News & Reviews

WORD: Tennessee Williams Festival celebrates playwright, New Directions taps new publications
Edited Press Release

The 21st annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, held March 28 to April 1, will feature its yearly Scholars Conference -- an all-day conference covering a variety of topics related to the playwright and featuring top scholars in the field, New Directions Publishing announced. Events including panels and live performances will take place across New Orleans.

Scholars who will speak during the literary festival honoring one of America’s most influential playwrights include Allean Hale, Robert Bray, Nicholas Moschovakis, Annette Saddik, Brian Parker, Philip Kolin and Barton Palmer.

Also featured at this year's festival will be productions of "The Chalky White Substance" and "The Travelling Companion," two short plays written by Williams in 1980 that New Directions will publish in the spring of 2008, along with ten other late Williams plays that are included in "The Travelling Companion and Other Plays," edited by Annette Saddik. These two plays feature actors Jeremy Lawrence and Ben Greissmeyer, and are directed by David Kaplan. Two of this year's main festival panels focus on recent New Directions publications:

"Tennessee Williams's Memoirs: When the Playwright Had His Say"
Panelists: John Waters, Kenneth Holditch and David Kaplan
Moderator: Thomas Keith

"Ode to Tennessee"
Panelists: Jeremy Lawrence, Louise Schaffer, Grace Zabriski
Moderator: Kenneth Holditch

The panels relate to two brand new Williams titles from New Directions: the playwright's Memoirs (a new edition with an introduction by John Waters, published in October 2006), and his "Collected Poems," featuring a CD of Williams reading, which will appear in paperback in April 2007.

For more information on the panels as well as New Directions books, check out the publisher's website. For a full list of events taking place at the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival as well as a list of host venues and accomodations, the official festival website is here.

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