Doc Lawrence writes:

He spent most of his last years in New York, vacationing on impulse in Key West and other exotic spas. Until the end, he consistently proclaimed that his spiritual home was New Orleans. This was the 17th year for the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival in the great playwright’s hometown of his youth, and wherever I went, I recalled scenes from so many of his timeless plays that are forever imbedded in our literary culture. Stanley, Stella and Blanche, those troubled souls from Williams’ immortal play, A Streetcar Named Desire, seemed to be hanging out menacingly on French Quarter streets, dressed in T-shirts, flimsy dresses, a cigarette in one hand and a long neck Dixie beer in the other.

This festival, while brimming with social and culinary events, was primarily educational and cultural. Fun is never far away in the Big Easy no matter the occasion, but before each day’s sunset, there were lectures, discussions and a few surprises. Two days consisted of master classes with lively panel discussions and celebrity interviews conducted by Dick Cavett and his wife, actress Carrie Nye. There were special performances of The Rose Tattoo, Small Craft Warnings and Vieux Carre, all by Tennessee Williams. Tourists who visit New Orleans only for Mardi Gras or the Sugar or Super Bowl are surprised that it has a rich stage tradition nurtured and preserved by a strong European tradition and an abundance of world class universities like Tulane, Xavier and Loyola.

Two of my favorite events were the Los Angeles Laurelgrove Theatre’s production of Lament For The Moths: A Dramatization of the Lost Poems of Tennessee Williams, and a once in a lifetime treat, Ignatius on Stage, a reading of scenes from John Kennedy Toole’s celebrated Pulitzer Prize –winning novel, A Confederacy of Dunces. I confess to reading this phenomenal comedy 12 times since it was introduced to me by a young genius named Jack Hood in 1983, and it sits today on a prominent shelf waiting to be read again until I memorize it.

There was ample time for hobnobbing with authors George Plimpton, Lawrence Grobel, Dorothy Allison, Bebe Moore Campbell and former Atlantan and New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg (All Over But The Shoutin’ and Ava’s Man.) Bragg was transferred to the Times’ Miami bureau—which he says he hated— after a few years in Atlanta and wound up in New Orleans which is obviously a good fit for a man who loves the written and spoken word, good food and the South in equal portions.

There were moments that were not so literary, but which still related to Williams’ lifestyle and his plays. One was a wine tasting, “Tennessee Sips,” hosted by Gourmet magazine wine and food consultant Michael Green. Mr. Green’s ability to discuss fine wines in the context of the characters in these plays is rather astonishing. Think about “Big Daddy’s Burgundy,” “Maggie’s Merlot,” and “Brick’s Bordeaux,” and you get the idea. It was, like all of Green’s lectures, superbly entertaining and educational. I discovered that introducing the world of wine in Michael Green’s style flushes away most of the stodginess that most of us find irritating and pretentious.

“I Remember Tennessee,” was a retrospective with a highly personal touch featuring a few who knew the playwright like Cavett, Lois Chiles, columnist Rex Reed and Williams’ colorful “baby” brother, Dakin Williams. On the heels of this was the incredible competition, “The Stella and Stanley Hollering Contest” at Jackson Square. The winners, one man and one rather husky-voiced lady, sounded very authentic.

As a reminder that New Orleans has been home to many other literary greats including William Faulkner, there was one seminar dedicated to the life and works of Truman Capote who was a longtime friend of Williams and who shared Williams’ affection for the French Quarter. I have seen priceless notes expressing gratitude from Faulkner, Williams and Capote in their later years when they were at the pinnacle of success to restaurant owners who gave them decent meals and a bottle of wine when they were unknown and poor.

Leaving New Orleans is always nostalgic. Few places on this planet have so much tradition and fewer still cling so tightly to a magnificent past. You cannot live in this land without being in the presence of something written by Tennessee Williams. It might be a local high school or college production, a community theater or a regional performing arts center. But, one of them will almost certainly have The Night of the Iguana, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone or Summer and Smoke on the boards. As I am writing this, Theatrical Outfit is presenting Williams’ masterpiece, The Glass Menagerie. Whether Atlanta, New York, San Francisco, Palm Beach or London, Tennessee Williams is being performed somewhere right now.

Tennessee Williams did remark that New Orleans was his spiritual home. For those who believe that live theater is one of our finest art forms, the world will always be his stage.

 

The Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival is an annual five-day celebration held in late March, which showcases national and regional scholars, writers, and performing artists. Programs include panel discussions, theatrical performances, a one-act play competition, lectures, literary walking tours, musical performances, and a bookfair.

Festival activities revolve around Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carré. With the growth of the Festival in recent years, activities have expanded to nearby sites, including the Cabildo of the Louisiana State Museum, the Historic New Orleans Collection, the Palm Court Jazz Café, and the Contemporary Arts Center

Doc's News appreciates the cooperation of Ellen Johnson, the Tennessee Wiiams Literary Festival publicist, who made available many of the images below. Top row, left to right: Dick Cavett, Rick Bragg, George Plimpton. Second row, left to right: actor John McConnell in "Ignatius on Stage", and Stanley from the Stella and Stanley Hollering Contest. The portrait of Truman Capote as a very young man (bottom right) is from the Van Vechten Collection.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Doc Lawrence will also attend the Tennessee Williams Writers Conference at The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee this summer. The conference is an annual event made possible through the generosity of the Estate of Tennessee Williams.

 

Link to more writers worth reading:
Doc writes about Rick Bragg and Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces.

Does New Orleans fascinate you? Learn more about:
Doc's favorite restaurants in the Big Easy,
Theatre in New Orleans,
The jazz funeral for Ernie K-Doe
Some interesting galleries of all kinds, as well as Folk Art in the Crescent City.

. . and don't miss
Doc's report on the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience.

Artworks are copyright. If you are interested in a specific piece, write us at editors@docsnews.com 

We will do all we can to put you in touch with the owner.

To Doc's News front page

To other opportunities for Cultural Tourism

To top of this page