The Party That Will Help Put Tony Award-Winning "Appropriate" on the St. Louis Stage

Tennessee Williams Festival’s signature poolside fundraiser makes a splash—and helps make history

by Grayling Holmes / photos by Ted Wight and Grayling Holmes

There are pool parties, and then there are pool parties with a purpose.

This summer, one of St. Louis’ most beautiful private residences became the setting for an afternoon of cocktails, art, fashion, food and philanthropy as the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis gathered some of its most devoted supporters for its signature fundraiser, An “In-Appropriate” Afternoon by the Pool.

Hosted at the magnificent Central West End home of longtime Festival patron Andy Arnold, the annual soirée welcomed 75 theater lovers, philanthropists, artists and friends of the Festival. Among those enjoying the afternoon were Festival Board President Ted Wight, Executive Artistic Director Carrie Houk, Charlie Houska, Bill Donius, Angela Poremba, Jilanne Klaus, Michael James Reed, Lizi Watt, Joel Moses, Grayling Holmes, Mary Wimbley, Jackie Fontaine, Ray Simon and Maria Briggs.

Tennessee Williams Artistic Director Carrie Houk (left) with some ardent Festival supporters.

On the surface, it was a fabulous summer party.

But what happened around Andy’s pool helped make possible something far more consequential: the St. Louis premiere of one of the most acclaimed American plays of our time.

**Making Appropriate Possible**

From September 17–27, the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis will present Appropriate by Pulitzer Prize-winning and two-time Tony Award-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins at COCA.

It marks an important first for both the Festival and St. Louis.

This is the first time Appropriate has been produced on a St. Louis stage, giving local audiences an opportunity to experience the extraordinary work that became a Broadway sensation and won three Tony Awards for its 2024 revival.

It also represents a dramatic evolution for the Tennessee Williams Festival.

For the first time in its 11-season history, the Festival’s headlining production is not a play written by Tennessee Williams.

Instead, the Festival is exploring what it calls “The Tennessee Effect”—the indelible influence Williams continues to exert on playwrights, artists and audiences generations after The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof transformed American theater.

And perhaps no contemporary playwright demonstrates that influence more compellingly than Jacobs-Jenkins.

Frequently compared with Williams for his fearless examination of family, inheritance, secrets, identity and the uncomfortable truths people attempt to bury, Jacobs-Jenkins takes themes that Williams explored more than half a century ago and gives them a distinctly contemporary voice.

Pulitzer Prize winner and two-time Tony Award winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

In Appropriate, three adult siblings return to their late father’s decaying Arkansas plantation home to settle his estate. What begins as a family reckoning over possessions, debt and old resentments becomes something much darker when a disturbing discovery forces them to confront a family history they may not fully understand—or want to acknowledge.

The play feels unmistakably modern.

Yet beneath it runs the DNA of Tennessee Williams.

That is “The Tennessee Effect.”

A Pool Party That Pays for Theater

Producing theater of this caliber does not happen on ticket sales alone.

Sets must be constructed. Artists and actors must be paid. Costumes must be created. Rehearsal space, technical production, lighting and countless other expenses must be covered before an audience ever takes its seat.

That is why the Festival’s annual pool party is much more than one of the summer social season’s most enjoyable invitations.

It is an essential fundraiser.

This year’s party produced record proceeds through ticket sales and its art auction, providing critical support for the Festival and helping underwrite Appropriate. Without the generosity surrounding this event, bringing a production of this scale to the St. Louis stage would be considerably more difficult.

And supporters certainly knew how to have fun while doing good.

Guests meandered around Arnold’s pool and magnificent grounds while enjoying food from Katie’s Pizza & Pasta and cocktails served by Brennan’s mobile bar. Two delightfully campy Mrs. Ropers brought a dose of 1970s television nostalgia to the festivities, while a step-and-repeat kept cameras clicking throughout the afternoon.

Then there was the art.

Festival supporters gather at the pool party to bid on art. The auction raised a record amount this year.

A curated auction featured works by notable artists including Arthur Osver, Peter Shank, Charlie Houska, Belinda Lee and Tom Reed, giving guests an opportunity to take home something significant while simultaneously supporting live theater in St. Louis.

The combination proved irresistible.

Art was sold. Tickets were purchased. Glasses were raised.

And a record amount was generated in support of the Festival.

Bringing Branden Jacobs-Jenkins to St. Louis

The impact of that generosity extends beyond the production itself.

In conjunction with support from a generous Washington University grant, Festival fundraising is also helping make possible one of the most anticipated events of the 11th season: bringing Jacobs-Jenkins himself to St. Louis.

On Saturday, September 19, at 2 p.m., the playwright will appear at the St. Louis County Library’s Clark Family Branch for “In Conversation with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.”

The free event offers St. Louis audiences something extraordinarily rare—the opportunity to hear directly from one of the most important living American playwrights about his work and the influence Tennessee Williams has had upon it.

The conversation will examine why Jacobs-Jenkins is so frequently described as a modern heir to Williams and how themes surrounding family dysfunction, race, sexuality, secrets, memory, inheritance and the American South continue to reverberate through contemporary theater.

It is difficult to imagine a better illustration of the Festival’s theme.

Williams became internationally famous in the 1940s, yet here we are more than eight decades later gathering in St. Louis to hear one of today's most celebrated playwrights discuss how Williams continues to influence what appears on American stages.

That is a legacy.

That is influence.

That is The Tennessee Effect.

The Philanthropy Behind the Curtain

For those of us who attend charitable events throughout St. Louis, it can sometimes be easy to separate the party from what the party actually accomplishes.

We see the beautiful home.

We admire the art.

We enjoy the food.

We order another cocktail.

We pose for photographs and catch up with friends.

But somewhere between the first drink and the last goodbye, philanthropy is doing its work.

This particular afternoon demonstrates exactly why these gatherings matter.

The money raised beside Andy Arnold’s pool does not simply disappear into an organizational budget. It helps put actors on a stage. It helps construct a set. It helps bring an important American play to St. Louis for the first time. It helps introduce audiences to ideas they may never otherwise encounter.

And this year, it helps bring the playwright himself to our city.

That is an impressive return on an afternoon by the pool.

For Carrie Houk, Ted Wight, Andy Arnold, the Festival board, its donors and the many patrons who support the organization year after year, the 2026 pool party represents what can happen when St. Louis’ philanthropic and artistic communities come together.

Seventy-five people gathered at a beautiful Central West End home on a summer afternoon.

A few months later, Appropriate takes the stage.

Sometimes the distance between a great party and great art is much shorter than we realize.

And sometimes, the people gathered around the pool are helping raise the curtain.

Now it is St. Louis’ turn to experience what they helped make possible.

Tickets are now on sale for the St. Louis premiere of Appropriate, running September 17–27, 2026, at the Catherine B. Berges Theatre at COCA. With this landmark production, the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis invites audiences to experience “The Tennessee Effect” firsthand and discover why Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is considered one of the most important playwrights working in American theater today.

For tickets, the complete Season 11 schedule and additional Festival information, visit the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis website.