With Unstudied Grace

New Zealand actor Jonno Roberts has the role of Stanley Kowalski in a Seattle production of A Streetcar Named Desire. It may seem a strange quirk, that someone from New Zealand has been given such an iconic American role. But Roberts, nine years into an unexpectedly indefinite stay in the US, graduated from Harvard’s Institute for Advanced Theatre Training, which emphasizes Constantin Stanislavsky’s “method” approach. Roberts feels the burden of playing a role so strongly associated with Marlon Brando’s electric performance in 1947. “It’s like playing Luke Skywalker, a very singular character,” he says. “The job becomes how to do it yourself.” Roberts attended the Moscow Art Theatre, has had a number of Broadway and Off-Broadway appearances, as well as US television roles, including in Law and Order and Jericho.