Tennessee Williams

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Tennessee Williams 1911-1983 Early Life ▪ Born in Columbus, Mississippi 1911 ▪ Thomas Lanier Williams ▪ His mother was Miss Edwina, a “southern belle” ▪ His father was a traveling sales man – Often violent and drunk ▪ As child was sickly and over protected by his mother ▪ Moved from Mississippi to St. Louis – Culture shock ▪ Close with Sister Rose Before Playwriting ▪ Went to the University of Missouri ▪ Worked at shoe factory – Friends with Stanley Kowalski – Gave him nervous breakdowns ▪ Rose was put in an asylum ▪ Went to New Orleans ▪ Changed name to “Tennessee” Williams Career ▪ Had plays produced in local theaters ▪ 1939 won prize for American blues ▪ Battle of Angels Orpheus Descending ▪ Goes to Mexico to work on The Poker Night ▪ Also produced Broadway shows ▪ Had huge successes and huge failures ▪ Some works were reproduced several times Famous works ▪ A Streetcar Named Desire – Won Pulitzer prize ▪ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ▪ The Glass Menagerie – First success – Memory play ▪ The Rose Tattoo ▪ Maggie the Cat ▪ The Night of the Iguana Influences ▪ HIS LIFE ▪ Anton Chekhov ▪ D.H. Lawrence ▪ Hart Crane The Elements ▪ He used: – Screen projections Show major themes – lighting effects – music ▪ Language, colloquial southern speech ▪ Rhythms of language became indication of character The Decline ▪ Depended on drugs for sleep and help being awake – Began to take toll in 1960’s ▪ Death of partner Frank Merlo ▪ Younger playwrights ▪ Violent nature of 1960’s ▪ Was hospitalized by brother in 1969 ▪ Kept writing anyways ▪ Died surrounded by pills and wine in NY City in 1983 Later Views ▪ Contemporary criticism focus on: – Violence – Sexuality ▪ Seen with perversion ▪ However are of deeper subjects – Desire and loneliness Sources http://www.biography.com/people/tennessee-williams-9532952#commercial- success http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/s/a-streetcar-named-desire/tennessee- williams-biography Norton Anthology of American Literature. In N. Baym, & R. S. Levine, The Norton Anthology of American Literature (p. 1042). New York: Wholly by its employees..

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THST S392/ENGL S361: Modern American Drama Prof. Marc Robinson Summer 2016 E-mail: [email protected]. TA: David Bruin. E-mail: [email protected] This seminar surveys American theater between World War I and 2000. We’ll begin with the pre-history to this century’s theater—its melodramas, temperance plays, panoramas, and other popular forms. This work laid the foundation for the startling innovations of the early twentieth century. Eugene O'Neill and Gertrude Stein both began writing plays in 1913—O’Neill consciously allying himself with European innovation, Stein working in a theatrical vacuum, inaugurating a tradition of her own. We read both writers before moving on to the third pillar of American theatrical modernism, Thornton Wilder—someone wrongly assumed to be an unthreatening, homely figure in our culture. We then re-read canonical works by Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller in the light of the less familiar experiment of previous decades. What, beyond narrative and character, contributes to these plays’ enduring value? We’ll also look at an idiosyncratic writer—Jane Bowles—who addresses shifting ideas of marginality and sociability in her theater. The boldness of all these mid-century playwrights sets the stage for the explosion of theatrical experiment in the 1960s. After a consideration of Edward Albee’s theatrical vitriol and menace, we’ll move briskly through selected playwrights from the 1970s, 80s, and 90s—some of whom are mainstays of our theaters (Sam Shepard, David Mamet), while others are deserving of more attention (Maria Irene Fornes, Adrienne Kennedy). We’ll also consider three writers who are also radical performers— Spalding Gray, Anna Deavere Smith, and Wallace Shawn.
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The Relevance of Tennessee Williams for the 21St- Century Actress
Ouachita Baptist University Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita Honors Theses Carl Goodson Honors Program 2009 Then & Now: The Relevance of Tennessee Williams for the 21st- Century Actress Marcie Danae Bealer Ouachita Baptist University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses Part of the American Film Studies Commons, and the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Bealer, Marcie Danae, "Then & Now: The Relevance of Tennessee Williams for the 21st- Century Actress" (2009). Honors Theses. 24. https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses/24 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Carl Goodson Honors Program at Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Then & Now: The Relevance of Tennessee Williams for the 21st- Century Actress Marcie Danae Bealer Honors Thesis Ouachita Baptist University Spring 2009 Bealer 2 Finding a place to begin, discussing the role Tennessee Williams has played in the American Theatre is a daunting task. As a playwright Williams has "sustained dramatic power," which allow him to continue to be a large part of American Theatre, from small theatre groups to actor's workshops across the country. Williams holds a central location in the history of American Theatre (Roudane 1). Williams's impact is evidenced in that "there is no actress on earth who will not testify that Williams created the best women characters in the modem theatre" (Benedict, par 1). According to Gore Vidal, "it is widely believed that since Tennessee Williams liked to have sex with men (true), he hated women (untrue); as a result his women characters are thought to be malicious creatures, designed to subvert and destroy godly straightness" (Benedict, par.
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Tennessee Williams's Dramatic World
ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) European Journal of September-December 2015 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Language and Literature Studies Volume 1 Issue 3 Tennessee Williams's Dramatic World Esmeralda Subashi, Ph.D Miranda Ostrosi Veliaj, Ph.D. University of Tirana Faculty of Foreign Languages English Language Department E-mail: [email protected] Abstract Tennessee Williams has been regarded as the greatest Southern dramatist and one of the most distinguished playwrights in the history of American drama. He is undoubtedly the most renowned American dramatist of the second half of the 20th Century. This paper addresses and explores some of the main features of his dramatic works. His drama was a lyric or poetic one, and that is why the critic and scholar Frank Durham referred to him as “Tennessee Williams, theater poet in prose”. When David Mamet describes William’s plays as “the greatest dramatic poetry in the American language”, he shares the widely accepted opinion that Williams brought to the language of the American theater a lyricism unequaled before or after. He infuses his dialogue with lyrical qualities so subtle that the reader or hearer, unaware, responds not to realistic speech but, instead, to speech heightened by such poetic effects as alliteration, rhythm, onomatopoeia, and assonance. As a Southern writer, Williams was attuned to the natural rhythm and melody of Southern speech, a melody, he says, heard especially in the voices of women. Characterization is one of Williams’s strongest achievements as a dramatist. His people are imaginatively conceived yet so convincing that it is tempting to take them out of context and theorize about their lives before and after the action of the play.
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10Th Grade Monologue Packet
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February 2012.Pdf
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Selected Correspondence from the Horton Foote
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OFICS(^N§Û/Kr SenÂpmf
m\M\ OFIC S(^n§Û/kr SenâPmf UFRUDLJ IIVJ O I Â. IVJ yi^ V VW^ •A N .£[ -30tK ArLnicerscLry SecLSort- 19 9 5-1996 Scfimi &( Fine and Perpmln§- ArB DeparPmen!^ &( TkaPre JIHIHHP The School of Fine and Performing Arts Department of Theatre presents Purdue-Indiana Theatre's 30th Anniversary Season 1995-96 Mainstage Productions (Williams Theatre) "One Singular Sensation!" The Glass Menagerie Equus by Tennessee Williams by Peter Shaffer The classic This beautifully realized autobiographical drama of sensitive American play. A tender perceptions Is one of and haunting portrait of the most exciting and the Wingfield family visually arresting living In St. Louis during contemporary plays. A psychological the 1930s. A story with a magnificent mystery concerning a boy who has blinded breadth of spirit, told In a quiet voice, about six horses and a psychiatrist who must the great reach of small lives. Williams untangle the puzzle and alleviate the boy's called this a "memory play," and it Is a pain. A compelling and deeply moving memory of his mother and sister and his evening In the theatre that confronts the early years with them. This production will drives that lead human beings to crucify feature a guest artist In the role of Amanda, themselves. This production will contain Purdue-Indiana Theatre will offer special full nudity. school matinees of this production. For Feb. 23, 24, March 1, 2 at 8 p.m. Information call the Department of Theatre at 219-481-6551. A Chorus Line Oct. 6, 7,13,14 at 8 p.m.; school matinees, by James Kirkwood, Oct, 11,12 at 2:30 p.m.
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Literary Interpretations and Homosexual Identity
Literary Interpretations and Homosexual Identity quite independently of the intent of its author—as the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof play’s political unconscious, playing itself out on many and Angels in America: different levels: formal, ideological, characterological, Literary Interpretations and rhetorical. (208) Kushner chose to set his play in 1980’s America, which and Homosexual Identity was also a time of great tragedy due to the AIDS epidemic and issues with the Reagan administration. The influence of Williams on Kushner is apparent when comparing both BY ELIZABETH LAPCHAK Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Angels in America. Further, the plays can be seen as products of the time periods of which Tennessee Williams’ influential plays during the they came from. tumultuous “witch hunts” of the 1950’s, particularly Although set in different time periods, there are many Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, paved the way for playwrights like similarities in which the characters act and react to the Tony Kushner to openly address and expose the American homosexual identity. The impact of the sociopolitical identity and treatment of homosexuality. Tony Kushner pressure during the 1950’s and 1980’s is illustrated is a self-proclaimed fan of Tennessee Williams, and he through the characters’ actions. The marriages of Brick and is quoted in Douglas W. Powers’ article “Lifted above Maggie Pollitt and Joe and Harper Pitt show the search for Tennessee Williams’s ‘Hot Tin Roof’: Tony Kushner’s existential identity. Whether homosexual or heterosexual, ‘Angels in America’ as Midrash” as saying— “The first time I the characters struggle to accept their identities.
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