The Night of the Iguana, by Tennessee Williams

• Director: Patrick Konesko

• Scenic Design: Casey Kearns

• Costume Design: Anna Fiorini

• Lighting Design: Sharon Huizinga

• Sound Design: Don Turner & Alyssa Konesko

• Sound Engineer: Don Turner

• Voice, Speech, and Dialect Coach: Lou Anne Wright

• Cultural Advisor: Cecilia Aragón

• Production Stage Manager: Alexandria Soto

• Photography: University of Wyoming Institutional Marketing

Director’s Notes:

From the lush foliage and marimba music to the swinging hammock and fruity drinks, the veranda of the Costa Verde Hotel evokes simpler living, relaxation, and escape. For the characters in The Night of the Iguana, however, this harmony is little more than a mirage. As the radio reports of the London Blitz point to uncertainty and danger at home, the struggles of each character point to a last, desperate attempt to deal with the hope and dread offered by the possibilities of tomorrow.

Through the burden of our careers, possessions, familial obligations, and even our technology, we can all relate to this struggle for the life we think we are “meant” to lead. I suspect that there are few of us who have not, in our most romantic moments, fantasized about simplifying our lives, about trading the trappings of modern existence in favor of a chair by the water, far out of reach of text messages and emails.  

In the face of loneliness and despair brought by these burdens, each character in The Night of the Iguana desperately tries to reach out, to make a real human connection, to be heard. Through poetry, sketching, philosophy, and attempts at physical intimacy, each character tries to achieve this communion. Like the iguana chained beneath the veranda, salvation is not found in individual struggle, but through the compassion of another.