Southern Playwright Tennessee Williams
Key West, FL -From the late 1940s until his death, internationally renowned playwright Tennessee Williams lived in a modest cottage on a quiet, tree-lined Key West street.
Luminaries of the American theater -- including "Angels of America" playwright Tony Kushner and actors Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach - will celebrate Williams' dramatic talents on the island he called home, during the "Tennessee in Key West Festival." The Festival schedule includes stage performances, film presentations, readings, filmed reminiscences of Williams from Paul Newman and others who knew him, discussions of the playwright's work and a celebrity reception at the Key West home he loved.
Williams first visited Key West in 1941 and returned several times -- completing "Summer and Smoke" on the island in 1946 -- before his 1949 purchase of the unpretentious 1431 Duncan St. house that would become his home for the rest of his life. He wrote "Night of the Iguana" in Key West, among other works, and the Academy Award-winning film version of his "The Rose Tattoo" was shot there in 1956. Most of the festival events will take place at the Tennessee Williams Theatre, located at 5901 College Road on the campus of Florida Keys Community College. The theater has borne Williams' name since it opened in 1980 with the world premiere of his play "Will Mr. Merriweather Return From Memphis?"
The festival opens on Thursday, Jan. 15, with events including a Williams movie marathon and a tour of Key West locales associated with the playwright. At 8 p.m. Tony Kushner, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of the epic drama "Angels in America," will present the keynote address. The internationally renowned Kushner, whose plays have been produced in more than 30 countries and throughout the United States, will be presented the festival's first Recognition for Outstanding Contribution to American Drama Award.
On Friday, Jan. 16, acclaimed filmmaker
Harry Rasky is scheduled to introduce his documentary, "Tennessee
Williams' South." A close friend of Williams for a decade, Rasky
has made 40 feature-length films and has been nominated for more than
200 international prizes for his work. His book "Tennessee Williams:
A Portrait in Laughter and Lamentation," chronicles the making
of the documentary. Rasky is planning a question-and-answer session
with the audience directly following the screening.
That afternoon at 1 p.m., famed actor Eli Wallach will introduce a showing of
his first major film success, "Baby Doll."
Friday evening at 7:00 p.m., festival attendees will be transported into the past as Williams himself seemingly appears onstage -- brought to life by actor Jeremy Lawrence. Lawrence's critically acclaimed "Talking Tennessee," a one-man show based on the occasional writings of Williams, was created to inspire a deeper understanding of the playwright's words and works. It has been hailed by "Entertainment Weekly" as "an amazing evening . . . one you should not miss."
A gala celebrity reception at Tennessee Williams' former Key West home will follow Lawrence's performance. As well as viewing the home where Williams wrote, painted primitives and entertained literary and theatrical friends, attendees will have a chance to meet and mingle with the festival's celebrity participants. The reception is a fund-raiser for the Tennessee Williams Society in Key West, the festival's nonprofit founding organization.
A full slate of not-to-be-missed events is planned for Saturday, Jan. 17. At 10:45 a.m., writer and scholar Mel Gussow will present a lecture on the playwright's ongoing legacy. A drama critic and cultural writer for "The New York Times," Gussow co-edited the Library of America's two-volume edition of the plays of Tennessee Williams. A question-and-answer session will round out the presentation.
The day's schedule also includes a reading of "Escape," a previously unproduced one-act play by Williams directed by Michael Kahn, the artistic director of Washington D.C.'s Shakespeare Theater. Widely acclaimed for his directorial prowess in productions ranging from Broadway to regional to international theater, Kahn is slated to direct a quintet of Williams' one-acts at the Kennedy Center's Tennessee Williams celebration scheduled for spring 2004. Following the Key West reading, he and the featured actors will answer questions from the audience and discuss the presentation.
Among the expected highlights of the Tennessee in Key West Festival is a performance of "Tennessee Williams Remembered" starring Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson. The legendary acting couple, whose critically acclaimed careers span more than five decades, will present the tribute to the playwright at 7 p.m. Saturday. Renowned for both their stage and film work, the actors have a lengthy history with Williams' plays. Jackson and Wallach met, beginning a relationship of 50-some years, in rehearsal for an off-Broadway production of the playwright's "This Property is Condemned." Jackson's first Broadway hit was Williams' "Summer and Smoke" in 1948, and Wallach, after starring in "The Rose Tattoo" onstage, first came to prominence in film in "Baby Doll," adapted from the Williams short story "Twenty-seven Wagons Full of Cotton."
The Tennessee in Key West Festival will conclude Sunday, Jan. 18, with a Williams movie marathon and an afternoon reprise of the tour of the Key West sites connected with the playwright.
Tickets for the festival, which allow admission to all events except the gala celebrity reception at Williams' former home, are $250 per person through Dec. 15 and $300 per person thereafter. Tickets for the gala require a $500 donation per person, and availability is limited.
For tickets, call the Tennessee Williams Theatre box office at 305-296-1520 or visit www.keystix.com. Tickets to individual festival events will be available at the box office as long as space remains.
For information about the festival and
a complete schedule of events, call 305-293-8192 or toll-free 1-877-293-8192. 
For the most recent info on this event and others,
check our Key West Special Event Calendar.
