For years, the shouting contest for would-be Stellas and Stanleys meant the Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Competition had reached its finish. That modified this 12 months, with the homage to “A Streetcar Named Need” moved as much as March 19 to herald the pageant’s coming occasions.
The Tennessee Williams fest hits its stride this week, with the literary pageant operating March 21-26. There’s a big slate of creator panel discussions and interviews, in addition to events, performances, strolling excursions and extra. There is also the Saints and Sinners Literary Competition, an LGTBQ occasion with overlapping venues that runs along side Tennessee Williams Fest. Different peripheral occasions, comparable to productions of Williams’ performs by native theater firms, coincide with the pageant as properly.
The Saints and Sinners fest is celebrating its twentieth anniversary. Collaborating writers embrace Jewelle Gomez, De’Shawn Charles Winslow, Andrew Holleran, Timothy Schaffert, Greg Herren, Leona Beasley, Felice Picano and extra. Saints and Sinners occasions run March 24-26, lots of them on the Lodge Monteleone.
Performances of Williams’ work spotlight “Pity for the Wild,” a gap occasion at Le Petit Theatre on Wednesday. It contains scenes from Williams’ “Summer time and Smoke” and “The Two-Character Play,” and Bryan Batt will carry out parts of his autobiographical one-man present, which displays on the playwright’s affect on him, “Pricey Mr. Williams.”
Batt additionally participates in a Williams tribute studying on Thursday on the New Orleans Jazz Museum. Members embrace John Goodman; Louisiana poet laureate Mona Lisa Savoy; David Kaplan, the founding father of Provincetown’s Tennessee Williams pageant; Broadway actress Brenda Currin, who performed roles in quite a few Williams performs; and extra.
An enormous roster of visiting and native authors share their insights in panels and workshops. Novelist Maurice Carlos Ruffin will discuss writing about New Orleans. Tom Piazza discusses historic fiction. Former Tulane historian Douglas Brinkley discusses his newest e-book in regards to the rise of environmentalism within the Nineteen Sixties and ’70s. Saloy, Sunni Patterson and Karisma Worth learn and focus on their poetry. Different taking part writers embrace Nathaniel Wealthy, Katy Simpson Smith, Richard Campanella, E.M. Tran and extra.
New to the pageant this 12 months is The Final Bohemia Fringe Competition, a slate of fringe-style various theater items operating on the AllWays Lounge & Theatre on March 23-25. Vinsantos DeFonte presents his solo queer cabaret present “Nightingale,” a couple of struggling artist with huge aspirations. San Francisco-based artist Monique Jenkinson presents “Notes on Fake,” reflecting on her drag efficiency persona Fauxnique. Efficiency artist Jovelyn Richards explores intimacy within the present “It Was By no means Simply Intercourse.” Lefty Lucy leads a vaudeville-inspired present, “Bananas Burlesque (Or, Are Straight Individuals Okay?).”
There are full productions of two of Williams’ hottest performs that shut their runs on the pageant weekend. Le Petit Theatre is presenting “Cat on a Sizzling Tin Roof,” and The Tennessee Williams Theatre Firm of New Orleans is presenting “The Night time of the Iguana” at Loyola College of New Orleans’ Decrease Depths Theater.
The literary pageant additionally has seminars on pitching e-book concepts, getting revealed, screenwriting and podcasting. Themed strolling excursions discover Tennessee Williams’ time and inspiration within the metropolis, Storyville and Black Storyville, and LGTBQ historical past.
The New Orleans Jazz Museum hosts musical performances with a blues bent. Little Freddie King performs on Tuesday. On Friday, Marc Stone and Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes carry out and focus on the blues, and Chris Thomas King discusses his analysis for the e-book “The Blues: The Genuine Narrative of My Music and Tradition.” The Drummer and Smoke sequence presents music on the Palm Court docket Jazz Café.
The literary pageant now closes with a celebration of latest voices, and established authors supply their finest recommendation. The Sunday afternoon occasion on the Monteleone additionally encompasses a staged studying of the pageant’s one-act play contest.
For extra details about Tennessee Williams Fest, go to tennesseewilliams.web. For details about Saints and Sinners, go to sasfest.org.
