TENNESSEE WILLIAMS TRIBUTE READING

TENNESSEE AFTER DARK—THE EROTIC WORLD OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
This year’s tribute reading looks at the erotic side of Tennessee Williams in all the poetic, dramatic, comical, and surprising incarnations it has appeared. It was through the screen adaptations of his plays and the pulp movie tie-in editions they occasioned that Williams’ reputation as a writer of the salacious and steamy was cemented. However, a closer and less reductive look at his work tells a different story: depictions of sexual intensity are there to be sure, but so is tenderness, humor, beauty, exuberance, and a compassionate view of the physical connections human beings make with one another in their erotic complexity. Williams’ feelings on the subject were articulated by the character of Hannah in The Night of the Iguana when she said, “Nothing human disgusts me, unless it’s unkind, violent.” Readers this year will include Festival luminaries Jubi Ariolla-Headley, Maureen Corrigan, Michael Cunningham, Margot Douaihy, Monique Jenkinson, Jacob Storms, and Colm Toibin, who will share selections from the playwright’s plays, poems, essays, letters, and screenplays. The annual tribute reading is curated by Festival Director Paul J. Willis and Williams editor Thomas Keith (who also hosts).
Sponsored by a generous grant from the New Orleans Theatre Association. 
Hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar at 6:30 PM; Performance at 7:30 PM.