The Resident Ensemble Players continues its 2009-2010 season with Tennessee Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

A sexually charged tale of desperate hopes and unspeakable fears, Williams's masterpiece follows the gathering Pollitt family as they convene in a hot and humid Mississippi Delta plantation house to celebrate Big Daddy's 65th birthday. Southern seductress Maggie “the Cat” tangles with her husband's lack of desire and her in-laws lack of decorum as they all confront ghosts from the past and the uncertainty of the future, while plotting to secure their portion of the family fortune.

Performances have been running since Thursday, Oct. 15, and will continue through Sunday, Nov. 1, at the Thompson Theatre in the Roselle Center for the Arts.

Tickets are $16 - $22, with discounts for students, seniors and University of Delaware faculty and staff. Tickets can be purchased by calling the REP box office at (302) 831-2204, in person at the Roselle Center for the Arts, 110 Orchard Rd., Newark, or online.

Guest artist Adrian Hall, renowned for his innovative and influential work throughout the country, directs the production. Considered one of the founders of the regional theater movement, Hall founded the Tony Award-winning Trinity Repertory Company in 1963. Hall directed the REP's critically acclaimed production Of Mice and Men last season.

Hall said he is excited to again be working on a Williams masterpiece. He and Williams were friends and colleagues, collaborating several times. “I met Tennessee in New York in the late '50s and invited him to an Equity showcase I was directing of his Orpheus Descending,” Hall said. “The showcase came and went and to the great sorrow of the entire cast, Mr. Williams did not appear. A cast member, Diane Ladd, claimed family connections and declared that if we performed the play especially for him and served gin and pink lemonade during the performance, she would guarantee his appearance. Tennessee did indeed attend and afterwards declared, with only slightly slurred speech, that the rights were ours for an off-Broadway production. We became great friends after that.”

New REP member Elizabeth Heflin plays “Maggie” the Cat in the production. A resident company member at The Alley Theatre in Houston for 12 years, she has performed on Broadway and in theatres across the country, such as the Old Globe Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville and Dallas Theatre Center.

The REP, established in 2008, is the professional component of UD's Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP), the nationally acclaimed graduate conservatory. Featuring some of America's most experienced and respected stage actors and actresses, the REP and the theatre conservatory are similar to interconnected professional companies and training programs found at Harvard and Yale universities, among many others.

The performance schedule for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is as follows:
-- Oct. 22, 23, 24, 30 at 7:30 p.m.;
-- Oct. 24, 25, 31 and Nov. 1 at 2 p.m.

Prior to the 2 p.m. performance on Oct. 24 is the REP Prologue, a free and informal 20-minute presentation about the production, designed to enhance patrons' enjoyment and understanding of what they are about to experience.

Six- and four-show subscriptions for the REP's 2009-2010 season are still available. Subscribers enjoy significant savings on tickets, the best choice of seats and a liberal ticket exchange policy. A complete schedule, directions, and information on purchasing tickets can be found at the REP's Web site or by calling the REP's box office at (302) 831-2204.