the early 1940s, when Tennessee Williams was working on his first successful play, The Glass Mengerie, he developed an idea he termed ‘plastic theatre, an idea that he believed would launch a new type of theatre, that would move away from what he dismissed as ‘typewriter theatre’ by affording equal value to the non-literary elements of stage production and to the literary text. 
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3. Rationale
To express his universal truths Williams insisted that setting, properties, music, sound, and visual effects—all the elements of staging—must combine to reflect and enhance the action, theme, characters, and language.

4. Realism?
Williams desired a form of drama that was more than just a picture of reality: he insists that his ideal theatre make use of all the stage arts to generate a theatrical experience greater than mere Realism.

5. Importance of Non-Literary Elements
The visual and audible aspects of a Streetcar Named Desire are as important as the dialogue. Tennessee Williams uses these ‘plastic’ elements to convey to the audience the psychological states of the characters as well as develop the themes and ideas of the play

6. Elements of Plastic Theatre:
His vivid and evocative stage directions that help the dramatist envision the scene.
Symbolism
Lighting
Colours
Costumes
Props
Sound Effects-Digetic and Non Digetic

7. Imagine….
You are a playwright. You are writing the final act of “A Streetcar Name A Level”…..hopefully not a tragedy!?...definitely a melodrama!?
Act 3, Scene 2: “ The Exam Room”
What elements of plastic theatre would you add to convey the psychological states of the characters?

8. Close Analysis
How, and to what effect, does Williams use elements of ‘plastic theatre’ in the following scenes?
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 6
Scene 10