TRIBUTE READING: TENNESSEE WILLIAMS IN ONE ACT—THE BEST 50 YEARS OF HIS SHORT PLAYS

“The peak of my virtuosity was in the one-act plays. Some of which are like firecrackers in a rope,” Williams wrote to director Elia Kazan in 1950. One-act plays were ever present in Tennessee Williams’s creative life. His first one-act won a prize at the University of Missouri when he was a freshman in 1930. His final one-act (considered to be his last play) is dated January 1983, a month before his death. He never stopped writing one-acts, and there are currently over 75 by Williams in print today. This year our tribute will take a look at short Williams plays from every decade—1930s through 1980s. To his college friends, he referred to his short plays as “fantasies.” Many of them are funny and take place in fairy, sci-fi, or otherwise mythic locations, including The Gnädiges Fräulein, The Case of the Crushed Petunias, The Chalky White Substance, Ten Blocks on The Camino Real and A Recluse and His Guest. Others share the poetry and grit of his most famous dramas, such as 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, Mister Paradise, I Can’t Imagine Tomorrow, and Green Eyes. You’ll hear excerpts from the familiar, as well as some hidden gems. The event is curated by Festival Director Paul J. Willis and Williams editor Thomas Keith (who also hosts).

Readers this year will include Festival luminaries Maureen Corrigan, Michael Cunningham, Jewelle Gomez,  Joan Larkin, Tim Murray, John “Ray” Proctor, and Mink Stole.

The annual Tribute Reading is presented by a grant from the New Orleans Theatre Association (NOTA).

Hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar at 6:30 PM; Performance at 7:30 PM.