The organizers of Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis, the annual event celebrating the iconic playwright behind such works as The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire, announced this morning that the fest will expand to year-round programming.
TWStL will kick off its 8th season, “Tennessee Williams: A World of Light and Shadow,” with the return of its Something Spoken radio series in April, airing on Classic 107.3. “Something Spoken: Tennessee Williams on the Air” premieres April 29 and continues May 6, May 13, and May 20. The program will include four of Williams’ one-act plays, directed by Brian Hohlfeld and Tom Mitchell. Mitchell, who is also TWStL’s scholar in residence, will provide commentary following each episode. The program will be rebroadcast on Saturdays August 5–26.
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Programming will continue in the summer with a fundraising cabaret titled The Brass Menagerie at The Curtain Call Lounge on May 31 and June 1. The “campy romp” will feature Amy Jo Jackson introducing audiences to the women of Williams’ plays through song.
The festival itself will return in September with a “fresh retelling” of Suddenly Last Summer, William’s 1957 play about the life and death of Sebastian Venable, a closeted gay poet who is murdered while traveling in Italy with his cousin, Catherine—and the family fallout that follows. The production runs September 7–17 at COCA’s Catherine B. Berges Theatre. Following the performances, Mitchell will share additional context and encourage conversations about larger themes of this “modern-day horror story.”
“Although there certainly have been shadows in our midst the last few years, we have found that those shadows provided valuable challenges and gave us the ability to produce some of our brightest, most creative work,” said executive artistic director Carrie Houk in a release announcing the expanded programming.
In addition to the main stage production, TWStL will host a bevy of other Williams-related events, many of them under the theme of the “University City Years.” Williams and his family lived in the St. Louis neighborhood from 1926–1927.
So far, scheduled events included a site-specific reading of Something Unspoken hosted by University City Mayor Terry Crow at William’s former home on Delmar; a series of panels covering topics such as civil rights, mental health, and city history; workshops; tours; and a screening of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof co-hosted by Cinema St. Louis. TWStL plans to announce additional events in the coming weeks. For more information and a full schedule of events, visit twstl.org.
