The Undiscovered Country

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

The Undiscovered Country The Later Plays of Tennessee Williams EDITED BY Philip C. Kolin PETER LANG New York • Washington, D.C./Baltimore • Bern Frankfurt am Main • Berlin * Brussels • Vienna • Oxford CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction i PHILIP C. KOLIN "The Inexpressible Regret of All Her Regrets": Tennessee Williams's Later Plays as Artaudian Theatre of Cruelty 5 ANNETTE J. SADDIK The Day on Which a Woman Dies: The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore and ^ No Theatre 25 MICHAEL PALLER The Gnddiges Friiulein: Tennessee Williams's Clown Show 40 ALLEAN HALE "AWK!:" Extremity, Animality, and the Aesthetic of Awkwardness in Tennessee Williams's The Gnddiges Friiulein 54 UNA CHAUDHURI Tennessee Williams's Forgotten Film: The Last of the Mobile Hot-Shots as a Screen Version of The Seven Descents of Myrtle 68 GENE D. PHILLIPS, S.J. Ut Pictura Poesis, Ut Poesis Pictura: The Painterly Texture of Tennessee Williams's In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel 80 TERRI SMITH RUCKEL The Two-Character Out Cry and Break Out 93 FELICIA HARDISON LONDRE Vlll THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY "having lost the ability to say: 'My God!'": The Theology of Tennessee Williams's Small Craft Warnings 107 PHILIP C. KOLIN The Gnostic Politics of The Red Devil Battery Sign 125 ROBERT F. GROSS Vieux Carre: Transferring "A Story of Mood" 142 ROBERT BRAY Waiting for Buddy, or Just Going on in A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur 155 VERNA FOSTER "I Can't Imagine Tomorrow": Tennessee Williams and the Representations of Time in Clothes for a Summer Hotel 168 GEORGE W. CRANDELL "Let's Face the Music and Dance": Resurgent Romanticism in Tennessee Williams's Camino Real and Clothes for a Summer Hotel 181 NORMA JENCKES "In My Leftover Heart": Confessional Autobiography in Tennessee Williams's Something Cloudy, Something Clear < 194 JAMES FISHER A House Not Meant to Stand—Tennessee's Haunted Last Laugh 207 THOMAS KEITH Notes on Contributors 221.

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Download Your PDF Copy of Orpheus Descending: a Study Guide
Tennessee Williams’ Directed by Virginia Reh Assistant Directed by Karen McDonald Designed by Michael Greves Department of Dramatic Arts of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Brock University Presented in the Sean O’ Sullivan Theatre Centre for the Arts, Brock University St. Catharines, Ontario November 10-12, 2011 Orpheus Descending: A Study Guide Prepared by: Virginia Reh, Director and Department of Dramatic Arts Associate Professor Michael Greves, Scenographer Karen McDonald, Assistant Director and Dramatic Arts Student Erica Charles, Dramaturge and Third Year Dramatic Arts Student Tami Friedman, Historical Consultant Discussion Questions Prepared by Kathy Cavaleri, Dramatic Arts Student “There’s something wild in the country...” ! -Val Xavier, Act 1, Scene 4i Figure 1. “A Great Black and White Desert Snake Eating” Orpheus Descending: A Study Guide!!! !!!!!!! Brock University Department of Dramatic Arts Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts Page 1 of 35 November, 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Collaboration 2. List of Characters 3. The Plot 4. The Playwright: Tennessee Williams 5. Director’s Notes 6. Production History 7. Faith, Myth and Spirituality 8. Aunt Conjure and the Choctaw 9. Historical Content 10. Dramaturge’s Notes 11. Discussion Questions 12. List of Terms 13. List of Figures 14. Endnotes and Bibliography Orpheus Descending: A Study Guide!!! Brock University Department of Dramatic Arts Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts Page 2 of 35 November, 2011 1. Collaboration Orpheus Descending !!!!!! Written by Tennessee Williams November 10, 11, 12, 2011 at 7:30pm; November 11, 2011 at 1:00pm Brock University Department of Dramatic Arts Marilyn I.
[Show full text]
Glbtq >> Special Features >> You Are Not the Playwright I Was Expecting: Tennessee Williams's Late Plays
Special Features Index Tennessee Williams's Late Plays Newsletter April 1, 2012 Sign up for glbtq's You Are Not the Playwright I Was Expecting: free newsletter to Tennessee Williams's Late Plays receive a spotlight on GLBT culture by Thomas Keith every month. e-mail address If you are not familiar with the later plays of Tennessee Williams and would like to be, then it is helpful to put aside some assumptions about the playwright, or throw them out entirely. subscribe Except in snatches, snippets, and occasional arias, you will not find privacy policy Williams's familiar language--the dialogue that, as Arthur Miller unsubscribe declared, "plant[ed] the flag of beauty on the shores of commercial theater." Forget it. Let it go and, for better or worse, take the Encyclopedia dialogue as it comes. Discussion go Okay, some of it will still be beautiful. You'll find a few Southern stories, but even those are not your mother's Tennessee Williams. Certain elements of his aesthetic will be recognizable, but these works do not have the rhythms or tone of his most famous plays. No More Southern Belles Williams declared to the press in the early 1960s, "There will be no more Southern belles!" A decade later he told an interviewer, "I used to write symphonies; now I write chamber music, smaller plays." Log In Now You will recognize familiar themes: the plight of Forgot Your Password? outsiders--the fugitive, the sensitive, the Tennessee Williams in Not a Member Yet? isolated, the artist; the nature of compassion 1965.
[Show full text]
Tennessee Williams' "Plastic Theater" a Formulation of Dramaturgy for "The American Method" Theater
University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 2015 Tennessee Williams' "Plastic Theater" A Formulation of Dramaturgy for "The American Method" Theater Peter A. Philips Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Part of the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Philips, Peter A., "Tennessee Williams' "Plastic Theater" A Formulation of Dramaturgy for "The American Method" Theater" (2015). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 4471. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/4471 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Contents Acknowledgements ...............................................................................................1 Preface ....................................................................................................................2 Introduction ...........................................................................................................5 Chapter Synopsis .........................................................................................7 Chapter 1. Tennessee Williams: A
[Show full text]
Clothes Playbill
Ticketing Services Provided By WHITE HORSE THEATER COMPANY PRESENTS..... White Horse Theater website & the contents of this playbill (excluding the front cover) are designed, produced and maintained by Right Side of NY. www.WhiteHorseTheater.com February 5 to 21, 2010 ❖ Hudson Guild Theatre “Life ended for me when Zelda and I crashed. If she could get well, I would be happy again. Otherwise, never.” - SPECIAL POST-SHOW DISCUSSION ON F. Scott Fitzgerald* SUNDAY, FEB 14TH! With Renowned Williams Scholar Dr. Annette J. Saddik "I determined to find an impersonal escape, a world in which I and Nancy Milford, author of Zelda could express myself and walk without the help of somebody who was always far from me." - Zelda Fitzgerald** Moderated by Jennifer-Scott Mobley, Ph.D. Candidate in Theater History & Criticism, CUNY Graduate Center Clothes for a Summer Hotel, Mr. Williams’ highly theatrical and evocative “ghost play”, imagines an ethereal final meeting Dr. Saddik is an Associate Professor in the English between the restless ghosts of literary great F. Scott Fitzgerald Department at New York City College of Technology and his wife Zelda. Set on a windy hilltop at the gates of the Asheville, NC asylum where Zelda was institutionalized before her (CUNY), a teacher in the Ph.D. Program in Theatre at the death by fire in 1948, a desperate Scott pleads for CUNY Graduate Center and the author of Contemporary reconciliation while Zelda blames him for her failed writing American Drama and The Politics of Reputation: The career and ensuing madness. Taking extraordinary liberties with time and place, Clothes fuses the past, present and future as Critical Reception of Tennessee Williams’ Later Plays.
[Show full text]
The Bar Plays" Features Productions Of
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contemporary, Complex, and Urgent -- The Williams Project's 2-Play Summer Series "The Bar Plays" Features Productions Of SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS By Tennessee Williams THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE By William Saroyan Full Company announced for each play, set to perform in repertory at Washington Hall, August 7-25, 2019. "For me, these are plays about what community looks like and how we treat each other in the midst of uncertainty and catastrophe" -Ryan Purcell, director Seattle, WASH (July 8, 2019) -- The Williams Project today announced the cast and creative team of its 2019 production line-up, "The Bar Plays," a two-play series including productions of Tennessee Williams' Small Craft Warnings and The Time Of Your Life by William Saroyan, performed in repertory at Seattle's historic Washington Hall in the Central District. The two-play series is directed by The Williams Project artistic director Ryan Guzzo Purcell, and will perform August 7-25, 2019 (opening night is August 8 for Small Craft Warnings and August 16 for The Time of Your Life) in Washington Hall's Lodge Room. Tickets are on sale now at TheWilliamsProject.org and every performance of both productions offers the pay-what-you-can ticketing option. The Williams Project always aims to find new ways to welcome diverse audiences into the theatre. One of their strategies has been to build unconventional theatre spaces, creating environments that disrupt expectations around traditional arts attendance and feel welcoming to audience members who don't usually go to the theatre. The company settled on this season's immersive setting because "bars have a way of making people feel at home," Purcell says.
[Show full text]
MODERN DRAMATISTS Modern Dramatists Series Editors: Bruce King and Adele King
MODERN DRAMATISTS Modern Dramatists Series Editors: Bruce King and Adele King Published Titles Roger Boxill: Tennessee Williams Dennis Carroll: David Mamet Frances Gray: Noel Coward Charles Hayter: Gilbert and Sullivan Gerry McCarthy: Edward Albee Ronald Speirs: Bertolt Brecht Further titles are in preparation MODERN DRAMATISTS ~El\Tl\TESSEE WILLIAMS Roger Boxill Professor of English City College, University of New York Macmillan Education ISBN 978-0-333-30885-1 ISBN 978-1-349-18654-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-18654-9 © Roger Boxill 1987 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1987 All rights reserved. For information, write: Scholarly & Reference Division, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010 First published in the United States of America in 1987 ISBN 978-0-312-00209-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Boxill, Roger. Tennessee Williams. (Modern dramatists) Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Williams, Tennessee, 1911- -Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. II. Series. PS3545.I5365Z58 1987 812' .54 86-20337 ISBN 978-0-312-00209-1 Editors' Preface The Modern Dramatists is an international series of introductions to major and significant nineteenth- and twentieth-century dramatists, movements and new forms of drama in Europe, Great Britain, America and new nations such as Nigeria and Trinidad. Besides new studies of great and influential dramatists of the past, the series includes volumes on contemporary authors, recent trends in the theatre and on many dramatists, such as writers of farce, who have created theatre 'classics' while being neglected by literary criticism. The volumes in the series devoted to individual dramatists include a biography, a survey of the plays, and detailed analysis of the most significant plays, along with discussion, where relevant, of the political, social, historical and theatrical context.
[Show full text]
An Interpretive Study of the Religious Element in the Work of Tennessee Williams
Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1973 An Interpretive Study of the Religious Element in the Work of Tennessee Williams. Henry R. Beasley Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Beasley, Henry R., "An Interpretive Study of the Religious Element in the Work of Tennessee Williams." (1973). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2444. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2444 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 74-7206 BEASLEY, Henry R., 1939- AN INTERPRETIVE STUDY OF THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN THE WORK OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1973 Language and Literature, modern I University Microfilms, A XERQKCompany, Ann Arbor, Michigan TUTC nTCCPOTATTOM HAS RFEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. AN INTERPRETIVE STUDY OF THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN THE WORK OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University emd Agricultural emd Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English by Henry R. Beasley B.A., McNeese State University, 1961 M.A., Louisiana State University, 1965 August 1973 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.
[Show full text]
May 1987 Beazley Is Approved
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE THE FINAL FOUR FILM ADAPTATIONS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in MASS COMMUNICATION by Kimberly Brandewie Beazley May 1987 Beazley is approved: California State University, Northridge ii To MA and PAPPY: For all your love, support, wisdom, and humor during this endeavor and the past twenty-four years. May the next quarter of a century be as good. In Memory of GEORGE EDWARD BRANDEWIE JR. Oct. 11, 1925 - Dec. 28, 1966 "It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, just so long as you don't forget it and you ain't ashamed of it." William Faulkner iii ~\ ' "Nowadays is, indeed, lit by lightning, a plague has stricken the moths, and Blanche has been 'put away. ' " Memoirs "Then what shall I say? That I know that I am a minor artist who has happened to write one or two major works? I can't even say which they are. It doesn't matter." Where I Live iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT • . ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ............................ 1 Introduction ••.•••• 1 Purpose . ........... 5 Research Questions .. 6 Hypothesis .•. 7 Design •••••• 8 Methodology •••••••• 9 Literature Review .. 11 Introduction .• 11 Books . ....... 11 Articles ...•. 21 Dissertations .. 24 Conclusion ..•• 25 Endnotes ••••. 27 Bibliography. 33 CHAPTER 2 THEATRE/FILM/ADAPTATION 38 Introduction •. 38 Plot/Story •.•• 41 Idea/Theme •.••.• 42 Mood/Atmosphere. ... 43 Character .••••.• 45 Dialogue .. ......... 47 Spectacle/Staging. .. 49 Concl us ion ••••. 51 Endnotes 53 CHAPTER 3 =IN~FL:...=..;U~E::.:.N.:...::C~E:::=S;..,_,:;O.:..:N--=.;TE=N:..:..:N:..:..:E:.:S::..::S~E::.::E::.-.:.;W:.:I=L~L=I:..::AM=-S .•.•..•• 55 Introduction •• 55 Fa.Illily .
[Show full text]
Tennessee Williams His Story
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS HIS STORY Born 26 March 1911, Thomas Lanier Williams (later Tennessee) grew up in the southern part of the US; firstly Mississippi then Missouri. He lived with his Southern-Belle mother (Edwina), his overbearing, shoe salesman father (Cornelius), his older sister Rose and younger brother Dakin. Due to a childhood illness, Williams was never as strong as his father would have liked and was mollycoddled by his mother. Initially, Williams was content whilst living in Mississippi, but when they moved to Missouri, it became an unsettled time as the family moved frequently and his parents’ marriage was far from happy. However, his upbringing would later provide inspiration for his writing, and his mother, father and sister would emerge as characters in his plays. Williams had a passion for writing from an early age, being published and winning prizes for his work from 16 years old. At 18, Williams began attending the University of Missouri in Columbia, studying Journalism, where he continued to write poetry, essays, stories, and plays. He didn’t complete his degree though as his father withdrew him from the course so he could take a job as a sales clerk with a shoe company. The move back home was detrimental to Williams’ health and led to him suffering a nervous breakdown. After some time in hospital, he returned to studying, firstly at the Washington University in St Louis and then at the University of Iowa, where he finally received his degree in English. During this time, Williams continued to write but struggled to achieve any real success.
[Show full text]
Last Name Playwright First Name Name of Play # of Copies Abbott
Last Name First Name Name of Play # of Playwright Copies Abbott & Bissell George & The Pajamia Game 1 Richard Abbott & Merrill George & Bob New Girl In Town 1 Abbott & Wallop George & Damn Yankees 1 Douglaass Ableman Paul Green Julia 1 Aeschylus Prometheus Bound 1 Aeschylus The Horse 1 Aeschylus The Oresteia 2 Afinogenov Alexander Listen, Professor! 1 Albee Edward All Over 1 Albee Edward Box 1 Albee Edward Quotations From Mao Tse-Tung 1 Albee Edward Seascape 1 Albee Edward The goat 1 Albee Edward The play about the baby 1 Albee Edward Tiny Alice 1 Allen Jay Forty Carats 1 Allen Woody Play It Again, Sam 2 Allen Ralph G. Sugar Babies 1 Allen Woody The Floating Light Bulb 1 Anderson Maxwell Bad Seed 1 Anderson Maxwell Elizabeth The Queen 1 Anderson Robert I Never Sang For My Father 1 Anderson Robert Silent Night, Lonely Night 1 Anderson Robert Solitaire & Double Solitaire 1 Anderson Robert Tea and Sympathy 3 Anderson Maxwell The Eve Of St. Mark 2 Anderson Sherwood Winesburg, Ohio 1 Anouilh Jean Antigone 1 Anouilh Jean The Lark 1 Anouilh Jean The Waltz of the Toreadors 1 Anouilh Jean Thieves' Carnival 1 Anouilh Jean Time Remembered 1 Archibald William The Innocents 1 Arden John Left-Handed Liberty 1 Arden John Serjeant Musgrave's Dance 1 Aristophanes Lysistrata 1 Aristophanes The Birds 1 Arrabal The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria 1 Ashman Howard Little Shop of Horrors 2 Athayde Roberto Miss Margarida's Way 2 Atkin Flora Tarradiddle Tales and Tarradiddle Travels 2 Ayckbourn Alan A Small Family Business 1 Ayckbourn Alan Absent Friends 1 Ayckbourn Alan Absurd Person Singular 3 Ayckbourn Alan Bedroom Farce 1 Ayckbourn Alan Communicating doors 1 Ayckbourn Alan How the Other Half Lives 1 Ayckbourn Alan Intimate Exchanges 1 Ayckbourn Alan Just Between Ourselves 2 Ayckbourn Alan The Norman Conquests 1 Ayckbourn Alan Woman In Mind 3 Bagnold Enid The Chalk Garden 1 Baitz Jon The Film Society 1 Baitz Jon The Substance of Fire 2 Balderston John L.
[Show full text]
© in This Web Service Cambridge University
Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01536-4 - Sexual Politics in the Work of Tennessee Williams: Desire Over Protest Michael S. D. Hooper Index More information I n d e x 27 Wagons Full of Cotton , 3 , 147 , 148 , 149 , 150 , f a m i l y l i f e i n , 3 8 152 , 154 , 156 c a n n i b a l i s m , 8 0 , 2 2 0 in ‘Desire and the Black Masseur’, 139 A House Not Meant to Stand , 225 , 231 c a p i t a l i s m , 1 0 , 2 1 , 5 1 , 6 8 , 1 2 9 , 1 4 8 , 2 1 8 A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur , 177 , 195 i n ‘ Th e Malediction’, 42 A d l e r , Th o m a s P . , 2 3 , 5 8 C a s e , B e r t h a , 5 1 a g i t p r o p d r a m a , 2 1 , 3 0 , 4 9 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , 1 1 , 7 1 , 8 2 – 9 0 , 1 8 6 All Gaul is Divided , 236 Aristotelian unities in, 218 American Blues , 2 6 , 4 8 comparison with And Tell Sad Stories of the And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens … , Deaths of Queens … , 9 2 1 3 , 1 5 , 9 0 – 6 , 1 0 3 , 1 0 4 comparison with Th e Red Devil Battery Androgyne Mon Amour , 213 Sign , 6 2 a n d r o g y n y , 2 1 3 c e n s o r s h i p , 1 1 , 1 3 , 9 6 , 1 3 1 , 1 8 3 ‘Angel in the Alcove, Th e’, and Vieux Curr é , 1 2 0 c e n s o r s h i p ( s e l f ) , 9 7 A r t a u d , A n t o n i n , 8 Chalky White Substance, Th e , 1 1 , 6 5 – 7 Children’s Hour, Th e , 194 Baby Doll , 3 , 15 , 125 , 147 , 148 , 149 , 150 , 152 , 153 , C I A , 6 4 154 , 155 , 160 c i v i l r i g h t s m o v e m e n t , 9 , 1 5 , 1 6 , 2 4 , 1 2 5 , 1 4 1 , Badenes, Jos é I., 222 1 4 3 , 1 4 4 Bak, John S., 176 C l a p p , S u s a n n a h ( Th e Observer ) , 3 7 B a l a k i a n , J a n , 4 4 , 4 5 Clothes for a Summer Hotel , 1 7 8 , 2 1 0 – 1 5 Battle of Angels , 1 1 5 , 1 2 7 , 1 2 8 , 1 2 9 androgyny in, 212 Beckett, Samuel, 8 C l u m , J o h n M .
[Show full text]
Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams Project By: Kirsten, Mariam, and Collin Drama and Poetry • The word drama defines a genre, or style of writing. Drama is a play that can be performed for theatre, radio or even television. These plays are usually written out as a script, or a written version of a play that is read by the actors but not the audience. • Poetry is defined as literary work in metrical form, often employing meter and rhyme as well as descriptive and imaginative language. Drama is literature that focuses on dialogue and conflict, written to be performed on a stage. Short stories are prose fiction pieces that can be read in one sitting. Background • Birth name is Thomas Laner Williams • Born on March 26, 1911, in Columbus, Mississippi • His mother “Miss Edwina” the daughter of an Episcopalian minister • His father, Cornelus, traveling salesman • Worked away from the home a great deal and when he was home he was a violent drunk • result Williams turned inward and started to write • He is the second child of Cornelius and Edwina Williams‘. They had three children. Whom were all predominantly raised by their mother. Background Continued • Williams was sick as a child which made his mom even more protective over him. • In the summer of 1916, at the age of 5, Williams contracted diphtheria and nearly died from the respiratory illness. • Never married or had any children but had many lovers • William was a homosexual • Religion (non denominational) • Had many jobs Later Years • In 1929, Williams studied at the University of Missouri for 2 years, studying journalism.
[Show full text]