Tennessee Williams Festival Sparks Red Hot Season Ahead with Donor Party -- Cat On A Hot Tin Roof Expected to Set the Stage Ablaze

by Grayling Holmes

The Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis celebrated its 9th annual season with a kickoff party at the home of Ann Sheehan on March 7th. Sparkling repartee, stimulating aperitifs, and delectable hors d’oeuvres filled the manse with color — the color red. The festival board of directors brought together major donors and theater lovers to celebrate the brilliance of St. Louis’ own acclaimed playwright, Tennessee Williams.

Resplendent in her designer red dress, Carrie Houk, Tennessee Williams Festival Executive Director, gathered everyone together and announced that at long last “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” will the highlight of the 2024 season. She introduced esteemed director Michael Wilson, who enthralled the group with his insights into the play and its significance to the world of both theater and film. Tickets to the Red Hot Season featuring “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof go on sale, Monday, April 1st on Metrotix.

On May 15th and 16th, the festival will once again host a cabaret with performers Amy Jo Jackson and Brian Nash. This cabaret will feature an eclectic array of divas of the stage and screen (both real and fictional) like Fanny Brice, Norma Desmond, Stevie Nicks, Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey, and more! Click here for more information on cabaret tickets.

The season runs August 8 - 18. Go to the twstl.org for a full schedule of events.

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Tennessee Williams Festival Board toasts the Red Hot Season ahead.

“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” opening night of the original Broadway production 1954.

Party guests

Board members pictured standing, left to right, are Marvin Anderson, John Grizzell. Larry Mooney, Ann Scheuer, Jill McGuire, John Russell, Carlos Zamora, Terry Hoffman, Ted Wight, Glenda Jehle, Michael Wilson, and Emma Glose. Seated is Carrie Houk.

Ann Scheuer, Ted Wight, Carrie Houk, Terry Hoffman, Glenda Jehle.

Ted Wight gives remarks about the season ahead. He is flanked by TWSTL Executive Artistic Director Carrie Houk and “Cat on A Hot Tin Roof” Director Michael Wilson.

Guests gather in Ann Sheehan’s living room for remarks.

Guests enjoy libations while Carrie Houk talks about the 9th Season ahead.

Carrie Houk talks about the Red Hot Season .

Bill Donius (l) and Michael Wilson (r) hold court with Cindy Prost, Anya and, Mary Wimbley.

Jay Perez, Glenda Jehle, Charlie Houska, Jeff Kapfer, Dave Sewall, Brooke Meek, and Andy Arnold.

Guests listen to remarks from Carrie Houk.

Guests mingle while enjoying sparkling repartee and stimulating aperitifs.

Michael James Need, Julie Layton, Melody DuBois.

Festival Lineup

August 8th-18th, 2024

Directed by Michael Wilson
August 8-18, 2024
Grandel Theatre, Grand Central

7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 3:00 pm Sunday.

A gut-wrenching display of toxic familial tensions and ladened southern gothic power structures, this piece will serve as the centerpiece of our jaw-dropping 9th Annual Festival. This Pulitzer Prize winning drama follows the story of the Pollitts, a wealthy southern family who’s history of greed and deception looms overhead as the imminent death of the family’s patriarch approaches. Siblings and spouses go head to head to secure the Pollitt fortune, weaving an overwhelming web of mistruths.

Tickets will go on sale April 1 at metrotix.com.

Directed by Brian Hohlfield
August 10-18, 2024
Curtain Call Lounge, Grand Center

1:00pm and 3:00pm Saturday and Sunday

Experience the Grand Center of Tennessee Williams’ time with these shows about show business. “In Our Profession”, “The Magic Tower”, and “The Fat Man’s Wife” will be presented as a series of one-acts at the Curtain Call Lounge.

Presented by resident scholar Tom Mitchell
August 10, 2024
Beginning at 9:00am

Tennessee Williams in the Mississippi Delta at 9:00am

A discussion of how the Mississippi Delta shows up in many of the playwright’s works – including “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Tennessee spent much of his early childhood in the Delta, and he carried memories of Clarksdale, MS and other locations in his imagination throughout his long career. This panel discussion will explore the places, names, and events of the Delta along with the cultural influences of music and storytelling.

The Wicked Stage: 1930s Theatre and Performances in St Louis at 10:00am

As a young man in St. Louis, Tennessee (then Tom) Williams was drawn to the theatre and to the movies. Grand Avenue at that time was illuminated by movie marquees and enlivened by the people who once lived in the neighborhood. This discussion will provide an overview of the influential entertainments of St. Louis back in the years when Tennessee was still Tom.

“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”: Revision upon Revision at 11:00am

Tennessee Williams disagreed with stage director Elia Kazan about the ending of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” as it was being prepared for its original Broadway production. In the end, the compromise: Kazan called the shots on how the play ended onstage, but Tennessee published his desired ending. The movie version of the play suffered yet even more revisions as the sexual content of the play was tamed for a general audience. This discussion will explore the revisions as well as the impact of such revision on the audience.

Reading of “Stella for Star” an adaptation of the first award-winning story by the young Tom Williams at noon

Adapted by Joi Hoffsommer and Christine Sevec-Johnson, performed with scripts in hand. “Stella for Star” is a short story about the woman Jonathan Swift named “Stella.” Swift was the 18th century English satirist who wrote Gulliver’s Travels and played an influential role in politics of his time. Stella was influential as well, and the story deals with the way in which she haunted Swift’s thoughts and memories. It is an early example of Tennessee Williams’s fascination with intriguing female characters. He received first place from the St. Louis Artists’ Guild, a prize awarded by Josephine Johnson: another significant female. At the time of Williams’s award, Johnson, from Kirksville and a student at Washington University, had just won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction – the youngest recipient in the prize’s history.

Walking Tour of the Grand Avenue Theatre District

Sunday, August 11 at 10:00am
Meeting place: Front of Grandel Theatre

The St. Louis City arts area now known for the Grandel Theatre, the Fabulous Fox Theatre, and Powell Hall, in the 1920s and 30s was home to an even more vibrant theatre and movie scene. The district was also the center of radical young artists. This walking tour will view the neighborhood through the eyes of the young man who was beginning to imagine himself as Tennessee Williams.

Sunday, August 11 at 7:00pm
Curtain Call Lounge, Grand Center

Parties, gatherings, drink specials, food trucks and more!

Grande Dames: A Celebration of the Diva
Starring Amy Jo Jackson, Musical Director Brian Nash
May 15-16, 2024
Curtain Call Lounge, Grand Center

Hotter Than A Hot Tin Roof: Third Annual TWSTL Pool Party
July 7, 2024

Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis
3301 Washington Ave. Suite 2F, St. Louis, MO 63103

About the Festival

Our mission is to enrich the cultural life of St. Louis by producing an annual theater festival and other artistic and educational events that celebrate the art and influence of Tennessee Williams. It all began with a wildly successful production of Williams’ homage to his years in St. Louis, “Stairs to the Roof,” in October 2014. Then came the first Annual Festival, “Tennessee Williams: The St. Louis Years, followed by the even mor ambitious “Magic of the Other” festival in 2017. The 2018 Festival celebrated Williams’ years in New Orleans, featuring one of the greatest plays of all time, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” which was honored with seven St. Louis Theater Circle Awards. The 4th Annual Festival mainstage show was the steamy and startling “Night of the Iguana” and peripheral events included Williams’ play about four St. Louis women, and inspiration for “The Golden Girls,” “A Lovely Sunday in Creve Coeur,” and the world premiere of “Dear Mr. Williams,” starring Batt. In 2020, TWSTL pirouetted magnificently to produce and entire festival on the air, in collaboration with Classic 107.3. In 2021, still navigating the throes of the pandemic, our 6th Annual Festival featured a production of “The Glass Menagerie” set outside on the fire escape of the very building where Williams and his family lived during his years in the Central West End. This award-winning production brought us national attention and was featured in The New York Times.

About Tennessee Williams

Born Thomas Lanier Williams III in 1911 in Mississippi, Williams moved to St. Louis at age seven, when his father was made an executive with the International Shoe Company (where the City Museum and the Late Hotel are now located). He lived here for more than two decades, attending Washington University, working at the International Shoe Company, and producing his first plays at local theaters. He credited his sometimes difficult experiences in St. Louis for the deeply felt poetic essence that permeates his artistry. When asked later in life when he left St. Louis, he replied, “I never really left.” Most people are familiar with the famous works that have garnered multiple Pulitzer Prizes, Tony Awards, such as The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on A Hot Tin Roof, and Suddenly Last Summer. He also wrote hundreds of additional plays, stories, essays, and poems, many of which are only now seeing the light of day as his estate permits greater access. He is today considered by many leading authorities to be one of America’s greatest playwrights.