He's widely recognized as Alcide from HBO's 'True Blood,' but did you know Joe Manganiello is a classically-trained actor who graduated from Carnegie Mellon? Or that he inhabited the role of Stanley Kowalski from Tennessee Williams' iconic 1947 play "A Streetcar Named Desire," multiple times before landing his gig as a tall, brown-eyed lupine?
"I started in classical theater, that's all I did for years," Manganiello told WNPR's Colin McEnroe. "What's amazing is that this crazy cult show about werewolves and vampires provided me with the opportunity to come to Yale and do this amazing production with these amazing actors."
Manganiello stars in "A Streetcar Named Desire" at the Yale Repertory Theater alongside René Augesen. The production runs from Sept. 20 through Oct. 12 and is directed by Mark Rucker.
"Mark jokingly said on the first day of rehearsal, 'I'm going to put a sign in the lobby that says any shirtlessness in this play was written by Tennessee Williams, not directed by me,'" Manganiello said.
No word on whether Blanche DuBois will be cast as a vampire. We're thinking not. But we were delighted that Manganiello, Augesen, Rucker, and Yale Artistic Director James Bundy were able to take an hour out of their busy rehearsal schedule to speak with Colin McEnroe on Tuesday at The Study in New Haven, Conn. Click through to hear a conversation about Tennessee Williams' groundbreaking play, Marlon Brando's iconic rendition of Stanley Kowalski, and New Haven's reputation as an early incubator for world-renowned theater.
