Festival Events

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A TRUMAN CAPOTE READING AND DISCUSSION
A TRUMAN CAPOTE READING AND DISCUSSION

Celebrating the 100th year of Southern writer Truman Capote’s birth with readings, discussion, and stories are moderator and Capote scholar, Stuart Noel, Ph.D., who founded and chairs the Truman Capote Literary Society; Brenda Currin, who portrayed Nancy Clutter in Capote’s In Cold Blood; Anna Christina Radziwill, daughter of the late Prince Stanislas Radziwill of Poland and Lee Bouvier Radziwill, sister of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. Tina’s mother and Truman Capote were close friends for many years; and Gary Richards, Southern literature scholar.

 

$10.00
BOOKS AND BEIGNETS WITH GARY RICHARDS
BOOKS AND BEIGNETS WITH GARY RICHARDS

This year’s focus: Eudora Welty’s short stories.

$35.00
CREATING THE WRITER’S CITY
CREATING THE WRITER’S CITY

In a discussion sparked by T.R. Johnson’s New Orleans: The Writer’s City, scholar T.R. Johnson shares his particular vision of a complicated literary landscape. Novelist Maurice Carlos Ruffin has envisioned a New Orleans of the future in his first book, a contemporary city in his second, and in his third, The American Daughters, he paints an unforgettable portrait of the antebellum world here. Moira Crone’s vision of the drowned city in The Not-Yet is so persuasive that architecture students have been inspired to create models of it. And poet Skye Jackson, who studied at UNO, is a leading light of the new generation of writers. Novelist George Bishop moderates.

 

 

$10.00
DEFINING CHARACTER: THREE UNORTHODOX BIOGRAPHIES
DEFINING CHARACTER: THREE UNORTHODOX BIOGRAPHIES

How does a biographer present the facts of a life and also capture the atmosphere, the impact on culture, and perhaps even some of the magic left behind by their subject? Three writers present a trio of expertly researched life stories that transcend typical biography. In Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring, author Brad Gooch chronicles the emblematic artist of 80s-era New York whose renegade art inspired radical social change. Cynthia Carr profiles Warhol superstar and transgender icon Candy Darling in a new groundbreaking biography. Nancy Schoenberger gives one of Tennessee Williams’ most complex creations, Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire, a thorough psychological examination in a multifaceted study of the fictional figure. Moderated by David Johnson.

 

 

 

$10.00
Drummer & Smoke Session 1:  JOHN BOUTTÉ
Drummer & Smoke Session 1:  JOHN BOUTTÉ

JOHN BOUTTÉ

On Sundays as the red beans were soaking for Monday’s dinner, John Boutté was awakened by the sounds of his New Orleans neighborhood. Voices carried over the fence from the church behind his home in the Seventh Ward, the home where he grew up, where most of his Creole family still lives and sings. Past the front yard, second-line parades rolled by, matching the madness of Carnival season and the transcendent joy of the jazz funeral. This roux of influences created John Boutté, and serves him to this day. John played coronet and trumpet in marching bands and also sang in high school, then continued to hone his talent while an officer in the U.S. Army. After that he devoted himself to what has become a long and acclaimed musical career.

John will be joined by Oscar Rossignoli and Nobumasa Ozaki on bass.

 

 

 

 

 

$10.00
Drummer & Smoke Session 2: AMANDA SHAW
Drummer & Smoke Session 2: AMANDA SHAW

AMANDA SHAW

Energetic Louisiana fiddler Amanda Shaw blazes trails with her clever songwriting and exciting performances. With over 20 years of experience, Shaw captivates audiences of all sizes – from intimate listening rooms to national television audiences. Shaw blends authentic Cajun culture with endearing local charm, delivering shows that burst with Louisiana flavor. 

 

 

 

 

$10.00
Drummer & Smoke Session 3: DOYLE COOPER JAZZ BAND
Drummer & Smoke Session 3: DOYLE COOPER JAZZ BAND

DOYLE COOPER JAZZ BAND

Raised in a musical family, it was always a matter of what Doyle Cooper would play, not if he would play, and he began playing trumpet at the age of 10. He was immersed in Traditional Jazz since his grandfather and mother both performed for years. From New Orleans, Doyle is dedicated to traditional jazz that has shaped the culture of his hometown. Doyle, or “Red” as he is known by most, has studied and performed with many world renowned Jazz musicians. Doyle graduated from the Jazz Studies program at NOCCA and Loyola University. He was awarded the Grand Prize in the “Seeking Satch” competition. 

 

 

 

 

$10.00
EXPLORING BLANCHE DUBOIS AND THE WOMEN OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
EXPLORING BLANCHE DUBOIS AND THE WOMEN OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

This panel will explore contemporary Williams and discuss interpretations of his most inspired creation, Blanche DuBois and his adjacent women. A panel of writers and performers will discuss the significance and complexities of his female characters and the female gaze on Williams’ work. The panel will be moderated by Jaclyn Bethany, writer, director, actor and rising Williams scholar, and will include panelists Beth Bartley d’Amour, who has played Blanche as well as numerous Williams women; Lin Gathright, actress and co-artistic director (with Bethany) of New Orleans’ new female focused theater company, The Fire Weeds; LaKesha Glover, actor, producer, and creator of the production company, Tootsie’s Production; Nancy Shoenberger, author of Blanche: The Life and Times of Tennessee Williams’s Greatest Creation; and Judy Lea Steele, interdisciplinary actress, playwright, poet and performance artist.

 

$10.00
FEATURED CONVERSATION—MAUREEN CORRIGAN, MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM, AND JUSTIN TORRES
FEATURED CONVERSATION—MAUREEN CORRIGAN, MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM, AND JUSTIN TORRES

Join us for a scintillating literary conversation!

$10.00
FEATURED CONVERSATION—SEEING OUR HISTORY ON THE PAGE
FEATURED CONVERSATION—SEEING OUR HISTORY ON THE PAGE

Historian, author and journalist Errol Laborde, whose most recent book is When Rex Met Zulu and Other New Orleans Experiences, and John H. Lawrence, former director of Museum Programs and Curator of Photographs at the Historic New Orleans Collection, engage in a wide-ranging discussion based on John’s book, Louisiana Lens: Photographs from the Historic New Orleans Collection (2023), touching on historical topics, the nature of photography, building a photographic collection for research use, photographers working in Louisiana, and “reading” photographs in ways that transcend their content.

 

 

 

$10.00
FEATURED CONVERSATION: MAUREEN CORRIGAN AND COLM TOIBIN
FEATURED CONVERSATION: MAUREEN CORRIGAN AND COLM TOIBIN

Maureen Corrigan, the beloved and influential book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air and author of Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading and And So We Read On: How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures, appears in conversation with the prolific and award-winning author, Colm Tóibín, known for The Master, The Magician, The Blackwater Lightship, Brooklyn, Nora Webster, and many other novels and works of nonfiction. Imagine two Irish storytellers, sharing a Catholic background and a love of New York and fine literature, settling in for a long chat.

$10.00
FILM:  LITERARY NEW ORLEANS
FILM: LITERARY NEW ORLEANS

The city of New Orleans has served as a setting for many of the world’s most famous literary works, including A Streetcar Named Desire, Interview with the Vampire and A Confederacy of Dunces. This documentary  takes an up-close look at the locally written word over a more than three-century history. Included are interviews with Anne Rice, Tennessee Williams and Thelma Toole, the mother of John Kennedy Toole. Among the authors and literary experts interviewed are Edwin Blair, Douglas Brinkley, Nancy Dixon, Rien Fertel, Dr. Kenneth Holditch, Walter Isaacson, Susan Larson, T. R. Johnson, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Dr. Mona Lisa Saloy and Kalamu Ya Salaam. Produced and narrated by Peggy Scott Laborde, who will be on hand for a brief discussion following the showing of the program.

 

 

 

 

 

$10.00
FRENCH QUARTER GHOSTS AND LEGENDS TOUR
FRENCH QUARTER GHOSTS AND LEGENDS TOUR

Join acclaimed local author and storyteller Ariadne Blayde for an immersive twilight walk exploring the dark local history and lore of the historic French Quarter, considered one of the most haunted districts in America. Learn about true crime, yellow fever, pirates, ghosts, and the city’s fascinating colonial history through visits to the Quarter’s most haunted places, including the infamous LaLaurie Mansion, the historic Mississippi riverfront, New Orleans’ oldest and most haunted bar, and more. Feel free to bring a drink!

 

$30.00
FROM THE WRITING ROOM TO THE THEATER: ADAPTING BOOK TO SCREEN
FROM THE WRITING ROOM TO THE THEATER: ADAPTING BOOK TO SCREEN

What’s it like to see your book make it to the screen as a film or television series? How do writers navigate the world of film? Our panelists include Sascha Rothschild, author of Blood Sugar and an Emmy-nominated screenwriter who has worked on GLOW, The Bold Type, The BabySitters Club, and The Carrie Diaries. She also adapted her article “How to Get Divorced by 30,” into a screenplay for Universal Studios. You can see Sidney Thompson’s Bass Reeves Trilogy of western novels as a series now airing on Paramount. Justin Torres’ award-winning debut novel, We the Animals, became a feature-length film. M.O. Walsh’s charming The Big Door Prize, became a mini-series for Apple TV, heading into its second season this April. Clint Bowie of the New Orleans Film Society moderates the discussion.

 

$10.00
GREAT STORIES FROM NEW ORLEANS INSTITUTIONS
GREAT STORIES FROM NEW ORLEANS INSTITUTIONS

Every city with a long history has stewards who care for its treasures, whether they be institutions or ideas. In The Building of the National World War II Museum, founder and president Gordon “Nick” Mueller describes the inception and growth of what has become the city’s leading museum. Robert Becker, in New Orleans City Park: From Tragedy to Triumph, chronicles his 20-year tenure as CEO of City Park and the hard work of staff and volunteers to bring the park through Katrina and COVID and insure its financial security. Journalist and historian Errol Laborde celebrates unique New Orleans moments in New Orleans cultural history in When Rex Met Zulu. Documentarian Peggy Scott Laborde, whose most recent work is Literary New Orleans, moderates.

 

$10.00
HISTORIC STORYVILLE WALKING TOUR
HISTORIC STORYVILLE WALKING TOUR

Join Dianne “Gumbo Marie” Honoré on this unique, intriguing walk through parts of what was once the most notorious red-light district in the country, Storyville. Hear stories of cribs, chippies, the Tango Belt, and the last madam, along with the mayhem each night brought forth. Louis Armstrong referred to his childhood neighborhood of Black Storyville as the “worst” area in the city during Jim Crow-era New Orleans. It was also home to the beginnings of jazz, popular music joints, second lines, the birth of the baby dolls Mardi Gras tradition, and Jelly Roll Morton’s other profession. 

$30.00
HISTORY IS MY MUSE: FINDING PRESENT INSPIRATION IN THE PAST
HISTORY IS MY MUSE: FINDING PRESENT INSPIRATION IN THE PAST

History is a gold mine for the discerning writer, prospecting for nuggets from the distant—or recent—past in archives and the historical record. Fordham University professor Edward Cahill takes us back to the pre-Stonewall era in Disorderly Men, a story of a police raid on a gay bar and its complicated consequences. Julia Malye tells a tale of resourceful women, “volunteers” shipped from France to the Louisiana Territory, in Pelican Girls. Louisiana State University professor and author Maurice Carlos Ruffin imagines what his female ancestors would have done to resist the Confederacy in the antebellum era in The American Daughters. Wendy Chin-Tanner draws on her father’s experience as a patient in what was then known as the leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana, for her first novel, King of the Armadillos. And Colm Toíbín has crafted many novels—Brooklyn and the forthcoming Long Island among them—from the rich history of Ireland and New York. Miles Harvey, author of The King of Confidence moderates.

 

 

 

 

$10.00
LEGENDS OF BURLESQUE
LEGENDS OF BURLESQUE

Over the last century, vaudeville’s naughtier cousin, burlesque, has become a truly American art form, full of irreverence and dynamism. Though considered a sultry and bawdy form of entertainment, by the 1950s it was practically mainstream, especially in New Orleans with its main entertainment strip lined with nightclubs featuring both national and local dancers. Through memoirs and interviews, Historic New Orleans Collection curator Nina Bozak remembers some of these dancers in their own words from memoirs and interviews and through images of their signature acts. Hear about Blaze Starr’s first time on stage as a stripper, the lesson Kalantan learned from Lili St. Cyr, and the connection between Rita Alexander and New Orleans legendary drummer Smokey Johnson. See a photographic series of Stormy Lawrence’s signature number and watch Sally Rand’s famous Bubble Dance. And be titillated by a special performance by one of New Orleans’s current burlesque legends, Bella Blue!
This event is sponsored by The Ethel and Herman L. Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

$10.00
LGBTQ+ FRENCH QUARTER TOUR
LGBTQ+ FRENCH QUARTER TOUR

This leisurely stroll through the French Quarter focuses on New Orleans’ enchanting past with an emphasis on the neighborhood’s queer history and its rich literary heritage. See where writers lived and wrote, and learn about the incredible contributions lesbians and gay men have made to the city over its 300-year old history. Other highlights include Jackson Square, Free People of Color, the French Market, the birth of jazz, Voodoo, and a wide diversity of architecture. The tour is guided by long-time French Quarter resident Frank Perez, a local historian and professional tour guide who has written four books about French Quarter history.

$30.00
MAKING AN ENTRANCE: NEW FICTION VOICES WITH STYLE
MAKING AN ENTRANCE: NEW FICTION VOICES WITH STYLE

Readers love finding a new writer who has a fresh and exciting style or captivating point of view, and we’re excited to welcome these new voices in fiction. Novelist and poet Chin-Sun Lee’s first book, Upcountry, about a couple who moves from New York City to a small country town, with all the social change that that implies, was listed among Publishers Weekly‘s Big Indie Books of Fall 2023. Annell Lopez‘s debut short story collection, I’ll Give You a Reason, about the lives of immigrants in New Jersey, is the winner of the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize from the Feminist Press Award, and will appear in April. Jess Armstrong is the author of The Curse of Penryth Hall, the winner of the Mystery Writers of America/ Minotaur First Crime Novel Competition. Julia Malye takes readers back to the French colonial Gulf Coast in The Pelican Girls, a novel about strong women based in historical reality. Nick Medina, a member of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, weaves tribal myths into the contemporary world of crime and casinos in Sisters of the Lost Nation and Indian Burial Ground. Moderated by New Orleans writer, C. Morgan Babst, author of The Floating World.

 

 

 

$10.00
MENDACITY: ACT 2 OF CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
MENDACITY: ACT 2 OF CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF

Three-time Emmy winner Christian Jules le Blanc (The Young and the Restless) and actor/producer Matt de Rogatis, of Ruth Stage, reprise their critically acclaimed Off Broadway roles of “Big Daddy” and “Brick” in this one of a kind experience! le Blanc and de Rogatis will perform an edited version of Act 2 of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof from their 2022 New York City production. Afterwards, the two actors will participate in a talkback about bringing this Pulitzer Prize-winning play to the Off Broadway stage. Afterwards, David Kaplan, curator/cofounder of the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, will moderate a talkback with the actors. 
“There is only one aristocracy. The aristocracy of passion.” —Tennessee Williams

$20.00
NEW VISTAS, GRAND OUTLOOKS: RENDERING THE LANDSCAPE IN POETRY
NEW VISTAS, GRAND OUTLOOKS: RENDERING THE LANDSCAPE IN POETRY

This panel will feature poets Carolyn Hembree, Rodney Jones, Christine Kwon, Alison Pelegrin and Gina Ferrara (moderator) discussing ways that landscapes inform their work and sharing poems from their latest collections.

$10.00
OPENING NIGHT: TENNESSEE RISING
OPENING NIGHT: TENNESSEE RISING

A solo play written and performed by Jacob Storms.

$40.00
OTHERWORLDLY FICTION
OTHERWORLDLY FICTION

The skill of world building is essential to fine fiction, inviting the reader to enter the author’s fully created world. Ariadne Blayde enters into the world of French Quarter ghost tours to give us a New Orleans we’ve only glimpsed before. Tara Lynn Masih takes us to the boundaries of nature and place, known for her skill in flash fiction, and Nick Medina explores the intersection of indigenous crime fiction/horror and the tensions between the life of reservation community and the burgeoning casino culture. David Slayton writes the sorts of books he always hoped to read, fantasies of warlocks and druids. All of these writers are skilled in the uses of imagination and atmosphere. Moderated by author Adrian Van Young.

 

$10.00
PARABLES OF A WORLD CORRUPTED—POLITICS IN THE PLAYS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
PARABLES OF A WORLD CORRUPTED—POLITICS IN THE PLAYS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

In a 1967 interview, when Tennessee Williams was asked if he ever wrote directly about the struggle for civil rights or about the American war in Viet Nam, he replied, “I am not a direct writer, I am always an oblique writer, if I can be; I want to be allusive, I don’t want to be one of those people who hits the nail on the head all the time.” The playwright’s answer reinforced a longstanding idea that Williams was not a political writer when, in fact, politics are woven into the fabric of everything he wrote—often quite directly! This panel will examine some of Williams’ politics both onstage and off, looking at the most overt examples of politics in plays such as Camino Real, Sweet Bird of Youth, Orpheus Descending, and The Red Devil Battery Sign, as well as the powerful ways in which politics surround and support narratives in his other plays. At times the indirect approach can be an even more potent way to reach an audience and is found in plays as divergent as The Glass Menagerie, Stairs to the Roof, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Green Eyes. The panelists will include Thomas Keith, Tom Mitchell, and Bess Rowen. Benjamin Gillespie will moderate. 

 

 

$10.00
TENNESSEE 101 WITH AUGUSTIN J CORRERO
TENNESSEE 101 WITH AUGUSTIN J CORRERO

Tennessee 101 is a fast-paced, fun, and informative introduction to Tennessee Williams! It’s focused on Williams’ unique relationship to New Orleans, as well as the various bits of trivia and lore relating to the theatre offerings at the Festival this year. Whether you’re new to the world of Williams or a long-time fan, come prepared to learn something. Presented by Augustin J Correro, Co-Artistic Director of The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans. There’s a Q&A session at the end, and be sure to get your copy of Tennessee Williams 101 for a brief signing to follow.

 

$10.00
TENNESSEE RISING: THE DAWN OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
TENNESSEE RISING: THE DAWN OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

Tennessee Rising: The Dawn of Tennessee Williams, a solo play written and performed by Jacob Storms and originally directed for the stage by Alan Cumming, explores the formative period from 1939 – 1945 in which an unknown writer named Tom becomes the acclaimed playwright known as Tennessee, wherein his most iconic character emerges: himself. 

Includes a talkback with Jacob Storms moderated by Augustin J Correro.

$20.00$35.00
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS LITERARY WALKING TOUR
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS LITERARY WALKING TOUR

New Orleans, and especially the French Quarter, played a vital role in shaping Tennessee Williams. When he came here for the first time, he was Tom Williams. When he left here a couple of months later, he was known as Tennessee, having undergone a tremendous change in his personal life and his creativity. A man perpetually on the move, Tennessee considered this city his “spiritual home” and had at least eight residences in its famous neighborhoods. Visit the homes and hangouts where he lived, worked, and returned to throughout his adult life, beloved spots that helped to make Tennessee America’s greatest playwright. 

$30.00
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARS CONFERENCE - SESSION 1
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARS CONFERENCE - SESSION 1

9:00 – 9:05 AM
Welcome: Margit Longbrake, The Historic New Orleans Collection

9:05 – 9:15 AM
Opening remarks: Bess Rowen, Villanova University
 

9:15 – 10:30 AM
The Archive, the Motel, and the Con Man: Queering in and with Williams
Scholars track queerness in Williams’s work as it destabilizes ideas, traditions, and places many in the US take for granted: the literary canon, the archive, and even public spaces look different when viewed through the lens of Williams plays.
Moderator: Bess Rowen, Villanova University; Kelly I. Aliano, New-York Historical Society; Stephen Cedars, Graduate Center, City University of New York; Benjamin Gillespie, Baruch College, City University of New York

$10.00
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARS CONFERENCE - SESSION 2
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARS CONFERENCE - SESSION 2

Getting the Male: Learning to Read the Semiotics of Men in Williams

Silent, scene-stealing studs? Violent villains in—and victims of—an oppressive society? Radical rewriters of the male-female binary? All of the above? Scholars and directors from the US and Germany look at the challenges Williams’s men characters pose to actors, directors, audiences, and rigid societal structures in the 21st century and ask why it matters.

Moderator: John “Ray” Proctor, Tulane University; Caroline Bühler, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich; David Kaplan, Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival; Bess Rowen, Villanova University

$10.00
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARS CONFERENCE - SESSION 3
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARS CONFERENCE - SESSION 3

Williams and the Postwar Broadway and Beyond

R. Barton Palmer, editor-in-chief of the Tennessee Williams Annual Review, engages a quartet of the field’s most distinguished scholars in a lively, thought-provoking discussion of Williams and the postwar Broadway renaissance—and of the surprising legacies of his boldly transgressive work and public persona.

Moderator: R. Barton Palmer, Clemson University (emeritus); Mark Charney, Texas Tech University; Brenda Murphy, University of Connecticut (emerita); Annette J. Saddik, Graduate Center, City University of New York; Henry I. Schvey, Washington University, St. Louis

$10.00
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARS CONFERENCE - SESSION 4
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARS CONFERENCE - SESSION 4

An Outrage for the Stage: Williams Productions in the 21st Century

Perspectives of the scholar, the playwright, the director, and the performer meet in a kaleidoscopic panel that looks at contemporary stagings of works by and about Williams on two continents. Productions discussed incorporate autoethnography, aesthetics of speed and trash, McCarthyism, 20th-century blues artists . . . and even have the audacity to present Williams’s work as social realism.

Moderator: Annette J. Saddik, Graduate Center, City University of New York; John Michael DiResta, Skidmore College; Levi Frazier, Jr., Southwest Tennessee Community College; Joshua Polster, Emerson College; Kerstin Schmidt, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich

$10.00
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARS CONFERENCE - SESSION 5: Staged Reading of Entrances to Heaven
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARS CONFERENCE - SESSION 5: Staged Reading of Entrances to Heaven

A Staged Reading of Entrances to Heaven

Theater director, actor, and educator Nisi Sturgis and her University of Illinois theater company present a six-person staged reading of Entrances to Heaven, a version of an early, never-produced Williams play born of the playwright’s fascination with the 20th-century troubadour poet Vachel Lindsay. Written less than a decade after Lindsay’s tragic suicide, the play features a young couple whose knife-throwing act is suffering. On a train they meet the ghost of Lindsay, traveling back to his childhood home in Illinois. Lindsay declaims his verse and recounts the difficulties of his later years, inviting audiences to connect him with the wandering poet Val Xavier from Orpheus Descending and other Williams characters forever struggling in a world without a place for them.

Tennessee Williams scholar and professor emeritus Tom Mitchell introduces the piece and offers insights about its history and evolution. 

$10.00
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARS CONFERENCE PASS
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARS CONFERENCE PASS

Admits you to all 5 sessions of the annual Tennessee Williams Scholars Conference. This is the best deal if these are the only events you are attending.

You can also purchase these individually for $10 each.

They are also included in the:

  • VIP Pass
  • LitPass – full weekend
  • LitPass – Friday day pass

 

$30.00
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS TRIBUTE READING
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS TRIBUTE READING

A look at the erotic side of Tennessee Williams.

$45.00
THE LAST BOHEMIA SOIREE, INCLUDING A PERFORMANCE OF NIGHTINGALE 
THE LAST BOHEMIA SOIREE, INCLUDING A PERFORMANCE OF NIGHTINGALE 

8:30 PM Doors |  10 PM Show

A magical evening of music and performance hosted by Tony award winner John Cameron Mitchell in the ballroom of his splendid Bywater home, known as The Temple. Rub elbows with fellow festival goers and a who’s who of NOLA creatives set to a concert by San Francisco sarod master Kenny Annis. Then enjoy a seated performance of VinsantosNightingale followed by a talkback moderated by John Cameron Mitchell.  

Nightingale is a hauntingly nostalgic semi-biographical concept musical that revolves around the blurred  life of Vinsantos, a multi-talented and enigmatic real life performer and Tennessee Williams’ Nightingale the callow youth turned callous tubercular painter. Set in an eclectic Bohemian and Art Nouveau backdrop, the audience follows Vinsantos on a journey of self-discovery, exploring the challenges and triumphs of a unique and unconventional career in the arts. As the titular character, Vinsantos brings a distinctive flair to the show, blending elements of drama, comedy, and the surreal. The narrative delves into the complexities of identity, artistic expression, and the pursuit of failed dreams, offering viewers a front-row seat to the captivating world of Nightingale.

The humour noir is complemented by a rich and diverse score that propels the satirical and grotesque themes throughout the show. The compelling storytelling not only morphs Vinsantos and Nightingale into a twin flame but also bedims the fourth wall of the theater. Nightingale is an imperative theatrical spectacle for those seeking a fresh and original take on the mutilated characters of Tennessee Williams, anchored by the charismatic presence of Vinsantos. Get ready to be transported into a realm where creativity knows no bounds, and the night comes alive (or faces death) with the mesmerizing performance of Nightingale.

$40.00$70.00
THE NOLA PROJECT PRESENTS TENNESSEE X THREE
THE NOLA PROJECT PRESENTS TENNESSEE X THREE

A Staged Reading of Three Tennessee Williams One-Acts
Auto Da Fé
This 1941 short play tells the story of a sexually repressed Eloi, a young postal worker in early 20th-century New Orleans. Eloi lives with his overbearing mother in her boarding house. He is confronted with the depravity and sin of New Orleans. This frustration ends in an attack on a female boarder in the cottage and the eventual burning of the cottage, his mother, and the female boarder.
In Our Profession
Annabel, an actress, wants to be looked at as more than just her looks and her profession, but the gentlemen pursuing her, Richard and Paul, don’t seem to want to let her.
Every Twenty Minutes
After a late party, an unnamed couple is relaxing in their upscale city apartment by sniping at each other, still dressed in black ties. He’s arguably more committed to the decanter and glass at his side than he is to anything his wife says. This is especially true when she shares a shocking statistic she just read in the paper. Though he is unimpressed by the news, her outlook on life is completely altered.

$20.00
THE OTHER SIDE OF DESIRE:  TENNESSEE WILLIAMS ON LIFE, LOVE, AND DEATH
THE OTHER SIDE OF DESIRE:  TENNESSEE WILLIAMS ON LIFE, LOVE, AND DEATH

When Blanche DuBois arrives in the French Quarter of New Orleans in the first scene of A Streetcar Named Desire, she tells Eunice, “They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at—Elysian Fields!” So, from the very beginning of the play, we are reminded that death and desire have a symbiotic relationship. Whether dramas, comedies, full-length, or one-acts, death is present in all of Williams’ plays, both onstage and off, and so is life. For Williams, sexual desire is part of the life force, the urge to live, and so a counterbalance to the inevitability of death. This panel will explore the many ways Williams deals with death and life in his work. Scenes and characters that will be examined come from plays including A Streetcar Named Desire, The Rose Tattoo, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, Vieux Carré, A House Not Meant to Stand, Kingdom of Earth, I Can’t Imagine Tomorrow, The Mutilated, The Day on Which a Man Dies, and Something Cloudy, Something Clear, to name just a few. Panelists include Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Pope, Augustin J Correro, Margit Longbrake, and Annette Saddik, moderated by Thomas Keith.

 

 

$10.00
THE SINKING OPULENCE SHOW!
THE SINKING OPULENCE SHOW!

Back by popular demand! A Cabaret celebrating the sinking of the ship that we are all aboard! Overheard as the audience was leaving, “Tennessee would have loved this—it’s an explosion POW of camp.” Like the legendary tale of The Titanic band playing as the ill-fated ocean liner sank into history’s depths, Tsarina Hellfire, Stanley Roy, and their motley crew of maritime monsters will titillate your ears and tickle your imagination. It’s the last big hurrah until the inevitable glug-glug! An over-the-top romp of Storyville style live music, theater, burlesque, and a delightful devastation of all of your senses! Brought to you by the producers of New Orleans best night out, the widely successful Les Vampyres Cabaret.

The Friday night performance includes a talkback moderated by Fauxnique.

$20.00$35.00
THIS IS THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM, OR GOOD LUCK GOD BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
THIS IS THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM, OR GOOD LUCK GOD BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

This funny and shocking one-act play, published in 1981, was inspired by a real-life news item from New York City’s borough of Queens, reporting on a four-day nursing strike in the spring of 1978. In Williams’s hysterical—in every sense of the word—farce, the children of some very cranky seniors are forced to take care of their parents. The Peaceable Kingdom of the title is a famous idyllic painting in which born enemies find peace and the lion lies down with the lamb. That doesn’t happen in the Queens nursing home, where the dying are not going gently or even politely. Even so, God appears. Or does God appear? This almost never seen production will be staged with puppets and live actors by the New Orleans Mudlark Public Theatre, directed by Pandora Andrea Gastelum.

The Friday night performance includes a talkback moderated by David Kaplan.

$20.00$35.00
TWFest: WRITER'S CRAFT—ADRIAN VAN YOUNG
TWFest: WRITER'S CRAFT—ADRIAN VAN YOUNG

Exploring and creating literary monsters.

$25.00
TWFest: WRITER'S CRAFT—ALEX JENNINGS
TWFest: WRITER'S CRAFT—ALEX JENNINGS

World building and culture shock as a tool.

$25.00
TWFest: WRITER'S CRAFT—COLM TÓIBÍN
TWFest: WRITER'S CRAFT—COLM TÓIBÍN

Using fact in your fiction.

$25.00
TWFest: WRITER'S CRAFT—M.O. WALSH
TWFest: WRITER'S CRAFT—M.O. WALSH

Make your novel the best it can be.

$25.00
TWFest: WRITER'S CRAFT—MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM
TWFest: WRITER'S CRAFT—MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM

CHARACTER:  FINDING THE MISSING PERSONS–MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM
What I hear most often from students is that they have trouble with plot. My response always is, I suspect what you’re telling me is, you’re having trouble with character. Because fully-imagined characters always produce a story. Usually more than one story. Usually more than two. In this session, we’ll build a character together. Then we’ll build a second character. Then we’ll look at their various qualities—ranging from their ages and occupations to their desires and fears—and find the stories. The stories are always there.

 

 

$25.00
TWFest: WRITER'S CRAFT—STACEY BALKUN
TWFest: WRITER'S CRAFT—STACEY BALKUN

Writing poetry with the unsaid.

$25.00
TWFest: WRITER'S CRAFT—STEPHANIE BURT 
TWFest: WRITER'S CRAFT—STEPHANIE BURT 

Poems in voices of characters who do not exist in our world.

$25.00
TWFest: WRITER'S CRAFT—WENDY CHIN-TANNER
TWFest: WRITER'S CRAFT—WENDY CHIN-TANNER

Writing fiction inspired by true events.

$25.00
VOICES FROM THE PAST: HEARING OUR ANCESTORS IN THE PRESENT
VOICES FROM THE PAST: HEARING OUR ANCESTORS IN THE PRESENT

Whether as editors, translators, or anthologists, writers are often called to steward the works of their predecessors alongside creating their own work. Poet Benjamin Morris will moderate a panel exploring the challenges of shepherding books from the past into the present: fiction writer Kayla Min Andrews edited her late mother Katherine Min’s novel The Fetishist, now published posthumously. Poet and professor Ariel Francisco has a forthcoming translation of Haitian poet Jacques Viau Renaud, killed at age 23 in the Dominican Revolution. And Gina Ferrara has recently revived the New Orleans Poetry Journal Press, first founded by Maxine Cassin decades ago, with a new anthology of 100 contemporary New Orleans poets. Each of these writers will discuss how they brought these voices to modern ears, and what literary citizenship means for writer and reader today.

 

$10.00
WHY THE ART OF IMPROV ENDURES
WHY THE ART OF IMPROV ENDURES

Improv scholar Randy Fertel, author of A Taste for Chaos: The Art of Literary Improvisation and Winging It: Improv’s Power and Peril in the Time of Trump, talks with literary scholar T.R. Johnson, author of New Orleans: A Writer’s City, about the ongoing relevance of improvisation in the larger culture. Seen through Fertel’s discerning eye, improv is everywhere—from the  music of Louis Armstrong to the smash musical Hamilton, the rise of AI, and the off-the-cuff, unmediated remarks of Donald Trump, whom Fertel calls the Improviser-in-Chief. He uses neuroscience, bioevolution, and cultural texts to illuminate his subject. Johnson, who writes about the complex interactions between writers and place, adds his thoughts about improvisation in New Orleans literature.

$10.00
Writer's Craft - SASFest—BETH MARSHEA
Writer's Craft - SASFest—BETH MARSHEA

Explore the life cycle of a book from creation, to query, to publication, to publicity, to sales. We will have an interesting discussion about the various ways that agents and authors come together and how they work as a team to shape a career, especially when they team up after a first book is already with a publisher. Beth will discuss a range of topics, such as contrasting “the dream of a book deal” with the reality, how the “niche” markets of queer or POC have evolved (or not), writing/selling in multiple genres, and how to parlay small press success into a Big Five deal for the follow-up book.

Beth Marshea is the owner of Ladderbird Literary Agency (www.ladderbird.com). She has a BA in Literature and a Masters in Business Administration and is always looking for new and exciting ways to bring more diversity into publishing and beyond.

 

$25.00
Writer's Craft - SASFest—CHEN CHEN
Writer's Craft - SASFest—CHEN CHEN

Though perhaps the love poem has long been queer (think of Shakespeare’s sonnets and Sappho’s fragments), in this generative session we’ll discuss contemporary examples that further (or differently) queer and complicate the love poem—and indeed, love itself. How can a love poem also be a political poem? A protest poem? Or a political poem for how it reimagines relationships of all kinds? A queer love poem may be about a speaker and a beloved (or beloveds), but it may also be about friendship, community, family both blood and chosen, self-love, caring for the planet, and speaking back to the social systems that limit agency, that attempt to erase queerness. We’ll read work by Essex Hemphill, Natalie Diaz, Jericho Brown, Charif Shanahan, Muriel Leung, Justin Chin, F. Douglas Brown, Yanyi, and others as models for our own writing from and into queerer forms of love.

Chen Chen is the author of two books of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency and When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Thom Gunn Award, among other honors.

$25.00
Writer's Craft - SASFest—DANIEL M. JAFFE
Writer's Craft - SASFest—DANIEL M. JAFFE

Many writers experience dry spells when the writing just doesn’t seem to flow.  Must we sit and wait to be touched by a temperamental muse, or can we take control of sparking our creativity?  In this workshop, we’ll share our experiences and engage in writing exercises designed to provide strategies for breaking through writer’s block.

Jaffe has led similar workshops  in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, as well as for the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. He’s taught creative writing for 30 years.

$25.00
Writer's Craft - SASFest—JACOB BUDENZ
Writer's Craft - SASFest—JACOB BUDENZ

Although ekphrasis is most commonly posited as a poetic tool—poetry responding to visual art—the practice of ekphrasis at its heart is a merging of worlds in which an artist of any medium interprets a work in a different medium. Likewise, a Tarot reader interprets imagery and symbolism through the medium of speech, applying old archetypes and images to unique, new problems or questions. In this generative workshop, author and multi-disciplinary performer Jacob Budenz will give a primer on Tarot and discuss its uses as an ekphrastic writing tool. Participants will pull a Tarot card and do their own freewrites, and then Jacob will read a work from their mythopoetic debut short story collection, Tea Leaves.

Jacob is a queer writer, multi-disciplinary performer, and witch with an MFA from the University of New Orleans and a BA from Johns Hopkins University.

$25.00
Writer's Craft - SASFest—JERRY L. WHEELER 
Writer's Craft - SASFest—JERRY L. WHEELER 

Join writer and editor Jerry L. Wheeler in this sequel to last year’s guided erotica writing workshop. We’ll be exploring erotica with all of our senses as we use prompts and situations to invent a paragraph or two of perfectly arousing prose. Shy and retiring? You won’t be after we get through with you. From the icebreaker to the final read-through, it’s nothing but smut. Pure, unadulterated trash. We guarantee you’ll love it. Bring whatever you use to write with or on and your fevered imaginations, and we’ll put both through their paces.

Wheeler is the editor of seven anthologies of gay erotica for Bold Strokes Books, Wilde City Press, and other publishers. His own collection of short fiction and essays, Strawberries and Other Erotic Fruits was shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award.

$25.00
Writer's Craft - SASFest—MARGOT DOUAIHY
Writer's Craft - SASFest—MARGOT DOUAIHY

What makes for a break-out protagonist? Why do we want to follow a new one through a series? In this talk, Author Margot Douaihy answers those questions and explores the development of her protagonist, Sister Holiday in Scorched Grace. Douaihy discusses how she created a character who captures hearts with a punk rock sensibility, tattoos and gold teeth, and who is clearly way outside of any closet. She reveals how she set this character up to make a difference in her religious order, her city, and in the lives of New Orleans women. Join Margot Douaihy for helpful insights and effective approaches to creating engaging, exciting, and unforgettable protagonists.

Margot teaches creative writing at Emerson College and is the author of the crime novel Scorched Grace, which was named a best book of 2023 by Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, BookPage, and Marie Claire, among others.

 

$25.00
Writer's Craft - SASFest—REINE DUGAS
Writer's Craft - SASFest—REINE DUGAS

Setting can be more than just the backdrop for your story—setting can shape and breathe life into your plot, conflict, and characters. Choosing and highlighting the right details about a place, really situating your reader in a certain time and geographical space, can determine whether the story comes alive for the reader or not. This workshop will focus on how to add unique setting details into your story that capture the mood and flavor of the setting of your story and how to create characters who couldn’t have come from any other place than the one you’ve chosen for them—this is evident in the things they like, the way they talk, and the beliefs they hold. Workshop participants will learn how to incorporate details of place during the drafting and revision stages of their writing.

When not writing, she’s assistant editor of Louisiana Literature and editor of the magazines, Louisiana Life and Acadiana Profile.

$25.00
Writer's Craft - SASFest—TIMOTHY SCHAFFERT
Writer's Craft - SASFest—TIMOTHY SCHAFFERT

You have the characters, the narrator, the setting, the conflict – but what defines that indefinable quality that turns incident and anecdote into a novel? What role does plot, voice, and drama play? What’s the difference between a novel rich in sentiment and one that’s sentimental? On the occasion of The Titanic Survivors Book Club (April, 2024) his new novel about novels, Timothy Schaffert contemplates the form, the industry, and the imagination that determine a novel’s novelness.

Schaffert is Director of Creative Writing and Co-editor, ZERO STREET, the LGBTQ+ fiction series at U of Nebraska Press. He is the author of The Perfume Thief (Knopf Doubleday), a Penguin Random House International “One World, One Book” selection.

$25.00
Writer's Craft - SASFest—TREBOR HEALEY
Writer's Craft - SASFest—TREBOR HEALEY

How do we, as writers, choose what story works best in what form? These are of course questions of character and conflict, and how much we need to develop them, or how large our array of characters and conflicts will be in a given story. Setting is a consideration as well, in terms of how much time will elapse and how many places will we be juggling in a given story. Additionally, we might ask how any story idea we have could be adjusted to fit in each of these distinct forms. Sometimes experimentation can reveal how best a story wants to be told. We often don’t know until we start writing. We will discuss plotting, outlining and thematic issues – both by starting small and expanding the scope of a story, as well as by starting big and condensing or reducing a story to get to its essence.

 Trebor Healey teaches creative writing for UCLA and has authored several award-winning novels, a recent novella and numerous short story collections.

$25.00
WRITERS OF A CERTAIN AGE
WRITERS OF A CERTAIN AGE

Being published is hardly a young person’s game, but that’s the perception the world has of writers. How many “under 30/40” lists are there? The implicit assumption is that those who haven’t already made it by the time they’ve hit 50 are never going to get published. This is, of course, absurd, as many brilliant, successful writers have proven! Working in the youth-obsessed world of publishing as writers born in or before the Ford administration, these panelists have experience proving the world wrong. Learn about the challenges, successes and strategies as writers of a certain age. Miles Harvey moderates this discussion with Jubi Arriola-Headley, Teresa Tumminello Brader, Chin-Sun Lee, and Rose Norman.

 

$10.00
WRITING SOUTHERN GOTHIC IN MODERN NEW ORLEANS 
WRITING SOUTHERN GOTHIC IN MODERN NEW ORLEANS 

Exploring themes such as religious intensity, moral disorder, ancestral homes in resplendent decay, systemic racism, endemic poverty, and the encroachment of the supernatural on everyday life, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Zora Neale Hurston, Tennessee Williams, and Carson McCullers pioneered this often romanticized and occasionally parodied genre into the American consciousness in the early 20th-century. Now, in the 21st, writers like Jesmyn Ward, Karen Russell, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Toni Morrison have dynamically furthered those first explorations, in many instances reinventing them entirely. This mixed-genre panel of fiction writers, essayists, and poets will seek to unearth Southern Gothic then and now, posing such questions as: Where do we find ourselves on the so-called pantheon of early-to-mid 20th-century Southern Gothic writers? What does it mean to write Southern Gothic in the most Gothic city in America? At what point does Southern Gothic go from being an exploration of a society in decay to a fetishization of that same decay? How do we expand our definitions of Southern Gothic to take in the “Global South,” to include Latin American and Caribbean works of Southern Gothic, as well? How have the objects of social critique in Southern Gothic literature (racism, classism, evangelicalism, feudalism, criminality) shifted over time, illuminating new corners of a region in freefall? Come get a little creepy—but a little thoughtful, too—with panelists Anya Groner, Carolyn Hembree, Alex Jennings, and Adrian Van Young, moderated by Brad Richard. 

 

 

 

$10.00