Each year national and regional scholars, writers, and performing artists gather in New Orleans to honor one of the nation's most noted playwrights. Literature fans enjoy a variety of programs including panel discussions, theatrical performances, a one-act play competition, lectures, literary walking tours, musical performances, and a bookfair.
Founded in 1987 by a group of writers, educators, arts administrators and community activists, the festival emphasizes the special bond between New Orleans and Tennessee Williams, who considered New Orleans his spiritual home.
Tennessee [Thomas Lanier] Williams (1911-1983)
Said to be one of the most important Southern playwrights, Tennessee Williams spent much of his youth outside the South. Perhaps best known for the plays The Glass Menagerie (1945), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Williams was also a novelist, poet, and a screen writer for MGM. His writing has an element of sadness that characterized Williams's life from his youth.
Born on March 26, 1911, in Columbus, Mississippi, Williams, along with his mother and older sister Rose, lived with his grandparents while his father traveled across the country selling shoes. In 1919, Williams's father received a promotion and moved his family to St. Louis, a traumatic move that later affected the lives of both children and is reflected in Williams's drama and comedy. Williams attended the University of Missouri, Washington University, and the University of Iowa.
Williams, like many writers of his time, lived in big cities throughout the country; however, he especially enjoyed vacationing in Florida. He believed that he did his best work in Key West. In fact, he completed the manuscript for A Streetcar Named Desire while vacationing there with his grandfather in 1946.
The Glass Menagerie, Williams' first successful play, won a Drama Critic's Circle Award in 1945. It was followed quickly by A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947. Both of these plays, full of Southern nostalgia, are somewhat autobiographical, although Williams exaggerated his emotions to form fictional characters and reflect their changing lifestyles.
A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof both earned Critic's Awards and Pulitzer Prizes for Williams. Audiences were attracted by Williams's style of writing which went beyond the regional Southern themes and explored universal conflicts. Critics varied widely in their appraisal and interpretation of Williams's plays; however, he maintained a large audience for several years. Night of the Iguana (1961), which won a Critic's Award, was the last of Williams's popular successes.
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