Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival 2011

Centennial weekend events at Georgetown University March 24-27, 2011 explore the man and the material — featuring Edward Albee, John Waters, Michael Kahn, Theodore Bikel, Kathleen Chalfant, Sarah Marshall, Ted van Griethuysen, Rick Foucheux, Target Margin Theater, Christopher Durang, Joy Zinoman, and more.

Washington, D.C. — Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies Program, in partnership with the American Studies Program and Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, presents the Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival (Tenn Cent Fest), a multifaceted celebration of Williams’ indelible legacy on the occasion of his 100th birthday.

As part of the festival, a special Centennial Weekend Celebration (March 24-27, 2011) held at venues on Georgetown University’s main campus in Washington, D.C. will feature fully staged productions, interactive multimedia experiences, workshops, concerts, panels, screenings, discussions, and readings — bringing together work by many of the leading professionals from around the world and across D.C. with Georgetown students and faculty. Events will appeal to both aficionados of Williams and those new to his work alike, offering fresh perspectives on Williams’ established classics, as well as rarely performed experimental and neglected works. The festival features not only Williams’ fictional works (many of which are highly autobiographical), but also non-fiction works and adaptations which reveal Williams’ character and his unique place in American culture.

Davis Performing Arts Center Artistic Director and Theater and Performance Studies Program associate professor Derek Goldman says, “To celebrate Williams’ legacy is also to reckon with the complexity, beauty, and despair that made up his life, so powerfully and prolifically documented in his memoirs, letters, essays, notebooks, and so memorably and often nakedly poured into his artistic creations. The opportunity to engage so deeply with the singular lyricism, tenderness, violence, excess, desire, laughter, and tragedy that characterize Williams’ work and life has inspired and transformed our students and our wider community. His work is still radical. It was not only ahead of its time, but is in many ways ahead of our time.”

Associate Professor Diana Owen, director of the Georgetown University American Studies Program, says “The Tenn Cent Fest provides an opportunity for students, scholars, artists, and admirers of Williams to examine his life and work from multiple perspectives. Williams’ extensive repertoire stands as a unique record of American history and culture that informs our understanding of society today. The festival draws upon talents from across disciplines and generations to enhance our appreciation of Williams’ singular contributions and entertain us along the way.”

Tenn Cent Fest highlights include the following:

Thursday-Saturday, February 24-26 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, February 27 at 2 p.m.
Thursday-Saturday, March 17-19 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 20 at 2 p.m.
Wednesday and Thursday, March 23 and 24 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, March 26 at 2 p.m.
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY THEATER & PERFORMANCE STUDIES PROGRAM
The Glass Menagerie
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Professor Derek Goldman
In a tenement apartment in 1930’s St. Louis, the Wingfield family struggles to hang on to their dreams for the future. Featuring Professor Sarah Marshall as Amanda Wingfield, this innovative production of Williams highly autobiographical masterpiece captures the fragility and stifled yearning of characters clinging to hope against the harsh realities of a rapidly changing world. Offered as part of the partnership between Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater and Georgetown University, the production and surrounding events are presented at Georgetown Feb. 24-March 26 and then at the Mead Center June 9-July 3.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
Fri/Sat Evening Only: $18 general / $15 faculty, staff, alumni, senior / $10 student
All Other Performances: $15 general / $12 faculty, staff, alumni, senior / $7 student

February 26-March 27
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY THEATER & PERFORMANCE STUDIES PROGRAM
The Glass Menagerie Project
In addition to the fully staged production of this Williams classic, a diverse range of additional short pieces will complement the show, exploring aspects of Williams’ life and family that inform the highly autobiographical play. Content will be drawn from his notebooks, memoirs, essays, and letters, as well as the numerous versions of the story that he grappled with in different forms (the screenplay of The Gentleman Caller; the play The Pretty Trap, with its happy ending; the short stories “Portrait of a Girl in Glass” and “If You Breathe It Breaks,” many of which have rarely been seen). Using the play as a prism, the Project digs into Williams’ deeply layered creative process around The Glass Menagerie and how he ultimately arrived at the final masterpiece. Works will be presented in different combinations at different performances.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
See Glass Menagerie Project schedule below.

Saturday, February 26 at 10:45 p.m.
Sunday, February 27 at 5 p.m.
Saturday, March 19 at 10:45 p.m.
also presented March 26 and 27 with Elegy for Rose and The Menagerie Variations (see below)
The Glass Menagerie Project: For Whom the Southern Bell Tolls
This 30-minute parody of Tennessee Williams’ classic “The Glass Menagerie” is one of Durang’s most popular one acts, a crackpot comedy of parent-child tensions that appeals to audiences unfamiliar with the play as well as those who have deep knowledge of it. The New York Times has called the spoof “exuberantly disrespectful” and asserts that “Mr. Durang remains one of our funniest playwrights.”
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
FREE

Thursday, March 17 at 10:45 p.m.
Saturday, March 19 at 4 p.m.
Saturday, March 26 at 12:20 p.m.
The Glass Menagerie Project: Service of My Desire
Adapted and performed by Georgetown University senior Jimmy Dailey, this is an intimate 15-minute solo performance. Descend into Williams’ loft to share the struggle of a young artist spurned by love, re-imagining the summer of 1940 in a first person dialogue with the audience. This piece follows Tennessee’s transient love affair with Kip Kiernan in Provincetown, MA and the crippling emptiness which was to fuel the artist’s lifelong efforts to “find in motion what was lost in space.”
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE ORCHESTRA PIT
LIMITED SEATING
FREE, BUT TICKETED

Saturday, March 19 at 2 p.m.
Sunday, March 20 at 5 p.m.
also presented March 26 and 27 with For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls (see below)
The Glass Menagerie Project: Elegy for Rose and The Menagerie Variations
Elegy for Rose is an ensemble-created/devised piece about Williams’ relationship to his sister Rose, the great love of his life, who was institutionalized and lobotomized, as explored from Rose’s perspective. The piece explores how Rose influenced a range of characters (Laura, Blanche, etc.), and how she resurfaces in different forms in so much of his work throughout his life.
The Menagerie Variations is an ensemble piece developed from numerous versions of The Glass Menagerie that Williams grappled with in different forms (the screenplay of The Gentleman Caller; the play The Pretty Trap, with its happy ending; the short stories “Portrait of a Girl in Glass” and “If You Breathe It Breaks” – many of which have rarely been seen) and essays such as “The Catastrophe of Success.”
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
FREE

Saturday, March 26 at 4:45 p.m.
Sunday, March 27 at 1:30 p.m.
The Glass Menagerie Project: Elegy for Rose, The Menagerie Variations, and For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls
Elegy for Rose is an ensemble-created/devised piece about Williams’ relationship to his sister Rose, the great love of his life, who was institutionalized and lobotomized, as explored from Rose’s perspective. The piece explores how Rose influenced a range of characters (Laura, Blanche, etc.), and how she resurfaces in different forms in so much of his work throughout his life.
The Menagerie Variations is an ensemble piece developed from numerous versions of The Glass Menagerie that Williams grappled with in different forms (the screenplay of The Gentleman Caller; the play The Pretty Trap, with its happy ending; the short stories “Portrait of a Girl in Glass” and “If You Breathe It Breaks” – many of which have rarely been seen) and essays such as “The Catastrophe of Success.”
This parody, For Whom the Souther Belle Tolls, of Tennessee Williams’ classic The Glass Menagerie is one of Durang’s most popular one acts, a crackpot comedy of parent-child tensions that appeals to audiences unfamiliar with the play as well as those who have deep knowledge of it. The New York Times has called the spoof “exuberantly disrespectful” and asserts that “Mr. Durang remains one of our funniest playwrights.”
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
FREE, BUT TICKETED

Thursday, March 24 at 5 p.m.
THE GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM’S ANNUAL RICHARDSON LECTURE
An Onstage Conversation with Edward Albee
Award-winning playwright and American master Edward Albee shares his perspective on the work and influence of Tennessee Williams in an on-stage conversation with Susan Stamberg, special correspondent for National Public Radio. The conversation will be woven in with performances from leading actors from DC and beyond, curated by Mr. Albee himself.
GASTON HALL (HEALY BUILDING)
FREE, but ticketed

Thursday, March 25 at 10 a.m.
Panel Discussion
with Annette Saddik, Jef Hall-Flavin, David Herskovits and Nick Moschovakis
A panel discussion with Williams artists and scholars Annette Saddik, Jef Hall-Flavin, David Herskovits, and Nick Moschovakis about the legacy of Tennessee Williams. This discussion about both the early and late work will provide context for the myriad of events presented throughout the weekend.
· Dr. Annette Saddik, an Associate Professor of English at the City University of New York, is the author of The Politics of Reputation: The Critical Reception of Tennessee Williams’ Later Plays and Contemporary Drama.
· Jef Hall-Flavin is the Director of the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival and a theater director, administrator and educator.
· David Herskovits is the Founder and Artistic Director of Target Margin Theater and the director of The Really Big Once.
· Nich Moschovakis is a literary scholar and one of two co-editors who prepared the texts of Williams’ Collected Poems and Mister Paradise and Other One Act Plays.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
FREE, but ticketed

Friday, March 25, 2011 at 1:15 p.m.
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY FRIDAY MUSIC SERIES
A Concert Named Desire
Amy Cofield Williamson, soprano
Charles Woodward, piano
Part of the expansive Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival, this program features arias and art songs for soprano and piano, based on and inspired by Williams’ texts, including highlights from André Previn‘s A Streetcar Named Desire and Lee Hoiby’s Summer and Smoke. The Georgetown University Music Program’s Friday Music Series features acclaimed artists in free concerts on Fridays at 1:15 p.m. in McNeir Hall, on Georgetown’s main campus.
McNeir Hall (New North Building)
FREE, but ticketed

Friday, March 25, 2011 at 1:30 p.m.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS CENTENNIAL FESTIVAL EVENT
Readings: This Property is Condemned, The Lady of Larkspur Lotion, Something by Tolstoi, and Talk to Me Like the Rain
· This Property Is Condemned
Directed by Alan Paul, Shakespeare Theatre
This reading tells the story of Willie, a young girl abandoned by her parents and grieving for her older sister’s untimely death on the railroad embankment outside of the condemned house she used to share with her family.
· The Lady of Larkspur Lotion
Directed by Nick Olcott
Nowhere is Tennessee William’s identification with Blanche Dubois clearer than in this short 1941 play, in which an alcoholic writer comes to the defense of an aging coquette living on illusions and lies in a French Quarter boarding house.
· Something by Tolstoi
Adapted and Directed by Shirley Serotsky, Theater J
Williams’ 1931 short story introduces us to Jacob Brodzky, the introverted son of a book seller. Jacob loves his sweetheart Lila, a beautiful French girl who is as outgoing as Jacob is contemplative. When Jacob’s father dies suddenly, the couple marries and takes over the Brodsky bookstore—finally leading the life which Jacob has always desired. Their quiet existence proves too dull for Lila however, and she leaves Jacob and his books to seek her fortune elsewhere. Years later, when she realizes what she has given up, they both find it too difficult to go back. A slip of a story about how easy it is to miss seeing the things that are truly important.
· Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen
Directed by Michael Dove, Forum Theatre
This piece explores both the necessity and impossibility of human connection as two lovers coexist in a small hotel room in Manhattan in the 1940s, bound together in an endless cycle of poverty.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, DEVINE STUDIO THEATRE
FREE, but ticketed as part of tenn cent fest events.

Friday, March 25 at 3:30 p.m.
Tom to Tenn
Book and Lyrics by Shelley Herman Gillon and Harriet McFaul Pilger
Music by Paul D. Leavitt
Directed by Peter Webb
A concert reading of a new musical starring Helen Hayes Award-winning performer Rick Foucheux and Tom Tourbin that explores the transformation of a shy, diffident Thomas Lanier Williams into Tennessee Williams – genius, addict, icon and iconoclast.
McNeir Hall (New North Building)
FREE, but ticketed

Friday, March 25 at 5 p.m.
Saturday, March 26 at 3 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
Bent to the Flame
Written and performed by Doug Tompos
Although Tennessee Williams never met the poet Hart Crane, his devotion to Crane and his poetry was one of the deepest of his life, and informed his play Suddenly, Last Summer. Set in 1945, following the opening of his first Broadway success, The Glass Menagerie, this provocative and intimate portrait offers a unique glimpse into the heart of the young Williams – the desires and demons that shaped him, and the muse who inspired yet nearly destroyed him. Winner of the award for “Outstanding Solo Show” at the 2007 New York International Fringe Festival. “Tompos comes so close to Williams’ essence that it is nothing short of astounding.”
TheaterMania
Davis Performing Arts Center, Devine Studio Theatre
$20 General / $16 Faculty, Staff, Senior (65 or older) / $5 Student

Friday, March 25 at 7:45 p.m.
Camino Real
A staged reading with live music
Directed by Prof. Derek Goldman
Featuring a cast of top professional actors from DC and beyond, including Theodore Bikel, Kathleen Chalfant, Rick Foucheux, and Prof. Susan Lynskey
In this phantasmagorical play, one that Williams often called his favorite, characters from literature and history inhabit a town on the edge of civilization where corruption and apathy have immobilized and nearly destroyed the human spirit.
Davis Performing Arts Center, Gonda Theatre
$20 General / $16 Faculty, Staff, Senior (65 or older) / $5 Student

Saturday, March 26 at 11 a.m.
And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens
Directed by Michael Kahn, Shakespeare Theatre
Memorably featured in celebrated Williams interpreter Michael Kahn’s Five by Tenn at the Kennedy Center, this moving play follows the story of a New Orleans drag queen. Members of the original cast (Cameron Folmar and Myk Watford) return to DC for this special presentation.
Davis Performing Arts Center, Gonda Theatre
FREE, BUT TICKETED

Saturday, March 26 at 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 27 at 2:30 p.m.
Target Margin Theater
The Really Big Once
Directed by David Herskovits
In 1948 director Elia Kazan started work on a strange new play by Tennessee Williams, and in 1953 Camino Real opened and quickly closed on Broadway. How did they create this astonishing work? How did Kazan’s 1952 testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee and its traumatic aftermath affect the creative process? Was Camino indeed a flop, or was it actually an important success? Obie Award-Winning Target Margin Theater’s company-created piece The Really Big Once is the story of these two giants and how they changed American culture. “Forsake the neatness of psychological realism for something messier, wilder, more true.”
(The Village Voice)
Riggs Library (Healy Building)
$20 General / $16 Faculty, Staff, Senior (65 or older) / $5 Student

Saturday, March 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 27 at 4:30 p.m.
An Evening in Paradise
Readings from

I Can’t Imagine Tomorrow
Directed by Michael Kahn, Shakespeare Theatre Artistic Director
Featuring Obie Award winner and Tony Award nominee Kathleen Chalfant and Obie Award winner Derek Smith
A man and a woman, both paralyzed by fear and desire, confront and avoid their loneliness in a ritual that they relive each day.

Adam and Eve on a Ferry
Directed by Jef Hall-Flavin, Director of the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival
A comic portrait of sexual liberation, centered around D.H. Lawrence as a charming bully with almost shamanistic powers of influence over a repressed, unhappy young woman.

Mister Paradise
Directed by Joy Zinoman, Founding Artistic Director of Studio Theatre
Featuring Ted van Griethuysen
A forgotten poet is confronted by a young girl who has discovered an out-of-print volume of his poems in an antique shop, and who tries to coax him back into the public arena.

Davis Performing Arts Center, Gonda Theatre
$20 General / $16 Faculty, Staff, Senior (65 or older) / $5 Student

Sunday, March 27 at 12 p.m.
Durang and Desire
A special event in which award-winning playwright Christopher Durang reflects on his connections to Tennessee Williams’ work, and shares hilarious excerpts from his parody Desire, Desire, Desire.
Riggs Library (Healy Building)
FREE, but ticketed

Sunday, March 27 at 7:30 p.m.
This Filthy World
Written and performed by John Waters
The raucous one-man show from celebrated filmmaker and notorious “King of Trash” John Waters (Pink Flamingos, Hairspray), an admirer of Williams from an early age. With irreverence and hilarity, This Filthy World takes on such taboo topics as pedophilia, drug use, and gay marriage. This performance will be accompanied by an onstage discussion with Waters about Williams’ influence on him, as depicted in Waters’ book Role Models.
Davis Performing Arts Center, Gonda Theatre
$20 General / $16 Faculty, Staff, Senior (65 or older) / $5 Student

Thursday-Saturday, April 7-9 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, April 10 at 2 p.m.
Thursday and Friday, April 14 and 15 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 16 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY THEATER AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES PROGRAM
Suddenly, Last Summer
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Professor Maya E. Roth
This riveting American gothic classic unfolds as a shocking mystery, probing the haunting death of a poet visiting Europe with his cousin, a young woman now charged as being insane. Creative and destructive forces collide in Williams’ controversial, expressionistic play which probes the violence of human nature and homophobia with charismatic characters and poetic force. Presented as part of our Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival (Tenn Cent Fest) and, at selected performances, paired with resonant performance excerpts from playwright Adrienne Kennedy and from Williams’ own writings on memory and yearning.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, DEVINE STUDIO THEATRE
Fri/Sat EVENING ONLY: $18 GENERAL / $15 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR / $10 STUDENT
All Other Performances: $15 general / $12 faculty, staff, alumni, senior / $ 7 student

Plus an array of readings of lesser-known work
from leading DC professional directors and theater companies, including
This Property is Condemned, directed by Alan Paul, Shakespeare Theatre Associate Director
Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen, directed by Michael Dove, Artistic Director of Forum Theatre
Company
Excerpt from Belle Reprieve by Lois Weaver, Split Britches’ acclaimed gender-bending parody of A
Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Natsu Onoda Power, GU Theater and Performance Studies Faculty Member
The Lady of Larkspur Lotion, directed by Nick Olcott;
and others, still being added.
FRIDAY, MARCH 25 THROUGH SUNDAY, MARCH 27
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
FREE, BUT TICKETED

And other student work throughout the festival, including

Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 8 p.m.
Black Theatre Ensemble
Excerpts from Venus
presented as part of the Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival
Suzan-Lori Parks is no stranger to Tennessee Williams’ work. Citing Williams as one of her many influences, Parks, in her memory play Venus, explores central themes also illuminated in The Glass Menagerie. The evening will feature excerpts from Black Theater Ensemble’s forthcoming production of Venus (March 30-April 3) as well as discussion with cast, production team, and faculty members. This preview will examine the relationship between The Glass Menagerie and Venus and showcase how Williams’ legacy continues to impact contemporary theater.
WALSH BLACK BOX THEATRE
FREE, but ticketed

Tuesday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m.
The Notebook of Trigorin, and Other Scenes from Williams
Headlined by scenes from Notebook of Trigorin, an adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull, Mask & Bauble’s Night of Scenes will be a journey through works written by and inspired by Williams, and directed by Georgetown students.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
FREE, BUT TICKETED

Additional festival updates will be posted to http://performingarts.georgetown.edu/tenncentfest

The Tenn Cent Fest is made possible by the generous support of the Georgetown University American Studies Program and C74. The Glass Menagerie Project is part of the Arena Stage – Georgetown partnership, made possible thanks to the generosity of Andrew R. Ammerman and the family of H. Max and Josephine F. Ammerman.

The festival is produced in collaboration with The Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival and Busboys & Poets.

CENTENNIAL PASS

This VIP pass includes a ticket to featured events on the Centennial Weekend (reservations required), including Bent to the Flame, Camino Real, The Really Big Once, An Evening in Paradise, and This Filthy World. It also gives you guaranteed priority seating to every event over the course of the Centennial Weekend and priority access to receptions.

The Centennial Pass is $80 general and $60 for Senior Citizens and GU Faculty/Staff/Alumni. Save more than 20% off general admission.

The Glass Menagerie tickets can be purchased separately at http://performingarts.georgetown.edu.

Single tickets ($16-$20) for events are also available for purchase and reservation.

For more information visit http://performingarts.georgetown.edu/tenncentfest
or call (202) 687-ARTS (2787).

Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies Program integrates creative and critical inquiry, emphasizing artistic excellence, interdisciplinary learning, socially engaged performance, and the spirit of collaboration. With a dynamic major in Theater and Performance Studies, the Program features a nationally recognized faculty, including leading scholar/artists, and many of the region’s leading professional theater practitioners. One of the country’s only undergraduate programs in Theater and Performance Studies, this fast-growing program has rapidly attracted significant national attention for its distinctive curriculum, which integrates the political and international character of Georgetown, a commitment to social justice, and high-quality, cutting-edge student production seasons.

Georgetown University American Studies Program, founded in 1969, is among the oldest and most respected undergraduate American Studies programs in the country. This interdisciplinary major encourages students to make connections across diverse fields of study, and the core curriculum explores the evolution of American society from European colony to the present with a special focus on the intellectual and cultural dimensions of the American experience. Students develop a course of study that integrates academic work in a range of disciplines, which can include history, literature, theology, political science, theater and performance studies, fine arts, economics, philosophy, sociology, and anthropology.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is a national center dedicated to the production, presentation, development and study of American theater. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Molly Smith and Managing Director Edgar Dobie, Arena Stage is the largest company in the country dedicated to American plays and playwrights. Arena Stage produces huge plays of all that is passionate, exuberant, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit, and presents diverse and ground-breaking work from some of the best artists around the country. Arena Stage is committed to commissioning and developing new plays through the American Voices New Play Institute. Now in its sixth decade, Arena Stage serves a diverse annual audience of about 300,000.