COEUR d'ALENE - Blanche DuBois gives the audience every reason to hate her in "A Streetcar Named Desire," says Angela Carlson.

She's high maintenance, a drunkard and manipulative, among her many qualities.

But Carlson, who plays the lead role in the play that opens at 7:30 tonight at the Lake City Playhouse, hopes to have the audience rooting for Blanche before the two-act, two hour and 10 minute production comes to a conclusion.

"I think I just want to make her likable in the end," she said. "I hope she starts off as the villain and toward the end the crowd kind of sees things her way."

Directed by Rebecca McNeil, "A Streetcar Named Desire" features what she calls an exceptional group of people, cast and crew.

"Going into it, I thought this was going to be the most difficult directing experience of my life because the show is so intense, one of the best written American plays ever," she said.

Didn't turn out that way.

"This has been the least stressful experience of my life," McNeil said. "It has been a joy and a dream.

"It's an exceptionally well done performance. I'm very, very critical and I don't say that because I'm involved with the play."

So any big challenges?

"Understanding the text and the script, the characters, the motivation," she said. "Another big challenge is not recreating the movie, but having our own actors with our perspectives and characterization."

Written by Tennessee Williams, Streetcar focuses on the relationship between Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski.

"Experience one of the most intense explorations of social realism," says a press release. "Blanche refuses to accept the hand fate has dealt her. Stanley, grounded in reality, disdains her fabrications and does everything he can to unravel them."

McNeil grew up just a few blocks from the Lake City Playhouse. Her parents, Bob Brown and Judy Hyatt, were actors and directors and involved in numerous productions, so Rebecca and sister Catherine learned early to love drama, musicals and comedy on stage.

"I can't remember a time I wasn't here," said the 1990 Coeur d'Alene High School graduate. "I've been around this theater almost 40 years."

McNeil, a teacher at Kootenai Behavioral health, loves directing and helping her cast to grow.

"My goal with every show is that everybody learn something in the process, that everybody leaves a better actor than when they came in," she said.

"A Streetcar Named Desire" is one of her favorites.

"I like emotional, riveting plays and well-written pieces of literature," she said. "The actors can think and get involved."

Jacob Moore, who plays the role of Stanley Kowalski, did just that.

"I've been told I would make a wonderful Stanley," he said, laughing. "I don't know if that's a compliment or not."

Streetcar, he said, is "one of those plays that's very deep with meaning, substance.

"The more you're around it, the more you understand it," Moore said.

Hannah Paton who plays Stella Kowalski, considers her character a peacekeeper between Stanley and Blanche.

There are different sides to Stella's personality.

"I feel like everybody gets a different Stella because she's always just trying to smooth things over with each character," said Paton, who first saw the play when she was 16.

"I've always loved Tennessee Williams," she said, smiling. "Something to do with the Virginia girl in me."

Bob Brown of Coeur d'Alene has held season tickets at the Lake City Playhouse, and plans to see the show directed by his daughter.

"I've never seen a show that she did when I felt like I had to ask for my money back," he said, chuckling. "She's always produced very, very good shows."

"A Streetcar Named Desire" runs through Nov. 13.